Category: Social Services and Entitlements
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Expanded PIPP Pulls $360 Million from Power Bill Piggy Bank
by Steve Haner The expansion of an existing state electricity-bill subsidy program under legislation pending at the 2026 General Assembly could add up to $360 million to the annual cost during its first full year of implementation. The Department of Planning and Budget (DPB) has produced a detailed fiscal impact analysis for House Bill 884,…
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They Think Your Electric Bill is Just a Piggy Bank to Raid
by Steve Haner Key energy legislation poised to pass the 2026 General Assembly will increase your future electricity bills, not lower them. The bills will worsen price increases already caused by the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which passed the last time Virginia was under one-party control. As the Assembly crosses its first deadline, with…
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SNAP Recipients Can Do Their Own Eyebrows
by Kerry Dougherty Looks like the Democrats caved. Finally. Or at least 9 of them came to their senses regarding the damaging government shutdown that is in its 40th day. They got nothing. The shutdown was for nothing. Yet it did ensure that a seething bloc of Virginia federal workers headed to the polls last…
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One Down
by James C. Sherlock For the first time ever, a Virginia nursing home, Princess Anne Health and Rehabilitation Center (Princess Anne) in Virginia Beach, has been evicted from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Before I get to it, I want to acknowledge and thank those who have been working to improve nursing facilities in…
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Nutrition-Free Food And SNAP
by Kerry Dougherty Let’s check in on the left — and paid social media influencers — to see what they’re screaming about today, shall we? Oh boy, this is a good one: they’re livid that food stamp recipients in the SNAP program may be prevented from using their government assistance to buy junk food. You…
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Is the Caterwauling About Proposed Budget Cuts Justified?
by James A. Bacon As the federal government careens toward a fiscal train wreck, Virginia Democrats are bellyaching about the lousy service in the dining car. Congressional Republicans are proposing cuts to federal entitlements such as Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), says Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke. The cuts could result…
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Regulate It, Make It Unaffordable, Subsidize It
by James A. Bacon “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” So said former President Ronald Reagan in one of his pithier takedowns of government intervention in the economy. I don’t believe that daycare providers were ever singled out for taxation, but here in…
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The Social Cost of Free Lunch
By Derrick Max After failing to pass legislation last year that would have made breakfast and lunch free for all public school students regardless of income (at a staggering cost of $201.5 million), state Senator Danika Roem, D-Manassas,) pared down that bill to focus solely on funding a universal free school breakfast program this session. Fortunately, the…
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Medicaid – Again
by James C. Sherlock Featured image courtesy of Cato Institute. It is worth a close look by those who suggest there is no room for federal budget reductions. On the morning of Feb. 25th, I posted a column a week ago that asked whether Virginia should pay the full cost of Medicaid expansion. That same…
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The Endless Appetite for Giving Away Free Stuff
by James A. Bacon Last week I highlighted calls for state-funded grief counseling as an example of the potentially limitless demand for mental health services. If your vision for society is “no more sad people,” that requires an open-ended commitment from the commonwealth. Today I bring your attention to another case of infinitely elastic demand…
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More “Food Insecurity” Blather
by James A. Bacon We learn today courtesy of Radio IQ that Virginia’s Commission to End Hunger, which began meeting this year, has identified measures for legislators to consider in the 2025 General Assembly session. The one tangible initiative mentioned in the article was doing something to address food insecurity on college campuses. “There are…
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The Welfare Net
by James A. Bacon The United States has spent trillions of dollars on poverty programs, yet hard-core inter-generational poverty and its attendant social ills remain endemic. Federal and state benefits are not lavish, and they are contingent to some degree upon recipients finding work, or at least looking for work. But anti-poverty programs are doing…
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Spanberger Bill Brings Looming Social Security Shortfall Closer
By Andrew Biggs Over 300 members of Congress from both parties, including Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Abigail Spanberger, are pushing for legislation that would grant a nearly $200 billion Social Security benefits windfall to a group that neither paid for these benefits nor truly needs them. (She advocated it in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this…
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Advocates for the Energy Poor Want to Make Them Poorer
By Steve Haner A national industry group that advocates for home energy efficiency contractors has produced another report on how energy costs squeeze the poor the hardest, with Richmond one of its examples. The data was then used as an excuse to call for (you guessed it) the return of an energy carbon tax which…
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Short-Changing Richmond’s At-Risk Youth
by Jon Baliles Tyler Layne with WTVR News reported last week another disturbing story about how City Hall has been shortchanging the city’s at-risk youth and leaving a lot of state money on the table that could be helping them find brighter and better futures. According to Layne, about $1 million of available state money…