Well obviously Social Security is an entitlement program. So is Veterans Benefits and Services. That doesn't make either welfare.
Anyways most of this is a terminology argument. You're defining welfare broadly as any government spending for the purpose of helping (mostly poor) people. The researchers defined welfare narrowly as the federal government's contribution towards the cost of sending people welfare checks. (That would be money spent on TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).) Reasonable arguments can be formulated for either definition. The fact that they use a more narrow and technical definition doesn't make their definition wrong. Nor does it indicate any dishonesty on their part.
Anyways most of this is a terminology argument. You're defining welfare broadly as any government spending for the purpose of helping (mostly poor) people. The researchers defined welfare narrowly as the federal government's contribution towards the cost of sending people welfare checks. (That would be money spent on TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).) Reasonable arguments can be formulated for either definition. The fact that they use a more narrow and technical definition doesn't make their definition wrong. Nor does it indicate any dishonesty on their part.