A Full Plate

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The pace picked up in Washington this week on a number of fronts where AEI scholars have been active. All eyes are riveted on health care; the House introduced its 1,990 page, $894 billion bill yesterday while Senate majority leader Harry Reid and his colleagues continue to spar over whether a modified public option will be included in the Senate bill. On Air Force One, presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that President Barack Obama's decision on Afghanistan troop levels "could come at any moment," although it may be announced after the Afghan runoff election. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, unveiled draft legislation closely coordinated with the administration that will have significant implications for financial regulation. And, in a matter of days, voters will have their say in gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia and in a closely watched special congressional election in upstate New York.

In a series of articles and Health Policy Outlooks, AEI scholars have been examining and commenting on the ongoing health care debate. Arthur C. Brooks writes in the Wall Street Journal that the "health care debate is part of a moral struggle currently being played out over the free enterprise system. It will be replayed in every major policy debate in the coming months, from financial regulatory reform to a cap-and-trade system for limiting carbon emissions. The choices will ultimately always come down to competing visions of America's future." Scott Gottlieb, M.D., argues that the Obama-endorsed bill produced by the Senate Finance Committee will initially "raise the cost of health insurance and the number of uninsured Americans, perhaps sharply." Andrew G. Biggs writes that "without improving incentives to balance costs and benefits, no reform plan can hope to provide quality, affordable health coverage." He says, "Unfortunately, current health legislation doesn't get the incentives right."

Frederick W. Kagan, borrowing Margaret Thatcher's famous admonition to George H. W. Bush not to "go wobbly," urged the president to be steadfast in his commitment to the effort in Afghanistan. Kagan continues to brief members of the administration, Congress, and journalists on the 40,000-45,000 additional troops he believes are needed to bolster the counterinsurgency mission. John R. Bolton writes, "Whatever decision Obama reaches on Afghanistan, his credibility and leadership have been badly wounded by his continuing public display of indecisiveness." At an AEI event next Wednesday, AEI's Kagan and Thomas Donnelly, along with Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations and Ashley J. Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace will discuss the next steps in Afghanistan and their implications for the interests at stake.

Peter J. Wallison and Philip Swagel have been following the progress of the proposed financial regulations. Both testified to the House Financial Services Committee yesterday on the draft Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009. Wallison told the committee the draft "contains an extremely troubling set of proposals which, if adopted, will bring economic growth in this country to a standstill, essentially turn over the control of the financial system to the government, and seriously impair competition in all areas of finance." Swagel called part of the legislation "a proposal for a permanent and supercharged TARP." He recommended an improved bankruptcy regime over the proposals in the legislation.

On Tuesday, AEI's Election Watch team convened for a special session to look at the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia and look at the House race in New York's twenty-third congressional district. The Election Watch program is the longest continuous election program in Washington. Karlyn Bowman, Michael Barone, David Frum, Norman J. Ornstein, and John C. Fortier examined polling on Obama, the mood in Congress, what we know at this early stage about the 2010 Senate races, and lessons Britain and Canada might offer for the 2012 presidential contest. Barone writes that "the 2009 contests are a reasonably fair test of the strength and durability of the Democratic majority that Obama and his ticket mates assembled in 2008," and they are "also a test of the capacity of Republicans to regain turf they have lost." AEI's October Political Report examined polls on the president, Congress, the stimulus and health care.

People and Programs

Measuring Prosperity. On Tuesday, AEI will introduce the London-based Legatum Institue's 2009 Prosperity Index. The index uses holistic measures to examine not only economic wealth, but also well-being in over one hundred countries. AEI's Roger Bate writes about the importance of the index in his newest Development Policy Outlook, "What Is Prosperity and How Do We Measure It?"

iStockphoto/ dra_schwartz

Vaccines for Swine Flu. Scott Gottlieb, M.D., has examined the swine flu vaccine shortage in light of Obama's declaration that the outbreak is a national emergency. While the Obama administration blames the vaccine shortage on manufacturing delays, Gottlieb writes in the Wall Street Journal that "production issues only explain part of the shortfall. Also to blame are a series of policy decisions that reflect our extreme caution when it comes to these products." He outlines how U.S. policies regarding vaccines have made production slower and limited output, in contrast with European policies.

AEI Testifies. Thus far in 2009, AEI scholars have testified before Congress fifty-six times, more than twice as many times as any other think tank. Even more remarkable, twenty-seven different AEI scholars have testified.

Geoengineering Gets a Hearing. The House Committee on Science and Technology is scheduled to hold the first congressional hearing devoted to geoengineering next week. The AEI Geoengineering Project has been active for over a year, and Lee Lane, codirector of the project with Samuel Thernstrom, will be one of the witnesses testifying at the hearing. Lane recently coauthored an extensive analysis of geoengineering options for the Copenhagen Consensus that has been cited in the New York Times, in the Financial Times, and on Time.com.

No COLA? No Problem. Andrew G. Biggs has written extensively about why the lack of a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for seniors this year actually represents an increase in the value of retirees' benefits. In a Washington Post column last week, George F. Will highlights Biggs's finding that "the typical retiree's purchasing power will be almost $725 higher next year" without a COLA. Norman J. Ornstein argues that the plan to give seniors $250 to make up for the lack of a COLA is fiscally irresponsible.

AEI Press, forthcoming

The Science on Women and Science. Last week, Stuart Taylor, a columnist for the influential National Journal, praised a new collection of essays edited by Christina Hoff Sommers called The Science on Women and Science (AEI Press) for the perspective the essays provide on the push by some feminists to apply Title IX, the 1972 law barring sex discrimination in education, to the sciences.

Bipartisan Entitlement Reform? AEI scholars have consistently called for more fiscal responsibility. An event at AEI earlier this year presented a bipartisan plan for entitlement reform. Kevin A. Hassett, Alex Brill, Norman J. Ornstein, and Alan D. Viard have called for the establishment of a bipartisan commission along the lines of the one proposed by Senators Kent Conrad (D-N.Dak.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). Christina D. Romer, chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, said the president is interested in this proposal.

Hot Off the Enterprise Blog

"President Obama has clearly resented suggestions he is dithering on the decision about troop levels in Afghanistan. Having suggested that he 'will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way' (though he should have added he won't be rushing to send troops to protect those already on the ground either), he continues to study various options. Indeed, Hillary Clinton's campaign-trail crack about Barack Obama needing on-the-job training seems more and more resonant with each passing day that the president continues to study for the test he doesn't want to take." [Read the full post.]

--Danielle Pletka