The American Enterprise Institute prides itself on producing leading research in several key policy areas that weave a tapestry of the organization's core beliefs: respect and support for the power of free enterprise, a strong defense centered on smart international relations, and opportunity for all to achieve the American dream.
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“It's hard to see how chained CPI can be a win for conservatives. With congressional Democrats opposed, the narrative is already forming that President Obama only proposed using the chained CPI to appease congressional Republicans. But why should Republicans take the rap for a measure that weakens Social Security for the least well-off and institutes a large and regressive tax increase? Higher taxes and a less effective Social Security program — what's not to dislike?”
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“There are obviously considerable differences between North Korea and Iran […] that should caution against facile comparisons. Unfortunately, however, one of America's main problems is self-inflicted — viewing the likes of Iran and North Korea as if they are rational in our terms, that they have essentially the same objectives, thought processes, metrics, time horizons, interests, and worldviews as we do. To the extent rogue states, terrorist groups, religious or ideological fanatics, or widely divergent cultures do not share American characteristics.”
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“In the past decade major problems with Chinese-made food and drugs has led to thousands of deaths, mostly in China itself, but many in rich countries too, including at least 150 deaths in the US from counterfeits of the drug heparin. And while fake drugs are the largest concern for foreigners, within China the greatest fear is over milk formula.”
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“The Gang of Eight's [immigration] bill totals 844 pages. Any bill that long and this complicated seems sure to contain at least one provision that alienates every potential supporter. But this legislation has the potential to massively improve US immigration policy. After some tweaks, it would replace an antiquated, inefficient system with one that unleashes immigration's power to boost economic growth.”
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“The first step toward making our student aid system more sustainable and effective is to acknowledge, as fully as possible, what each program costs us each year, and whether those dollars are well-spent. Until then, we'll continue to make policy based on politics and deadlines, not sound accounting and common sense. In that spirit, policymakers and journalists must recognize that the Ford-esque 'profits' attached to student loans may be more fiction than fact, an artifact of the way Congress has chosen to measure the cost of federal loan programs .”
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“As the NRC’s previous reports noted, engineered crops have harmed neither human health nor the environment. As importantly, in a rebuke of campaigners trying to impose trendy anti-science values on the developing world, the updated report carried an appeal to apply genetic engineering to a greater number of crops—not only to modify major commodity crops in the West, but also to improve a much wider range of crops that can be grown in difficult conditions, facing drought or flooding, throughout the world.”
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“Gosnell isn't only being charged with performing illegal late-term abortions. He's being charged with delivering viable babies and killing them. The really profound question here is what is the moral difference between killing a living baby that is outside the mother for a few seconds and killing one that's still inside. It's no wonder the media would rather talk about itself.”
