| AEI People, September 2003 |
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| AEI Newsletter |
| Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 |
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| ARTICLES |
| September 2003 Newsletter |
| Publication Date: September 1, 2003 |
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James Q. Wilson, chairman of AEI's Council of Academic Advisers and a professor at Pepperdine University, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on July 23. At the medal ceremony, President George W. Bush remarked that Wilson "may be the most influential political scientist in America since the White House was home to Professor Woodrow Wilson." The president continued: "James Q. Wilson writes with intellectual rigor, with moral clarity, to the appreciation of a wide and growing audience." Wilson is best known for his writings on morality, government, and criminal justice. His books include The Marriage Problem: How Our Culture Has Weakened Families (2002), Two Nations (1997), On Character (1995), and Moral Sense (1993).
In testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness (July 17), Joseph Antos and Jagadeesh Gokhale argued against adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare: "The program as currently structured is not responsive to the changing needs of consumers or the changing face of medicine, and does little to foster cost-effective healthcare. Simply adding a new benefit would not resolve Medicare's fundamental problems that
drive spending levels skyward. Reforms that go beyond prescription drugs are needed if the program is to survive the financial pressures created by the baby boomers, who will double Medicare enrollment by 2030. The policy objective should be to moderate the growth in health costs without also cutting the value of what we buy."
In the Weekly Standard (August 4/11), John Yoo counters the argument that assassinations of foreign enemies represent a retreat from American policy banning political assassination: "What some might call assassination and what the laws of war deem a legitimate military attack, in the end could be a more humanitarian way to conclude the Iraq war and to conduct hostilities generally in the future. . . . Killing enemy personnel is the very purpose and means of conducting warfare. While international law prohibits killing an enemy 'treacherously,' this has never been understood to prohibit the targeting of specific military leaders. Rather, it is a ban on soldiers' seeking to blur the line between combatants and noncombatants in order to give themselves a military advantage. It does not prohibit the use of surprise, ruses, or stealthy tactics to kill enemy personnel." |
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On the Issues
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In the most recent installment of On the Issues, AEI scholars examine the ways that the U.S. auto industry can survive the current economic crisis without a government bailout.
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