All Research

September 25, 2023

A Bad Bipartisan Housing Bill: Connecting the Dots on the Helper Act

As rising home prices continue to undermine the American Dream of homeownership for hard-working Americans, Congress is considering a bipartisan bill modeled after the successful VA home loan program, to help first responders and teachers buy a home. However, as long as there is a housing shortage, first-time homebuyer assistance programs, such as the Homes…

By Tobias Peter

September 25, 2023

America Remains a Shining Beacon for the World

The Pew Research Center’s new study on Americans’ view of politics offers a sober reminder of just how negative our politics has become heading into the 2024 election. Regrettably, 65 percent of Americans state they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics. Plus, many Americans say that the political process is dominated by wealthy, special…

By Samuel J. Abrams

September 19, 2023

House Budget Plan Proposes Commonsense Welfare Changes

The House Budget Committee, headed by Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX), today released a draft budget proposal detailing the majority’s spending priorities and proposed changes across a range of government benefits and programs. Several policies would promote higher levels of work among welfare recipients, which is especially necessary while benefit rolls remain elevated despite plentiful job openings. According to recent research by our AEI colleague Angela Rachidi, less…

By Robert Doar | Matt Weidinger

September 19, 2023

Senator Tim Scott’s New Plan to Cut Taxes

Senator and Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-SC) released a new economic plan this week. The plan addresses issues such as the national debt, federal spending, trade, and the economy. The plan includes several significant tax policies. His plan focuses on cutting taxes for both individuals and businesses and argues that this would grow the economy. The…

By Kyle Pomerleau

September 18, 2023

“Player Piano” (Revisited) in the Age of AI

If one judges futuristic novels of the past narrowly in terms of whether they got their predictions right, Kurt Vonnegut’s brilliant first novel, Player Piano, was not perfect. Upstate New York did not become the hub of engineering innovation. He thought of vacuum tubes not chips as the key tech breakthrough. That he was right about…

By Howard Husock

September 18, 2023

Students’ Lack of Basic Knowledge of US History and Civics Remains a National Embarrassment

A new study from a pair of Penn State researchers finds that passing the US Citizenship Test as a high school graduation requirement does nothing to improve youth voter turnout. Within the last decade more than a third of US states have adopted and implemented a version of the “Civics Education Initiative” (CEI), but according to study…

By Robert Pondiscio

September 13, 2023

American Dreamers

In January, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) launched the American Dream Initiative (ADI), a new, multifaceted policy and practice effort to build on and extend the nation’s legacy of liberty, opportunity, and economic progress for generations to come. Through ADI, AEI scholars are investing time and energy in policy analysis and development to expand access to the…

By Brent Orrell

September 12, 2023

Please, Gen Z Aren’t “Doomed to be the First Generation of Americans Who Will Grow Up with a Lower Standard of Living Than Their Parents”

One could easily fill all the waking hours in the day—and non-waking hours, too!—with pointed responses to all the bad economic opinions expressed on social media. That said, I like to dip in every now and then with a humbly offered counterpoint. This week’s 9/11 anniversary, for example, meant the recycling of this passage from…

By James Pethokoukis

September 8, 2023

Is Vote Dilution Necessarily Bad?

There really is no obvious way to defend the congressional district map drawn by the Alabama state legislature—and struck down by a federal court for unconstitutionally diluting the African-American vote in that state. More than 25 percent of Alabama’s population is black, yet only one of its seven members of Congress is. At the same…

By Howard Husock

September 5, 2023

Trump’s Tariffs Won’t Address the Trade Deficit

Last month, the Washington Post reported that former president Donald Trump plans to enact a 10 percent tariff on all imports if reelected. After facing sharp criticism, Trump defended his proposal in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. He argued that the trade deficit is a “loss” for the US economy and that his tariffs would be the “best way” to…