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Dec 3, 2024 | 
aei.org | Max Eden |Zichu Yang
Last week, Rick Hess and I criticized legacy media for its coverage of Trump’s Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon, which featured wall-to-wall amplification of decades-old allegations that were re-upped in a lawsuit filed shortly before Trump’s election. As we wrote:The judicial process is at its best when it is used to carefully parse facts and dispense justice.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
aei.org | Peter J. Wallison |Zichu Yang
Donald Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General was a shocking choice, even for Trump—very possibly the worst choice for a cabinet post in US history. The fascinating question is why Trump did it. Certainly, Gaetz—although clearly unqualified for the position—was a serious choice, nominated for Attorney General, the head of the Justice Department.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
aei.org | Thomas Miller |Zichu Yang
On November 23, one of the most unique public policy entrepreneurs in Washington circles, Fred Smith, passed away. He founded the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in 1984. I had the good fortune to come under his tutelage as one of his earliest hires there a couple of years later.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
aei.org | Desmond Lachman |Zichu Yang
John Donne famously wrote that no man is an island. President-elect Trump might want to reflect on the idea that something similar might be said of the US economy before proceeding with his proposed tariff policy. Our economic performance is not determined by us alone, but as we learned during the 1997 Asian currency crisis, the 1998 Russian debt default, and the 2010 Eurozone debt crisis, our economy and financial system can be impacted adversely by untoward foreign economic developments.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
aei.org | Derek Scissors |Zichu Yang
The effect of bilateral tariffs is usually overrated, especially in the US. For products in a competitive market, firms are available to step in. For markets which are distorted, say by Chinese predation, the US offers high selling margins to entice new production if tariffs are sustained. In particular, this substitution limits inflation from tariffs. If inflation is the prime concern, the US should avoid broad, simultaneous tariffs on China and Mexico.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
aei.org | Samuel J. Abrams |Zichu Yang
As is the case with most Thanksgiving dinners, families will discuss politics. Before and after Thanksgiving, we will see chatter about how insufferable and intolerant family members can be as they discuss the 2024 election. PBS ran a long piece before the election presenting narratives showing “there are a lot of issues . . . dividing Americans now, and that makes it harder for people who are Republican to . . .
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
aei.org | James Pethokoukis |Zichu Yang
Is common ground possible in an age of extreme polarization? Perhaps! “Toward a Potential Grand Bargain for the Nation” is a new report by a group of experts from think tanks and academia meant to share consensus “policies in each of these areas: economic growth and mobility; education; environment; health; taxes; and the federal budget.” (One of the experts is economist Michael Strain, here at AEI.)The report is short, only about 30 pages, and quite readable.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
aei.org | JAMES CAPRETTA |Zichu Yang
The incoming Trump administration’s high-profile Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, plans to rely on existing executive authorities, real or imagined, to slash regulations, federal personnel, and agency spending with no need to gain approval first from Congress. It is a questionable predicate, and one which guarantees formidable political and judicial opposition. There is an alternative way of thinking about the problem.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
aei.org | Howard Husock |Zichu Yang
To say that the Kamala Harris campaign bet heavily on the issue of abortion rights tilting the election is understatement. Recall that she pledged to end the Senate filibuster rule specifically to pass a national right to abortion. “We should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom,” Harris told Wisconsin Public Radio in September.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
aei.org | Karlyn Bowman |Zichu Yang
Stories of deep partisan differences between men and women were common in the 2024 campaign, but they seem to have taken on a new intensity as we approach the holidays. The HuffPost Personal essay “My Husband And His Family Voted For Trump—So I’m Canceling Thanksgiving And Christmas” has received a huge amount of social media attention.
