Think Tanked

Full Video: Rep. Paul Ryan at AEI 4/5/11

Paul Ryan at AEI: How GOP Budget Differs from Obama's

AEI's Newt Gingrich on Fox News Sunday 3/27/11

CAP to Gingrich: You Didn't Balance the Budget

AEI's Newt Gingrich, no doubt in preparation for his 2012 presidential bid, has claimed shutting down the government in 1995 is what led to a balanced budget in 1998. The Center for American Progress pictures it differently.

AEI's Auslin: Put the F-22 Back in Pentagon Budget

In the midst of a Washington debate as to whether or not the Pentagon's budget should shrink, American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Michael Auslin argues that it's time for Congress to revive the funding for the F-22 Raptor program. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Auslin says staying competitive with China and Russia is worth the $250 million per plane price tag plane--and the still-unfinished F-35 Joint Striker Fighter isn't going to cut it.

Auslin took to a longer interview with Nick Schulz at The American to elaborate.

The Hill's Bridget Johnson Leaving Journalism for AEI

The American Enterprise Institute has snapped up The Hill's online editor, Bridget Johnson, who has been with the Capitol Hill-focused publication for the last two years.

Johnson told Think Tanked in an email that she'll become the think tank's managing editor, guiding AEI.org in "a new and exciting direction" and continue to exercise her journalistic muscles in a new environment. 

"Leaving the newspaper business for the think-tank world offers me the opportunity to really delve into some fascinating policy areas, and I look forward to working with the scholars and staff," said Johnson.

Johnson is due to begin at AEI mid-month.

AEI's Newt Gingrich Set to Announce 2012 Bid

ABC News is reporting that AEI scholar and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich will announce this week his intention to form a presidential exploratory committee.

Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler would only say that the former speaker will make an announcement by the end of the week on forming a presidential exploratory committee. But friends of Gingrich say he has already made up his mind. Gingrich's travel schedule is already looking like that of a presidential candidate. He will be in Iowa on Mar. 7 and ABC News has learned he will in New Hampshire Mar. 17.

Gingrich's advisors say his campaign will have a "major presence" in Georgia, which Gingrich represented in Congress for 19 years, though they have not decided yet where his campaign headquarters will be. Gingrich has lived in northern Virginia for years.

AEI's Wolfowitz on CNN: Mystified by Obama on Libya

William Kristol to Address AEI on Irving Kristol & Neocons

On March 7, Weekly Standard Publisher William Kristol will deliver the Bradley Lecture at the American Enterprise Institute. The lecture, "Irving Kristol and the Neoconservative Persuasion," centers on Kristol's late father and his prominent position in neoconservatism.

The recent publication of forty-seven heretofore uncollected essays by the late Irving Kristol (The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942–2009, Basic Books) provides an occasion for a fresh consideration of that "persuasion." What is the neoconservative persuasion, where did it come from, and where does it lead? It also provides an occasion for a fresh consideration of the thought of Irving Kristol--especially in light of the recovery of early and unfamiliar essays on W. H. Auden, Lionel Trilling, and Leo Strauss, as well as on religion and political philosophy. William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard and author of the foreword to the volume of his father’s essays, will give this March Bradley lecture.

More information is available on the event at the AEI website.

Paul Wolfowitz Wants Action on Libya, Now. But Why?

AEI's Paul Wolfowitz writes this morning that it's shameful the Obama administration is seemingly sitting on its hands with regards to Libya, especially after cutting its teeth on Egypt in the previous weeks.

When there are so many things that could be done to help the unbelievably brave Libyan people—without any risk to American lives—it is shameful to be sitting on our hands. If that is not reason enough to act, then we should be thinking about the terrible reputation the United States is acquiring, by its inaction, among the Libyan people and throughout the region. It will stay with us for a long time.

It may seem strange for Wolfowitz, who has not always had the best relationship with (or view of ) the UN, to have such a strong sense of what he wants the international body to do. But it's not so strange considering his companionship with Shaha Riza, for whom Wolfowitz arranged significant pay raises while he was president of the World Bank--a situation that led to the eventual resignation of Wolfowitz. Riza was born in Libya and her father was a consultant to the Saudi family for generations of Saudi power.

Specifically, Wolfowitz means the U.S. should be seeking UN approval for the following:

— Recognition of a provisional authority in liberated areas (or even a Provisional Government of Free Libya if the Libyans can organize a credible one), initially in Benghazi in the east and Misurata in the west, which seem to be liberated, although are still under threat of air attack;

— Provision by member countries, including specifically Egypt and Tunisia, of any support requested by these provisional authorities;

— Imposition of a NATO-supported “no fly” zone over Libya to halt further bombing by Qaddafi’s forces;

— Urgent supply of food and medical supplies to any point in Libya that is accessible by road or by military transport aircraft;

— Provision of arms to the provisional authorities.