without further ado, the president of aei, my good friend, arthur brooks.íñ?pplause] [applause] >> thank you, eric. what a wonderful and gracious introduction. i would like to thank you all for coming and say goodnight. [laughter] my guess is it's not going to get that much better for me tonight after hearing such a wonderful introduction from my friend, eric cantor. he is a real patriot doing yeoman's work today in the house. he is doing work for all americans. he is doing work not just for economic freedom but for the opportunities that people will have now and we hope their children and grandchildren will have in the future. his endorsement means so very much to me. here at aei as most of you know we are an institution that's been around since the late 1930s. we are dedicated. our mission says we are community of supporters that believe together are dedicated to the ideas of maximizing liberty and increasing individual opportunity and fighting for the free enterprise system to get the most people the best life. now i would like to tell you that due to all o

of someone who i know needs no introduction here at aei. i first met arthur brooks several years ago shortly after becoming the minority whip. and i'll never forget the discussion that we were supposed to have for about 15 minutes that lasted perhaps an hour. when we first met in my office in the capitol. and i was struck then and have continued to be impressed by arthur brooks and his ability to in a very concise way articulate what it is that we're about as free market conservatives, as people who love liberty and treasure the freedom upon which this country was built. and, you know, i heard arthur's story then, and, you know, the fact that he and his wife met in spain and were there, and the french -- [inaudible] which was difficult for me to imagine because of his current duties. but all the more impressive because he really showed me then, and this was about the time when you were writing "the battle." and we were treated to excerpts of "the battle" in "the wall street journal" and other publications. and i would, along with many of my

i appreciate an opportunity to be here at aei. it was almost exactly a year ago today that my former boss, secretary gates, spoke to you on the eve of his departure as secretary of defense. in looking back on his tenure as secretary he chose to highlight two major themes. the first was his effort to turn the tide in iraq and afghanistan. he spoke to you about his laser like focus on delivering urgent battlefield needs to the war fighter in iraq and afghanistan. when secretary gates first hired me in 2009 he told me the countries at war, ash, but the pentagon is not. my job, he explained, was to help him get the pentagon onto a war footing, especially in the part acquisition, technology and logistics part i was about to take over. and that has been my focus. as well as his. first as a t and l and now as deputy of secretary of defense. under his leadership we set up a fast lane to get urgent requirements onto the battlefield unhindered by the bureaucracy. we needed better persistent isr, he said, as did general petra s petraeus, gen

it is a pleasure to be back at aei. one of the foremost institutions in america and the world that i think has contributed so much to the dialogue and discussion and decision making that takes place here. it's great to be back among many friends. i usually try to begin my speeches as i just did with a joke or some kind. when we're talking about syria, it's too horrifying, too heartbreaking, and too exasperating. for 15 months now the syrian people have faced an onslaught of violence from assad and his forces. it's now estimated that as many as 12,000 lives have been lost. some suspect that figure's even higher. and there's no end in sight. to the contrary, assad appears to be accelerating his fight to the finish. amid all this violence it's important to recognize that the clear trend is going escalation. both in the nature and the quantity of the killing. assad has gone from using infintry and snipers to tanks and artillery to turning loose special units and plain clothed militias to massacre, men, women and children as

norm is our slave here at aei. although some people might use a more contemporary word beginning with a b. >> [inaudible]. >> so people ask me a t, so what's the trick? does norm have make ked pictures of arthur brooks or something? no that wouldn't work because arthur works out. norm is very valuable presence around our hallways. he keeps us on our game. he prompts us not to confuse ideology with partisanship or let ideology become idiocy through laziness or complacency. it is quite useful toe have someone around to point out our inconsistencies and blind spots and petty hypocrisys. norm makes us better here and sharper in our work even if we sometimes mutter about his latest provocation when he leaves the lunchroom. seeing interest in unloved congress stems for his deep affection for the first branch. his grief is broken and sincere. worry about its future well-founded. his work here at. aei on continuity of government project urges us to takes respective remedies against a worst case terroist strike is highest v

his work here at aei on the continuity of government project urging us to take remedies against a worst case terror strike is of the highest value. in contrast to the continuity of government project i am less enamored of what i take to his continuity of liberalism project that emerges in the new book of "the washington post" and i read it and said it is worse than it looks. [ laughter ] though it does make a good holiday gift, i agree with that. now, there's no doubt that we live in a time of heightened polarization, making the task of governing immensely difficult. now observing this unstable equilibrium a distinguished political scientist made the following observation, "democrats and republicans are at the same time swaggering and uncertain, secure and paranoid, each side is confident in its own hedgemonic domain but thrown off in stride to extend its popularity and control to each other's turf. each party is fearful it will make a mistake and lose its own empire not just for one term but for decades and each side is hopeful that it can finally capture its rightful, complete majorit

aey announce it is developing for windows 8. summers travelers want to hear this one. they are more susceptible to materials that could cause cancer. you which one that completely safe to use. at bloomberg headquarters, abc 7 news.r >> all right. thank you. is 61 degrees on this monday. >> if you use the commuter to better watch for car.ark your >> investigators are trying to what led to the death of rodney king. the clout it forced the policeto look at brutality. >> another look at traffic and minutes.very 10 back after this. ♪ ♪ pop goes the world ♪ it goes something like this ♪ everybody here is a friend of mine ♪ ♪ everybody, tell me, have you heard? ♪ ♪ pop goes the world ♪ pop goes the world [ female announcer ] pop in a whole new kind of clean with new tide pods... a powerful three-in-one detergent that cleans, brightens, and fights stains. pop in. stand out. >> some areas of rain especially the western suburbs. you can see up and down to 70. beltway as well. sunlight and modern -- moderate rain. more persistent rain is off to west. parts of west virginia, we're

steve hayward is the fellow at aei and a regular blocker. we are fortunate to have him as our moderator tonight. he writes about this twice a week for roll call always with an even-handed town perfect for our moderator. [applause] >> thank you. pleasure to be here for this interesting debate. i feel like -- you will have to look it up. try wikipedia. i am here to give you the rules and then i will leave it to these gentlemen. i will be back for the q and a. is pretty simple. we will begin with 8 minute opening statements. that is followed by five men rebuttals by each. a 27 minute -- is not 26 or 28. it will be 27 minutes of two and a or a free for all or what ever followed by 5 minute closing statements by each gentleman. we will be taking questions via e-mail and twitter. for those of be so inclined, the twitter handle is #aeidebates. at the end of each round there will be a boxer or a bell or that which will sounded the end of the round it. i will be back in a bit too moderate questions. eight minutes each opening rounds followed by five

. >> jon: you were with the aei. they are associated with the folks that he's talking about.still have a desk there? >> i haven't been back in three days, but, yes. i'm a bit of an outlier in a lot of ways but nobody has told me you can't do that, you can't say that. that's been true throughout our partnership where i have often said some things that i'm sure caused some of my colleagues to wince >> jon: what you brought up though, isn't that the role of the opposition party and hasn't it always been that way? we are the opposition party. the things that you would like to do, we would put obstacles in front of and keep you from doing. why is this time so different from when the democrats were the opposition party and they were saying things about the bush administration? >> because the opposition party this time is prepared to go all out to act like a parliamentary party really and ostentatious unrelenting opposition using the tools of the filibuster to deny the majority a chance to get that program passed. we don't have a parliamentary system >> jon: this is... these are the

in the interest of fair neness, just a released through aei press. on june 4th. available through amazon.com. in any case, taxing capitol income. from taxing capitol income. one of the arguments is there is a perception that a lot of it the returns are received by higher income taxpayers and you out to ininclude the return to capitol in the tax base to achieve that on objective. however, taxing capitol income comes with a cost. it is a drag

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director of its nationalof t research initiative which is ate foundation or an organization a within aei -- entity, that's what i was looking for -- entity within aei that supports original domestic policy-related research and big think books of which our current speaker, t arthur herman, the author of the book that is the subject of s today's discussion, "freedom's forge," clearly is one of. .. 2012 election is, in many ways, a debate over the 1932 election. should we continue or extend the legacy of franklin delano roosevelt in establishing the federal government as one of the preeminent directors if not the preeminent director of american economic life, or should we embrace the creative animal spirits of free enterprise capitalism and trust more to ourselves and more to the great men and women who fuel our nation's economy and whose ideas and innovations change our lives? when we look to the future of american public policy. be -- economists and historians have debated whether or not roosevelt's move in his signature domestic accomplishment, the new deal, actually helped or hurt, whet

i remember going over to see her at aei. she said, what's different over there? this was in early '02. i said, tifinally the middle ea is open for business. she said, that's huge, because in my day under reagan it was not open for business. it gave us a real focus. we had never been able to move on the middle east before. and, you know, i think it's true, and i'm sure we'll get into this later, we made mistakes in the bush administration. i think every administration makes mistakes. but it can't be a coincidence that things finally started to move in the middle east. and i think that's really, really important. >> let me address, quickly, then, the political will created by 9/11, both in two different directions. now, it's about us in a different way. when we're attacked on 9/11. and what that does to human rights, perhaps overseas, and also the new legislation here at home that some saw as an invasion of privacy, but all geared to accelerate the ability to track down terrorists at home. since these people had been inside the united states. can i ask either of yo

aei's online journal focusing on business, economics and public affairs. nick also so authored an acclaimed work on modern economic growth and development with arnold king called "from poverty to prosperity." this influential work is on ncf's list of books that drive the free enterprise to date. nick has already made an important contribution to ncf and policy efforts but most importantly, his critical thinking, creative research and thoughtful analysis are contributing immeasurably to the economic debate. please join me in welcoming nick schultz. >> thank you, al. thank you, al. and welcome, everyone, to this panel. on city case study, both jobs and innovation at the local level. as al mentioned i work at the american enterprise institute, we do a lot of work on national public policy issues. and a lot of times, the discussions about them can be really abstract. and one of the things that i like about what ncf does and what the chamber has been doing, both through its enterprising states and studies and series, but also this look that we're going to do at

i want to thank michael for having me here and aei. ly talk about the sort of increased or the reflection we see that seem to indicate a larger agree had i did presence in syria. i want to step back. i think i'm going to be a little bit of a voice. i'm not nearly optimistic about the prospect for military action to produce the outcomes we would like to see in syria. and i do think that agree had i did elements are likely to development. i think there are going to be very unproductive effects across the region. i think that there is a role for more active american presence there, but i'm skeptical, frankly, that military action would produce the enden states we would like to see. good intentions adopt make good policy. bottom line. i think one of the things that interests me about the debate about syria is the historical analogies we use to try it understand it. it's something we do. we ask is syria libya, bosnia or iraq. what the consequences how do we understand what sorts of actions what our abses will produce in a situation like tha

norm is our slave at aei. does he have a naked pictures of arthur brooks? that wouldn't work because arthur worked out. norm is a very valuable presence around our hallways and keeps us on our game and promises not to confuse ideology with partisanship. it is quite useful to have someone around to point out the inconsistencies and blind spots and petty hypocrisies. norm makes all this better and sharper in our work even if we mutter about his latest provocation. i admire much of his work seeing that his interest in the congress stems from a deep affection of the first branch. his grief is sincere and the worry about the future is well- founded. his work on the continuity of government project urging us to take respective remedies against the worst case terror strike as of the highest value. in contrast to the continuity of a government project, and less enamored of what i think to be his continuity of liberalism project. i read his book and it is worse than it looks. [laughter] it makes a good holiday gift, i will agree with that [laughter] we live in a tim

[laughter] it is a pleasure to be backed aei, one of the four most institutions in america and the world that i think has contributed so much to the dialogue and discussion and decision making that takes place here. it is great to be back among many friends. i usually try to begin my speech is as i just did with a joke or some kind remarks. when you're talking about syria, it is too horrifying, to heartbreaking, and to exasperated. for 50 months now, the syrian people have faced a bunch of violence from the president. it is now estimated that as many as 12,000 lives have been lost. some success -- some suspect the figure is higher and there is no end in sight. to the contrary, assad appears to be accelerating despite the finish. amid this violence, it is important to recognize that the clear trend is toward escalation both in the nature and quantity of the killing. assad has gone from using infantry and snipers to target -- tanks and artillery to turning with special units and plant closed militias to massacre men, women, and children. it happened last month. we are now seeing a rapid in

al libi was aey affiliate, and taking him out was essential.ut in a place where, under the bush administration and those clips in 2008 that you just showed, we essentially had a situation that those areas were seated in triable deals at the time. we had a very passive approach, and what we had under obama is a very aggressive approach to go after the al-qaeda core. i would say it's the terrorist groups and yemen and somali. and i think the threats are very real and new threats. i think this administration is moving to address that, and obviously iran and the role it plays in the middle east and the gulf region and i tempts to support terrorist networks. they're a grave threat. >> i have to go to michael on this, can iran hurt us? how does it hurt us through hezbollah? who do you see as a threat to the united states now? >> i mean, i agree with what brian just said, i think the threats that we were concerned about, the ieds and those threats, and cyber threats from china in the homeland, and a threat from iran through hezbollah contacts, we have

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take my laptop to the american enterprise institute in smoke way too many cigars on the balcony at aeir shop. that is the worst thing i got about liberal fascism,. now that the book is done i'm cutting way back. >> host: are cigars as bad for u.s. cigarettes? >> guest: they are not as bad for your cigarettes and i know we are going to get calls. that doesn't mean that they are not bad for you and mouth cancer is terrible and all that but you don't inhale cigars. >> host: you just look cool like smoking. guest: i don't think anybody thinks i look cool. i have a lot of work to do in that department. it's funny, i know some older journeyman journalist who grew up smoking cigarettes and they say you better switch to cigars. when you switch to cigars you start in hailing the cigars which is really crazy. and so, i don't work too much at a desk. i had a great research assistant who helped out on the stuff who would feed me a lot of things and i wrote liberal fascism in my basement or in a starbucks and that is one of the things about the new economy that i really like. >> host: tell me about

her latest book co-authored with the aei colleague sally settle is called one nation under therapy. hoff sommers has appeared on numerous television programs including "60 minutes" and "the oprah winfrey show." she's also made appearances on the daily show on comedy central. she has lectured and has taken part in debate on more than 100 college campuses and we are glad she is here to join us today. our second panelist is karen hamed comics and director of the national federation of independent business, small-business legal center along with 26 states, the nfib joined the lawsuit against the whole kill legislation. karen has argued passionately on behalf of small business owners and their rights to own and operate business. assonances yet, she specialist in food and drug law and assisted trade associations for congress and federal agencies. she also works as an assistant press secretary for senator don nickels from oklahoma. she receives her b.a. from the university of oklahoma in 1989 and her jd from the george washington law school in 1995. our next speaker, lala mooney, is an out

steve is the fellow at aei, a biographer, and day -- and a blogger on politics. he is -- an invaluable newsletter covering presidential campaigns. he writes about this twice a week for roll call, always with an even-handed town. perfect for our moderator. [applause] >> it is a pleasure to be here for this debate. i feel like i am the -- of intellectuals. you have to look that up. try wikipedia. i am here to give you the rules and then i will leave the stage to these gentlemen and be back for the q&a. pretty simple. we begin with 8 minute opening statements by each of our combatants, followed by 5 minute rebuttals by each, a 27 minute, i do not know who figured this out, 27 minutes of q&a. followed by five minutes closing statements by each tournament. we will be taking questions via email and twitter. for those of you so inclined, the handle is #aeidebates. email is aeidebates@aei.org. at the end of the trauma, there will be a buzzer or a bell which will signal the end of the round and i will be back in a bit too moderate questions. now, eight minutes each follow

before joining aei, she was a professor of philosophy at clark university where she specialized in moral theory. she is the author of, "who stole feminism," and "the war against boys." her latest book is called "one nation under therapy." she has appeared on numerous television programs including "60 minutes," and "the oprah winfrey show." she is also appeared on "the daily show" on comedy central. she is also lectured on more than 100 college campuses and we're glad she is here to join us today. our second palace is the executive director of the national federation of independent -- panelist is the executive director of the national federation of independent businesses. nfib joined the lawsuit at the supreme court against the health care legislation. she is argued passionately on behalf of small business owners. as an associate at olson frank and weda she specialized in food and drug laws and represent ited several small businesses. she also worked as an assistant press secretary for senator don nickels of oklahoma. she received her b.a. from the university of oklahoma in 1989 and her j

it is a pleasure to be back at aei. one of the four most institutions that has contributed so much to the dialogue and discussion that takes place here. it is great to be back among many friends. i usually try to begin my speeches with a joke but we are talking about syria, it is too horrifying, to heartbreaking, and to exasperatingly. for 15 months, at the syrian people have faced an onslaught of violence from bashar al-assad and his forces. it is now estimated that as many as 12,000 lives have been lost. some suspect that figure is even higher. there is no end in sight. he appears to be accelerating his fight to the fetish. amid all of this violence, it is important to recognize the clear trend is towards an escalation. he has gone from using infantry and snipers to tanks and artillery, to turn in this special units and playing -- and militias to massacre men, women, and children. we are now seeing a rapid increase in his use of helicopter gun ships. his forces once saw to clear an old brown, they now appear to be und

peter wallison, a fellow here at aei.s'll be a powerful presentation by senator mitch mcconnell. most cases they go to the supreme court for statutory interpretation. but this administration costs rather cavalier attitude toward the constitution has produced an unusual number of constitutional chlenges amace three court andhe supreme have captured the attention of the american people. the american people have now seen the importance of the constitution and how seriously it is taken. but there are troubling part about it. the administration does not seem to be giving a lot of weight to constitutional issues. three recent cases regarded freedom, scivil liberties, and property rights. other cases are also on their way to the court and look like sure losses for the administration. the recess appointments of richard cordray as director of the consumer financial protection bureau and three members of the national labor board are almost certain to be struck down. the appointments made simply cannot be squared with the language o

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her latest book co-authored with the aei colleague is called one nation under therapy four. hoff sommers has appeared on numerous television programs including 60 minutes and "the oprah winfrey show." she has also made appearances on the daily show on comedy central. she has lectured and taken part in debate on more than 100 college campuses and we are very glad she is here to join us today. our second panelist is karen hamed of the national federation of independent business, small business legal center along with 26 states that the supreme court against the health care legislation. karen has argued passionately on behalf of small business owners and their rights to own and operate a business. as an associate she specialized in food and drug law and for congress and federal agencies. she also works as an assistant press secretary from oklahoma. she received her b.a. from the university of oklahoma in 1989 and her jd from the george washington law school in 1990. our next speaker, lala mooney is an activist against the oppression of the cuban government. her family were put

just released through aei press, co-author with alan viyard on june 4th available through amazon.com. [laughter] in any case, taxing capital income from a, you know, taxing capital income. so one of the arguments for taxing capital income is there's a perception that a great deal of capital income is disproportionately received by higher income taxpayers and, thus, if you want a more progressive system, you ought to include the return to capital in the tax base to achieve that objective. however, taxing capital income does come with an economic cost. it's drag on economic growth. some estimates by a paper from about a decade ago suggest that if you went to a flat rate consumption tax -- not something i would advocate -- you could increase long run gdp by order of 6-9% in the long run. the size of the economy would be 6-9% larger. be you had a progressive consumption tax, um, the estimates would be smaller. um, and when i say a progressive consumption tax, i mean a progressive consumption tax that replicates the current distribution of the tax burden, something that's just as progressi

it is a pleasure to be back at aei. it is one of the four most institutions in the world that has contributed so much to the decision making that takes place here. it is great to be back among many friends. i usually try to begin my speech is as i just did with a joke or some kind, but when we are talking about syria, it is too horrifying, to heartbreaking, and to exasperating. for 15 months, the syrian people have faced an onslaught of violence ofassad and his forces, which is now estimated that as many as 12,000 lives have been lost. some suspect that figure is higher, and there is no end in sight. to the contrary, assad seems to be accelerating this fight to the finish. it is a port to recognize the clear trend is toward escalation, both in the nature and quantity of the killing. assad is gone from using it for kerry and snipers to tanks and artillery to turning loose special units and turning is malicious the massacre of men, women, and children. this happened last month. we're now seeing a rapid increase in his use

her latest book, co-authored with aei colleague sally fatel is call one nation under therapy. summers has appeared on numerous television programs, including 60 minutes and the oprah winfrey show. she has also made appearances on the daily show on comedy show. she has lectured and taken part if debates on more than 100 college campuses and we are very glad she is here to join us together. our second panelist is karen harden, executive director of the national federation of independent business, small business legal center. along with 26 states, the nfib joined the lawsuit at the supreme court against the health care legislation. karen has argued passionately on behalf of small business owners and their right to own and operate business. as an associate at olson, frank and weida, she specialized in food and drug law, and represented several small businesses and their trade associations before congress and federal agencies. she also worked as an assistant press secretary for senator don nichols from oklahoma. she received her b.a. from the university of oklahoma, in 1989, and he