American Enterprise Institute

As a member of Congress, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) is proud to stand up for the principles of limited government and individual responsibility. The first-term congressman expresses skepticism about such safety-net programs as food stamps, regarding...

WASHINGTON -- Logically, what happens in Cyprus should stay in Cyprus. With a population of just over 1 million and an economy that's a mere 0.2 percent of the 17-nation eurozone, the country seems too small to matter on the world stage. Yet, that's where...

"Now Gov. (Mitt) Romney believes that with even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy, and fewer regulations on Wall Street, all of us will prosper. In other words, he'd double down on the same trickle-down policies that led to the crisis in the first place."...

Some of Paul Ryan's biggest fans are disappointed in his latest budget. Take New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. He credits Ryan, the Republican House Budget Committee chairman, for trying to give Medicare recipients the power and the incentive to...

I hope I'm not too late to the fight. Last week, freshman Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., held an old-fashioned filibuster against the nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA. Paul's stated reason for taking to the floor and talking for 13 hours was that...

One thing nearly everybody agrees upon is that the "sequester" is a silly sideshow to the real challenge facing America: unsustainable spending on entitlements. Ironies abound. Democrats, with large support from young people, tend to believe that we...

Some Republicans haven't gotten to the first step: the one where you admit there's a problem. In a roundup of reactions to the 2012 U.S. presidential election by the magazine Commentary, for example, conservative writer Wilfred McClay says Republican...

The U.S. economy is improving, yet Congress seems still to be in the grip of the delirium that shrinking the deficit in the near term is still a matter of paramount urgency. That's what's prevented lawmakers from dealing with their real task, which is...

At the end of 1995 and stretching into January 1996, the federal government "shut down" because of an impasse between President Bill Clinton and House Republicans led by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The issue was increased taxes vs. less spending....

Frustrated by the persistence of large deficits and alarmed by the long-term gap between spending and revenue, congressional Republicans are promoting a constitutional amendment to require balanced budgets. Rep. Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican, tells...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a man whose political success is largely attributable to the aura of befuddled incompetence he uses to disarm his adversaries, was a failed Watergate baby. In 1974, a slew of often sanctimonious and very liberal...

Every year millions of well-intentioned American kids show up for kindergarten or first grade woefully unprepared to learn. Some can't even tell you their complete name, let alone spell any of it. That's enough reason for me to believe "high-quality...