AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
AEI This Week
AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
EMBRACING PLURALISM
The Constitution Is the Solution—Not the Problem
September 27, 2025
Many Americans have come to blame the Constitution for America’s dysfunction—seeing it as an obstacle to majority rule. In a Constitution Day lecture at the University of Tennessee, AEI Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies Director Yuval Levin explains how this mindset has exacerbated our political divisions by abandoning the Constitution’s blueprint for accommodating and resolving disagreement.
By directing decision-making at the Department of Justice, President Donald Trump appears to be using federal law enforcement power, not persuasion, to settle political scores. This was evident this week with the decision to charge former FBI Director James Comey over the objections of Justice Department prosecutors. Jack Landman Goldsmith, a former assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, dissects the full legal implications of the administration’s aggressive direction of the Department of Justice.
The president’s unilateral imposition of steep tariffs to promote manufacturing has also raised separation-of-powers issues. In new research for AEI’s Center for Technology, Science, and Energy, international trade economists Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Ye Zhang estimate the costs and likely effects of these increased trade barriers.
Unlike cash welfare, which was reformed in the 1990s, government housing programs do not impose work requirements or time limits on recipients. In new analysis based on data provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Howard Husock and Bruce D. Meyer reveal the full scope of the dependency these programs generate and propose reforms to better promote upward mobility for recipients.
Under federal law, households receiving cash welfare are automatically eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In a new AEI report, Angela Rachidi and Erik Randolph document how states have used this link to expand food stamp eligibility beyond congressional intent.
New Approaches to Characterize Industries: AI as a Framework and a Use Case
Despite the widespread assumption that artificial intelligence can fundamentally transform the American economy, business leaders, policymakers, and the wider public have little data and evidence to rely on to understand and respond to this shock. In a new edited volume published by AEI, Brent Orrell brings together leading economists, data scientists, and policy experts to determine how to measure AI’s real impact on industries, jobs, and skills. The authors, including AEI scholar Will Rinehart, highlight innovative strategies that can guide smarter education, training, and economic policy.
In recent decades, progressive policymakers have intentionally promoted neologisms like food or housing insecurity instead of pointing to genuine hunger or homelessness—which in America are much more rare. Progressives’ logic was simple: Adopt and promote broad terms that suggest wider need, then argue for more government welfare benefits.
