aei think-tank conservative deregulation tax trade neoconservative
related: Heritage Foundation Bradley Foundation Koch Industries Council for National Policy
Who They Are
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI). One of the oldest and most influential conservative think tanks in Washington, founded in 1938. AEI operates with a $60-80 million annual budget, employing 100+ resident scholars who produce research on economics, foreign policy, healthcare, education, and governance. AEI positions itself as a center-right intellectual institution — more establishment-oriented than Heritage Foundation, more policy-focused than Cato Institute.
AEI’s funding comes from corporate foundations, wealthy donors, and conservative family foundations (Bradley, Olin, Scaife). The organization’s scholars rotate between AEI, government service, and corporate advisory roles — the think tank as a holding pattern for conservative policy professionals between government appointments.
AEI alumni have served in every Republican administration since Nixon, including multiple Cabinet-level appointments. The institution’s political function: produce the intellectual framework for conservative economic policy (deregulation, tax reduction, trade liberalization) that legislators and judges cite as the evidence base for their decisions.
What They Want
Market-based solutions to policy challenges (healthcare, education, environment), reduced government regulation, tax reform (lower rates, broader base), free trade, strong national defense, and an intellectual framework that positions conservative economic policy as evidence-based rather than ideological.
What They’ve Gotten
The Intellectual Infrastructure: AEI’s research has provided the intellectual foundation for major conservative policy achievements: the 2017 TCJA (AEI scholars produced the economic modeling cited by proponents), Medicare Part D’s structure (AEI-designed market-based drug benefit), welfare reform (AEI’s Charles Murray provided the intellectual framework for the 1996 reform), and deregulatory policy across administrations. AEI’s power is not in direct lobbying but in defining the terms of policy debate — making conservative policy positions appear as neutral expertise.
Money
AEI’s $60-80 million annual budget purchases something more valuable than lobbying access: it purchases the framing of policy debates. AEI research is cited by legislators, judges, and media as objective analysis — but the research is funded by the corporations and foundations that benefit from its conclusions. The think tank functions as a laundering mechanism for donor-class preferences: corporate-funded research produces “evidence-based” recommendations that happen to align with corporate interests, and those recommendations are cited as independent expertise in legislative debates. AEI does not lobby; it produces the arguments that lobbyists use.
Sources
- IRS: AEI 990 filings (Tier 1)
- ProPublica: Nonprofit Explorer - AEI (Tier 2)
- Ballotpedia: American Enterprise Institute (Tier 3)
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