A Historical Outlook at the Origin of Some Major US Think Tanks and Their Current Agendas

A Historical Outlook at the Origin of Some Major US Think Tanks and Their Current Agendas

In 1964, the title of a pamphlet stated, “How to fight the Slum Landlord,” which concluded: “Don’t mourn misery in your little black book. Help your clients organize to end it” (Ehrenreich, 1985, p. 194). The manual (published by Social Services Employees Union) printed this very idea in response to the challenges faced by the social workers for them to ease the helping process. Although the end of the Second World War brought the golden era for the US economy, nevertheless this boom brought critical challenges in the lives of civilians and the veterans as well. Beside these growing difficulties, the terminal segregation had been paralyzing the societal norms and values. In this scenario, revolutionaries like Rosa Park instigated the existing agony while denying compliance with the rules set by the white supremacist government. Therefore, all these tensions led the government to lay out strategies and enact some policies to help out working-class America to overcome these economical, racial, and gender disparities. These strategies included launching some think tanks and organizations that would primarily focus on ensuring that the voices of the people from all background are being heard. Among those organizations are included Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) and The Heritage Foundation. One organization named American Enterprise Associate (AEA) was founded in 1938, which in postwar years was moved to D.C. was renamed as American Enterprise Institute (AEI). The question arises whether or not these organizations are working effectively to eradicate the societal issues. A closer look into the mission and vision of each of these organizations can help us determine whether or not these organizations are working effectively to this date. 

Economic Policy Institute and the Poverty/Inequality

Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has been founded to represent the real economic challenges

faced by the working class Americans since 1986. EPI possesses a democratic political stance and liberal views that promote inclusion, gender equality, and end of discrimination. EPI has America’s best economist and analysts who present the best analytical data, which makes it a media powerhouse. It offers the most reliable and authentic information. Nobel Laureate, Paul Krugman is the world’s leading economist has been serving EPI from almost past two decades. Krugman has played a vital role in criticizing any federal budget cut that did not represent the working class of America. For example, when George W. Bush falsely claimed, “The vast majority of my tax cuts go to the bottom end of the spectrum” (Economic Policy Institute, 2011), Krugman fearlessly refuted Bush’s claim and proved himself an outspoken critic of the Bush administration. In 1988, EPI launched its first book, “The State of Working America” which has been named an “Economic Bible” by Christine Owens, executive director of National Employment Law Project (Economic Policy Institute, 2011). The executive director of Policy Matters, Amy Hanauer, revealed an EPI’s fact that starting from the post-war year's median wage and the productivity were moving parallel, however, beginning the late twentieth-century productivity has been on the same track, but the median wage has been reducing rapidly. EPI has also developed Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) that comprises of several think and do tanks and majority of states. In the 2000s, when the Congress tried to raise the minimum wage, the representation from EARN proved it's worth and forestalled congress’s efforts. Another initiative, Broader, Bolder Approach to Education by EPI began in 2008 to address the inequality and poverty in the American school system. EPI’s president Lawrence Mishel critically analyzed federal government strategies and asserted, college education ought to be prioritized to address inclusive income growth (Allen, 2014). EPI’s addresses inequality while presenting statistics of wage differences among white and black workers in similar jobs with the same experience level. Being a nonprofit think tank, its major funding comes from the labor union, which explicitly tells that EPI is an authentic voice of the working class of America (Economic Policy Institute, 2011).

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Stance on Inequality/Poverty
In 1981, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities was founded in response to Ronald Regan’s budget plan which was presented with huge budget cuts from public assistance programs such as Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Cash Assistance. The goal of this institute is to maintain the checks and balance of the fiscal budget for low-income to moderate-income families. It examines budget proposals as well as the programs created to assist low-income families (CBPP, 2018). CBPP draws special attention towards the unemployment rate among diverse ethnic college students when compared to their white counterparts and presents a data-driven statistical approach among those jobless college graduates.

Further it devices some strategic plans through which the crime rate can be reduced while engaging those graduates through summer paid internship programs as well as creating job training sites for them (CBPP, 2015). Like EPI, this large nonprofit think tank carries liberal views and proposes a generous safety net for deserving families. It holds positive views of the power of the federal government and strongly believes in civil rights.

The Heritage Foundation. In 1973, the Heritage foundation was founded to promote American values such as freedom, opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness. This organization is based on conservative public policies that believe on a limited government and a free enterprise (The Heritage Foundation, 2018). Hence, the ideology of the Heritage Foundation favors capitalism while limiting the government control. Its conservative policies underestimate the power of the federal government in reducing poverty and safety net programs. It believes that the local and state governments represent public opinions so they can do more on respective levels (Jason, 2012). This organization largely represents and speaks for the private sectors and small businesses or large corporations. This would not be a wrong assumption that the Heritage Foundation does not carry a deep concern for the working poor class of America. The database of the Heritage Foundation does not display any testimonials, facts, statistics, or any other form of representation on behalf of the low-income or poor Americans. Rather, it has recently generated a report that refutes statistics presented by Census Bureau that focus on the growing ratio of poverty. The report divides poverty into three groups further; it inspects different elements such as the use of internet and cell phone among poor people in order to object the level of their poverty (Hall & Rector, 2018).

American Enterprise Institute and the US poverty/inequality

In 1943, American Enterprise Institute was moved to the Washington D.C. to fight against the challenges faced by the Second World War. AEI is an independent nonprofit think tank which has been thriving to promote individual freedom and produce more opportunities to represent better American leadership throughout the world (AEI, 2018). This nonprofit is strictly based on conservative ideology and underestimates the strength of the federal government and holds positive views about capitalism. AEI also opposes tax cuts that are to provide for the social safety net programs. In 2014, in a interview with the Washington Post, Arthur Brooks, its CEO claimed that AEI has been superseding its competitor nonprofit Heritage Foundation (Watchsource, 2017). AEI’s research fellow Angela Rachidi, in an interview, claimed, job training programs are not to be funded by the government and she expressed her feelings of “discomfort” on even the idea of “government’s jumping in” (Pethokoukis, 2018). In order to control and reduce mass incarceration, Prison Education is a significant initiative began by AEI to help prisoners reintegrate into the society. This of the AEI’s mission does represent American core values however, it lacks proper structure, resources and funding; all of its teachers are volunteers from some major universities (Robinson, 2018). I believe these teachers can only volunteer up until their passion allows them and then the organization would have to work through developing some resources for the sustainable practices for the effective outcomes.

Summary

EPI, CBPP, AEI, The Heritage Foundation, all these major think tanks carry meaningful mission and vision but they represent different ideological theories which set the tone of their principles, proposals and social policies. The EPI and the CBPP carry liberal views and speak for the poor working class of America. On the other hand, the Heritage Foundation and the AEI represent the conservative views and represent the upper class America. However, the alarmingly growing capitalism needs to be seriously addressed evenly by all these think tanks in order to justify the contribution of wealth among all Americans which is hard to attain without an intervention from the federal government. Today’s growing income inequality and poverty has been a major concern of the U.S. society which demands a revision and revival of the contemporary social policies. This very goal can only be achieved with the help of the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and policy Priorities because these two liberal think tanks are the true voices of the working class America.

References

AEI. (2018). About. Retrieved from American Enterprise Institute: http://www.aei.org/about/

Allen, F. (2014, Jun 26). Black workers stuck at the bottom. The Charlotte Post Retrieved

from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/docview/1543762623?accountid=9676

CBPP. (2015). Full Employment for the Young, Too. Retrieved from Center on Budget and policy Priorities: https://www.cbpp.org/research/full-employment/full-employment-for-the-young-too

CBPP. (2018). About the Center. Retrieved from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: https://www.cbpp.org/about/mission-history

[Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]. (2008, October 30). Center on Budget and Policy

Priorities 25th Anniversary [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=535&v=KKG0Uql5LLE

[Economic Policy Institute]. (2011, November 02). Economic Policy Institute at 25 [Video File].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u57KaIGqEs4#action=share

[Economic Policy Institute]. (2011, October 31). Paul Krugman: An Indispensable Man [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2Cm-QfPGo4

Ehrenreich, J. H. (1985). A House Divided: The Second Crisis in Social Work. 1960-1980. New York: Cornell University Press.

Foundation, T. H. (2018). About Heritage. Retrieved from The Heritage Foundation: https://www.heritage.org/about-heritage/mission

Jamie Hall & Robert Rector. (2018, February 20). Backgrounder. Retrieved from The

Heritage Foundation: https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2018-02/BG3285.pdf

Jason, B. (2012). The Reluctant Welfare State. Belmont, CA: Brooks/ Cole Cengage Learning.

Pethokoukis, J. (2018, February 16). The state of the safety net: A long-read Q&A with Angela Rachidi. Retrieved from AEIDEAS: http://www.aei.org/publication/the-state-of-the-safety-net-a-long-read-qa-with-angela-rachidi/

Robinson, G. (2018, January 24). Prison education – interview with Jody Lewen. Retrieved from AEI: http://www.aei.org/multimedia/prison-education-interview-with-jody-lewen-viewpoint/

Watch, S. (2017, October 11). American Enterprise Institute. Retrieved from The Center for Media and Democracy:

Https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Enterprise_Institute#Mission_Statement