Today, H.R. McMaster recalls President Washington’s leadership and wisdom in safeguarding civilian control of the US military; John Cochrane examines the economic costs of regulating AI before its impacts are fully understood; and Brian Miller tells a congressional subcommittee how lawmakers can help to spur greater competition—and better results for patients—in American healthcare.
Freedom Frequency
George Washington made it clear in his 1796 Farewell Address that the military he had led to victory in the Revolutionary War had a pact with its citizens. The civil institutions of the new republic would command the military, never the other way around. Washington’s example and reminder to the nation extended the constitutional safeguards designed to restrain the three branches of government through mutual checks. Today, Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster points out, the bright line separating the military from political forces has been challenged by some members of both major political parties. The problem stems from a misunderstanding among some politicians about where certain military actions originate, McMaster writes, and when military personnel should challenge authority. Ultimately, the former national security advisor says, it’s up to voters to put into office the leaders they prefer—who must then respect the military’s covenant with civilian authority. Read more here.
Economics and Artificial Intelligence
Calls for AI regulation and for a slowdown in AI development have been all over the news lately. But what role should the government have in dictating the terms of AI development?
The Big Idea: In this new episode of Policy Stories, Senior Fellow John H. Cochrane examines the chorus of proposals in favor of greater AI regulation and discusses the harms to innovation and economic dynamism that could result from preemptive regulatory efforts. As he notes, a desire to protect outdated jobs or industries “won’t help overall employment and will stifle growth.” Watch here.
Healthcare Policy
On Capitol Hill today, Visiting Fellow Brian J. Miller testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, on the topic of health policy reforms. Today, “monopoly and regulation together protect incumbency and foreclose market-driven incremental improvement and revolutionary change through the removal of incentives to compete,” Miller says. His testimony focused on explaining the impact and scope of hospital consolidation; the drivers of hospital consolidation; and how changes in state and federal laws and regulatory policy could promote greater competition in the healthcare sector. Miller, a practicing hospital doctor, stresses that reforms should aim at unleashing greater “dynamism, creativity, and innovation in the clinical setting and in policy and restore competition, as competition counts.” Read Miller’s written testimony here.
Reforming Education
In this essay for RealClearPolitics, Senior Fellow Peter Berkowitz argues that when considering outside criticisms of its practices, American higher education should not assume that it is simply misunderstood. “Professors’ and administrators’ tendency to dismiss criticism of their institutions as springing from flawed perceptions of campus life,” says Berkowitz, ultimately “thwarts self-examination.” In his view, a focus on simply changing narratives about higher ed would detract from needed reform work, already underway in some institutions. Berkowitz discusses the drivers of reduced trust in American academia and argues that restoring it will be “a long-term undertaking.” He concludes that “professors and administrators should concentrate on reducing the gap between liberal education’s enduring imperatives and the partisan faculties, politicized disciplines, and aimless curricula that they have entrenched throughout the academy.” Read more here.
Science and Technology
In this inaugural episode of Nerds of the Roundtable from Hoover’s Technology Policy Accelerator, Distinguished Research Fellow Dan Berkenstock reflects on his path from aerospace engineer and startup founder to space and defense policy expert.
The Big Idea: Berkenstock discusses the technologies transforming the space industry, the intensifying competition surrounding the Moon, and the growing role of AI in aerospace and national security. Berkenstock also shares lessons from entrepreneurship, including the value of failure, rapid iteration, and effective leadership. Watch here.
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