Exclusive: AEI Video – Does Free Enterprise Hurt The Poor?

American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks has released The Road To Freedom, a book which urges Republicans to make the case for free enterprise in moral terms. 

In a series of videos exclusively released to Breitbart News, Brooks makes effective one-minute arguments debunking myths liberals have of free enterprise.

In the latest video, Brooks undermines the notion that free enterprise hurts the poor. 

“Free enterprise is the only system that truly helps the poor around the world,” Brooks says, nothing that since 1970, 80 percent of the world’s worst poverty has been eradicated due to the free enterprise system. 

“Free enterprise is the reason people around the world aren’t starving to death,” Brooks says. “If we’re good Samaritans and we really love the poor we have to fight for free enterprise for everybody.”

Congressional Republicans are making this exact same point. Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) attacked the Obama administration using themes that Brooks has been emphasizing in meetings with Republican leaders. 

I do think it’s interesting to note that the whole notion of earned success and capitalism seems to be under attack by this administration across the board. Not just in the campaign, but through the actions of the government itself. They seem to have forgotten what made this country great, and what has lifted literally millions of Americans out of poverty for a long time has been a robust capitalist system. I think the view of this admin is that if you’re making a profit you must be up to no good. You must be either mistreating your employees or cheating your customers or both. They’re here to help us. Of course their ever-helpful approach to this is the reason we’re having such a difficult time coming out of this economic slowdown. This is certainly the most anti-business administration since the Carter years, and at least you could say this for President Carter: he was largely incompetent. This administration has actually done a lot of damage to the country. We hope we can begin to clean up the mess and repair the damage after the election.