Brookings Institution

The Brookings Institution, founded in 1916, is the oldest think tank in the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., it produces independent research across economics, governance, Foreign Policy, and electoral analysis. Unlike ideologically committed rivals such as the American Enterprise Institute or Heritage Foundation, Brookings positions itself as centrist, drawing scholars from both parties and funding from corporations, foundations, and governments. Its 2026 research portfolio spans AI displacement, fiscal sustainability, electoral forecasting, and the constitutional limits of executive war-making.

In the AI displacement debate, Brookings has become a primary citation authority in Congress. A working paper by Anton Korinek and Benjamin Lockwood found approximately three-quarters of US federal revenue rests on the payroll tax base, and argued AI-driven labour replacement could force a structural shift toward consumption-based taxation. The Hamilton Project, a Brookings-affiliated initiative, found the causal link between AI adoption and job displacement predates ChatGPT, meaning the shock had been building across the prior decade of quiet automation. A joint study with Opportunity@Work identified 11 million STARs (workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes rather than degrees) concentrated in AI-exposed occupations with limited adaptive capacity. AEI has published a direct counter-position, arguing current AI tools function as skill equalisers rather than displacement engines.

Beyond economics, Brookings serves as a constitutional reference point for the Iran conflict and the 2026 midterms. Its war-powers research is routinely cited in congressional debates over the legal basis for US military operations and the validity of successive War Powers Resolution votes, as senators draft competing AUMF proposals. In electoral forecasting, Brookings analysis tracks generic congressional ballot swings and maps them to projected seat losses, adding accountability data to fiscal and labour research as the institution monitors whether the AI economy will define the midterm cycle.