Session 6: Understanding Social Security Reform Options

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Some experts estimate that the present value difference between federal commitments to social security and other entitlement programs and expected tax revenues is $44 trillion. Our three expert panelists will focus on the long-term solvency of social security. Doug Holtz-Eakin will discuss the outlook under current law, while Eric Engen and Peter Orzag will present their alternative social-security reform proposals.

Session Presentations

Eric Engen slides | Peter Orzsag slides

Links of Interest

• Congressional Budget Office
• CBO Social Security publications
• American Enterprise Institute
• Eric Engen, Saving Social Security
• Brookings Institution
• Brookings, Global and Domestic Consequences of Demographic Change
• Social Security.org - from the Cato Institute
• AARP Social Security page

Speakers

Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Director
Congressional Budget Office

Douglas Holtz-Eakin is the sixth Director of the Congressional Budget Office, where he was appointed for a four-year term beginning February 3, 2003. Dr. Holtz-Eakin previously served for 18 months as Chief Economist for the President's Council of Economic Advisers, where he also served as Senior Staff Economist in 1989 and 1990.

Dr. Holtz-Eakin is Trustee Professor of Economics at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, where he has served as Chairman of the Department of Economics and Associate Director of the Center for Policy Research. He also has served as editor of the National Tax Journal, associate editor of the Journal of Human Resources, and as a member of the editorial board for Economics and Politics, Journal of Sports Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, and Public Works Management and Policy.

In the past, he has held academic appointments at Columbia University and Princeton University. Since 1985 he has been a faculty research fellow and research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research. From 1996 to 1998 he served as a member of the Economics Advisory Panel to the National Science Foundation. He also has worked as a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He has been a consultant to the New Jersey State and Local Expenditure and Revenue Policy Commission, the State of Arizona Joint Select Committee on State Revenues and Expenditures, and the New York State Office for the Aging. He has served as a member of the Board of Economic Advisers for the Ways and Means Committee, as well as the Executive Director, Tax Study Commission, New York State Assembly.

Dr. Holtz-Eakin has a long-standing and broad interest in the economics of public policy. He has studied the role of federal taxes in home ownership, the contribution of inventories to the business cycle, and a wide variety of topics in state and local government finance. Much of his research has centered on the economics of fundamental tax reform, productivity effects of public infrastructure; income mobility in the United States; and the role of families, capital markets, health insurance, and tax policy in the start-up and survival of entrepreneurial ventures.

Eric M. Engen
Resident Scholar
American Enterprise Institute

Eric Engen researches Social Security, tax and budget policy, household saving, pension funds, mutual funds, and the U.S. economy. He was a former section chief and senior economist at the Federal Reserve Board.

Professional Experience
-Section chief, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2001-2002
-Lecturer, The Johns Hopkins University, 1998-2000
-Lecturer, Center for American Politics and Public Policy (Washington, D.C.), University of California, Los Angeles, 1994-1995
-Economist and senior economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1993-2000
-Faculty research fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1993-1997
-Associated staff, The Brookings Institution, 1992-1993
-Assistant professor, Department of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1990-1994

Education
Ph.D., economics, University of Virginia
B.S., natural resources economics, University of Maryland

Peter R. Orszag
Senior Fellow
Brookings Institution

Expertise
Aging, budget policy and politics, climate change, demographics, education policy, income distribution, financial markets, macroeconomics, pensions, poverty, privatization, Social Security, tax policy

Current Projects
State fiscal policy and higher education; homeland security; Social Security; Retirement Saving

Education
Ph.D. (1997), M.Sc. (1992), London School of Economics; A.B., Princeton University, 1991

Background
Previous Positions: Lecturer, University of California at Berkeley (1999-2000); Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy (1997-1998); Senior Economist and Senior Adviser, Council of Economic Advisers (1995-1996); Staff Economist, Council of Economic Advisers (1993-1994); economic adviser to Russian Government (1992-1993)

Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach, 2004

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