Charles Blahous

Visiting Fellow
Biography: 

Charles Blahous is a Hoover visiting fellow specializing in domestic economic policy. His areas of expertise include retirement security, with an emphasis on Social Security and employer-provided defined benefit pensions, as well as federal fiscal policy, entitlements, demographic change, economic stimulus, financial market regulation, and health care reform.

From 2010 to 2015, Blahous served as one of the two public trustees for the Social Security and Medicare Programs. From 2007 to 2009, he served as deputy director of President Bush's National Economic Council. From 2001 to 2007, Blahous served as a special assistant to the president for economic policy, first covering retirement security issues and later encompassing energy policy. In 2001, he served as the executive director of the bipartisan President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security.

From 2000 to 2001, Blahous led the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, a private-sector coalition dedicated to the fiscally responsible reform of Social Security. From 1996 to 2000, he served as policy director for US senator Judd Gregg (R-NH). From 1989 to 1996, he served in the office of Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), first as a Congressional Science Fellow sponsored by the American Physical Society and, from 1994 to 1996, as the senator's legislative director.

Blahous’s latest publications include Social Security: The Unfinished Work (Hoover Press, 2010) and Pension Wise: Confronting Employer Pension Underfunding—and Sparing Taxpayers the Next Bailout (Hoover Press, 2010). He is also the author of Reforming Social Security. He has published in a number of periodicals including National Affairs, Financial Times, Politico, National Review, Harvard Journal of Legislation, Baseball Research Journal, and the Journal of Chemical Physics. He was named to SmartMoney's "Power 30" list in 2005. His public appearances include various radio and television programs including "Ask the White House," and speeches on university and college campuses.

Blahous has a PhD in computational quantum chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and an AB from Princeton University, where he won the McKay Prize in Physical Chemistry.

Filter By:

Topic

Type

Recent Commentary

Analysis and Commentary

No Grounds for Claim that Obamacare Lowers Healthcare Costs

by Charles Blahousvia e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Monday, November 25, 2013

Public support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has plummeted now that the oft-repeated claim that “If you like your health care plan, you can keep...

Analysis and Commentary

Why We Have Federal Deficits

by Charles Blahousvia e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Friday, November 15, 2013

The federal deficit is a huge public policy problem that must be understood, confronted, and solved. Federal deficits run in these last five years dwa...

Analysis and Commentary

Why We Have Federal Deficits: The Policy Decisions That Created Them

by Charles Blahousvia Mercatus Center
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Analysis and Commentary

Why We Have Federal Deficits

by Charles Blahousvia e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Thursday, November 14, 2013

The federal deficit is a huge public policy problem that must be understood, confronted, and solved. Federal deficits run in these last five years dwa...

Analysis and Commentary

Obamacare's Financial Unraveling: Predictable, and Predicted

by Charles Blahousvia Real Clear Markets
Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Advocates marketed the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known colloquially as "Obamacare," to the American public as a way to "bend the cost curve" of soaring health care costs downward.

Analysis and Commentary

The Federal Fiscal Predicament: What Seems Better is Actually Worse

by Charles Blahousvia e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Analysis and Commentary

A Guide to the 2013 Medicare Trustees Report

by Charles Blahousvia e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Analysis and Commentary

A Guide to the 2013 Society Security Trustees Report

by Charles Blahousvia e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Friday, June 7, 2013
Analysis and Commentary

How Would Immigration Reform Affect Social Security Finances?

by Charles Blahousvia e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Analysis and Commentary

Understanding the Ryan and Murray Budgets

by Charles Blahousvia e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Pages