On December 6, Robert D. Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute, a nonprofit, non-partisan policy research and education organization that examines the social, economic and governance problems facing the nation, presented the American Experience Distinguished Lecture. He served as the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) between 1989 and 1995 and was CBO’s Assistant Director for Human Resources and Deputy Director of CBO during the 1977 to 1981 period. Dr. Reischauer has been a Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies Program of the Brookings Institution (1986-89 and 1995-2000) and the Senior Vice President of the Urban Institute (1981-86).
Dr. Reischauer is an economist with an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Economics and Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University. He has written and lectured extensively on a wide range of topics including federal budget policy,health reform, social welfare issues, and the Medicare and Medicaid programs. He frequently contributes to the opinion pages of the nation’s major newspapers,comments on public policy developments on radio and TV, and testifies before congressional committees.
Dr. Reischauer serves on the boards of several educational and nonprofit organizations, including the Harvard Corporation where he is the Senior Fellow. He is one of the two public trustees of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds and served as a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) from 2000-2009; he was MedPAC’s Vice Chair from 2001-2008. He also served as Chair of the National Academy of Social Insurance’s project, “Restructuring Medicare for the Long Term” from 1995 to 2004.
Governor Thornburgh moderated the audience discussion.
This lecture was co-sponsored by the Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law & Public Policy and the University Honors College as part of the American Experience Lecture Series.
Visit The American Experience on the web at AE.HONORSCOLLEGE.PITT.EDU
