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Bruce Bartlett (b. October 11, 1951 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an economist associated with supply-side economics. He was a domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and was a treasury official under President George H.W. Bush.

Biography

Bartlett was educated at Rutgers University (B.A., 1973) and Georgetown University (M.A., 1976). He originally studied American diplomatic history under Lloyd Gardner at Rutgers and Jules Davids at Georgetown. He did much work on the origins of the Pearl Harbor attack, doing a master's thesis on the topic at Georgetown, the substance of which was later published as "Coverup: The Politics of Pearl Harbor, 1941-1946" (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1978). He was closely advised by Percy Greaves, who had been Republican counsel to the congressional committee investigating the Pearl Harbor attack in 1946.

In 1976, Bartlett changed careers, going to work for Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas). Bartlett spent much of his time working with the House Banking Committee, of which Paul was a member, which involved Bartlett in economic issues. Paul was defeated for reelection in November, 1976. (Paul was subsequently elected in 1978, serving through 1984, when he did not seek reelection again after 1996.)

In January 1977, Bartlett went to work for Congressman Jack Kemp (R-New York) as staff economist. Bartlett spent much of his time on tax issues, helping to draft the Kemp-Roth tax bill, which ultimately formed the basis of Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cut. Bartlett's book, "Reaganomics: Supply-Side Economics in Action" appeared in 1981 (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers). He also co-edited the book The Supply-Side Solution (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1983).

In 1978, Bartlett went to work for Perry Duryea, who was the Republican candidate for governor of New York. In November 1978, Duryea was defeated and Bartlett returned to Washington, where he joined the staff of newly elected Senator Roger Jepsen (Republican, Iowa).

In 1981, Jepsen became Vice Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress and Bartlett became deputy director of the committee staff. In 1983, Jepsen became chairman and Bartlett became executive director of the JEC. During this period, the committee was very active in promoting Ronald Reagan's economic policies.

In late 1984, Bartlett became vice president of Polyconomics, a New Jersey-based consulting company founded by Jude Wanniski, a former Wall Street Journal editorial writer, that advised Wall Street clients on economic and investment policy. Bartlett left in 1985 to become a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, where he specialized in tax policy and was especially involved in the debate around the Tax Reform Act of 1986.

In 1987, Bartlett became a senior policy analyst in the White House Office of Policy Development, then headed by Gary Bauer. In 1988, Bartlett left to become deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, where he served until the end of the administration of George H.W. Bush. He worked briefly at the Cato Institute in 1993.

Bartlett lives in Great Falls, Virginia.

Current work

Since 1993, Bartlett had been affiliated with the National Center for Policy Analysis, a free-market think tank based in Dallas, Texas. In 2005 he was fired by the NCPA for his outspoken criticism of President George W. Bush.

Since 1995, he has written a newspaper column for Creators Syndicate, based in Los Angeles, and written extensively for many newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Fortune magazine, and Commentary magazine.

In 2006, he published Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (ISBN 0-385-51827-7), which is critical of the Bush Administration's economic policies as departing from traditional conservative principles.

In August 2007, Bartlett wrote a The Wall Street Journal op-ed where he criticized the FairTax proposal as misleading and unlikely to simplify taxpaying. In his editorial, Bartlett noted that the idea of a national sales tax was first proposed by the Church of Scientology as a means of abolishing the IRS, which at the time refused to recognize Scientology as a religion. Representative John Linder told an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter that Bartlett's accusation that the FairTax was associated with Scientology confused the FairTax movement with the Scientology-affiliated Citizens for an Alternative Tax System.

Quotation

"If George W. Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3." - Bruce Bartlett, 2004.

Notes

1. http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010523
2. http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010523
3. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2007/08/28/on_john_linder_and_scientology.html

External links

• "Without a Doubt", New York Times, October 17, 2004
• "An Outspoken Conservative Loses His Place At The Table", New York Times, February 13, 2006
• "Right Cross", Dallas Observer, February 16, 2006
• "Changing World of Commentary", Washington Times, July 11, 2007 - Bartlett's last weekly column
• Interview on Fresh Air
• Interviewed by James Pinkerton on After Words
• Bruce Bartlett Fired After Writing Anti-Bush Book
• "On John Linder and Scientology", Atlanta Journal Constitution, August 28, 2007

• 1951 births
• Living people
• Columnists
• Georgetown University alumni
• People from Ann Arbor
• Rutgers University alumni
• Supply-Side Economists