The National Journal

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in National Journal | "For McCain, a 20 Percent Solution"

Communications — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:00:00 -0400

New America in the News:

. . . By Holtz-Eakin's estimate, growth in entitlement programs--primarily Medicare and Medicaid--will drive federal spending from today's 20 percent of GDP to almost 26 percent in 2030. Such a large public sector, Holtz-Eakin argues in the paper, would impair economic growth and flexibility, and endanger America's limited-government heritage. The challenge, then, is to stabilize the country's finances at around 20 percent of GDP in 2030. . .

. . . His reform proposals are all debatable, but what is significant about Holtz-Eakin's paper is that it gets the conceptual framework right. "The far more important goal is 2030 rather than five years from now," says Maya MacGuineas, who directs the fiscal policy program at the New America Foundation.

. . . If he made long-term solvency a predominant theme of his candidacy, instead of treating it as a footnote to tax cuts, McCain could touch all of those bases, a nice trick. "There's a chance here for a really dramatic next chapter," MacGuineas says, "a whole reframing of what the challenges are." . . .

Mark Schmitt in National Journal's Blogometer | 'Preacher Vs. Warrior?'

Communications — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:27:00 -0500

New America in the News:
The Preacher Vs. The Warrior? (The Hotline - National Journal)
Meanwhile, TAPPED's Mark Schmitt offers Obama some advice: [Obama] is falling into the tendency that many 'wine-track' candidates do of talking about his candidacy as if it were some sort of other-worldly cause: 'something happening,'...'it's about you,' etc.

Doug Rediker and Heidi-Crebo Rediker Highlighted in National Journal

Communications — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:54:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Remember the slogan about Bill and Hillary Clinton in the 1992 presidential race -- two for the price of one? The New America Foundation seems to be getting something similar with the hiring of husband-and-wife tandem Douglas Rediker and Heidi Crebo-Rediker (although they'll both get paid at the think tank). The Redikers, former investment bankers in Europe, have returned to the United States to co-direct the foundation's Global Strategic Finance Initiative. The couple met in Washington about 20 years ago. After Douglas worked in Hungary and Heidi worked in Russia, they married in London, where they have spent the past 16 years working for Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, among other firms. ...

At New America, the Redikers will have their hands full explaining the pace of financial markets to Washington legislators and regulators. "Policy makers still operate under a time consideration that is much more deliberative," Douglas says. "Markets operate in seconds."

For the complete article, please visit The National Journal website.

Jason Delisle Quoted by National Journal on Student Loan Legislation

Communications — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 10:15:00 -0400

New America in the News:

One month after President Bush reluctantly signed legislation requiring the government to auction the rights to make student loans, the Education Department is calling the new program unworkable and inflexible. Even some proponents of auctions agree, while the loan industry says that the plan will hurt borrowers by narrowing their lender choices.

The auction program is included in the College Cost Reduction and Access Act that Bush signed on September 27 despite a veto threat. The bidding requirement attracted little attention when Congress debated the legislation, as headlines focused on scandals involving cozy relationships between loan providers and college officials. Yet it could fundamentally change the way the government supports education loans. ...

The law requires the Education Department to run a separate auction in each state every two years in which lenders would bid for the right to make guaranteed loans to parents. Known as PLUS loans, they represent about 17 percent of the Federal Family Education Loan Program, according to the department.

In each auction, the two lenders willing to accept the lowest subsidy rate would win the exclusive right to make PLUS loans in the state where the bidding took place. The winning lenders would be legally obligated to make loans to all eligible borrowers. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., came up with the plan, which is expected to save the government $2 billion in subsidies to lenders. Auctions are scheduled to begin on July 1, 2009. ...

The New America Foundation did not back the Senate pilot model, but Education Policy Program Research Director Jason Delisle said that the think tank considered it better than the current approach. "This is a foot in the door. We get to see the concept in practice," he said.

The groups that support an auction favored the House's proposal, which was written by Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., in consultation with the New America Foundation. It called for the Education and Treasury departments to study various auction models in a two-year pilot program that would involve as much as 20 percent of all guaranteed student loans. Petri's plan would have authorized the Education Department to extend the successful model to the entire federal program. ...

For the complete story, please follow this link (subscription required).

Len Nichols in The National Journal's Report on Candidate Health Plans

Communications — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:55:00 -0400

New America in the News:

As part of a project with The National Journal, Len Nichols helped assess health care proposals from presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. Following the project, The National Journal published related articles on the uninsured, the economy, consumers, employers, and quality of care. Here is an excerpt from the cover story introducing the project:

Quality wasn't a big topic when presidential candidates debated health care in 2004. Today, most health care experts agree that improving the quality of care is essential to lowering costs and is an important goal in its own right.

The 2008 presidential candidates, especially the Democrats, are going into great detail about investing in technology and transforming the health care system to make price and performance information readily available for comparison shopping by patients, insurers, doctors, and hospitals. Overall, Democrats scored highest when National Journal's judges assessed the candidates' plans on how well they would enable consumers to make informed choices about medical care, and ensure that medical providers have the tools to improve care. Some judges said that the GOP plans simply aren't detailed enough yet to be scored accurately. Republican John McCain received praise for his innovative approaches to improving the health care delivery system.

One main difference between Democratic and Republican plans is that the Democrats propose spending federal money (Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama give estimates) to help doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers adopt electronic health care systems, including electronic medical records. Rudy Giuliani and McCain say they would push for standards, and Mitt Romney vaguely indicates that he wants to enhance the use of information technology.

Meanwhile, most plans count on a new health care buzzword, "transparency," to help consumers make better choices. Democrats are quite specific. Clinton would invest in a Web-based tool to help patients compare medical providers and to educate them about treatment options. Obama would require all medical providers to collect and report data on costs, quality, preventable medical errors, nurse-patient ratios, hospital-acquired infections, and disparities in care. John Edwards would create a consumer report that would compare the quality of hospitals. One judge scored Edwards's plan lower than Clinton's and Obama's in this area because Edwards's emphasis is on hospital information, not doctor information. "Most individuals don't choose a hospital. They need doctor data, too, to get people engaged," said Paul Fronstin, senior research associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

McCain rated better than either of his fellow Republicans. He would require medical providers to make information available on outcomes, quality of care, cost, and price. "McCain wins on the Republican side since his emphasis is on transparency," said Len Nichols, director of the health policy program at the New America Foundation. ...

To learn more about the project and read the other related articles, please visit The National Journal’s website.

National Journal Features American Strategy New Hire Patrick Doherty

Communications — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:54:00 -0400

New America in the News:

The New America Foundation has hired a deputy director for its foreign-policy program and is turning its sights on Cuba. Patrick Doherty, who was communications director at the Center for National Policy, led by former Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., will join Director Steven Clemons at NAF's American Strategy Program next month. "I am much more of a policy guy at heart than a communications guy," says Doherty, who has a master's degree in security studies from Tufts University's Fletcher School. Among other projects, Doherty will help the think tank grow its U.S.-Cuba policy initiative, aimed at forging a stronger relationship between the two countries.

Doherty, 37, has shaped his career around conflict resolution and peace-building in places that have historically lacked both. He spent a decade working with organizations, including Catholic Relief Services, on post-conflict reconstruction in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. Hailing from Buffalo, N.Y., and Cincinnati, Doherty graduated from American University in the early 1990s. He says that watching the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall as a college student sparked his interest in the field.

Doherty's experience as a blogger fits well with New America Foundation's vision of communicating ideas more rapidly and to a wider audience -- qualities that Washington think tanks aren't generally known for. ...

For the complete article, please visit The National Journal website.

Michael Dannenberg Quoted on No Child Left Behind in National Journal

Communications — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 06:04:00 -0400

New America in the News:

And Democrats who voted for the [No Child Left Behind] law five years ago in the glow of post-September 11 bipartisanship are unlikely to do so again now that Bush has failed to deliver the hefty budget increases for education that they expected would accompany it. For the president to persuade a Democratic Congress to reauthorize No Child Left Behind without dismantling it, the bottom line may very well be the bottom line.

"The reason he's still relevant is money," said Michael Dannenberg, director of the New America Foundation's Education Policy Program. "If there were a lot of money put on the table with a Democratically controlled Congress, that would help grease the skids with the base on the left. Of course, it would antagonize the base on the right."

And Bush cannot alienate his base, where goodwill is in short supply after the immigration debacle...

For the complete article, please visit the National Journal web site (subscription required).

The National Journal Profiles Sara Mead

Communications — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:23:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Education wonk Sara Mead is joining the New America Foundation as a senior research fellow studying education, workforce, and family issues.

Mead, 28, has received notice for contending that the "crisis" in boys' education is overblown and for her criticism, with Andrew Rotherham, of the ranking system used annually to determine Newsweek's "100 Best High Schools." "We have found that many schools in Newsweek's ranking have high dropout rates or glaring achievement gaps between racial and ethnic groups," they wrote last week on Washingtonpost.com. "At the same time, many schools that fail to make the Newsweek list may be doing a better job educating all of their students." Most recently, Mead and Rotherham have been involved in Education Sector, a think tank that Rotherham founded in 2005 with former U.S. News & World Report writer Thomas Toch. Before that, both Mead and Rotherham were with the Democratic Leadership Council's Progressive Policy Institute...

At New America, Mead will be working with Michael Dannenberg, a former education aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and David Gray, a onetime assistant secretary for policy at the Labor Department..

For the complete article, please visit The National Journal website.

National Journal Cites Ray Boshara on Section 529 Contributions

Communications — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:54:00 -0500

New America in the News:

A proposal aimed at helping lower-income families save for college -- part of the Bush administration's FY08 budget proposals unveiled Monday -- might have found a receptive ear in Senate Finance Chairman Baucus...

In unveiling its proposed FY08 budget, the White House proposed to make contributions to a Section 529 qualified tuition plan count toward the computation of the saver's credit.

As a result, qualifying taxpayers would be eligible for a tax credit of up to $2,000 to match a portion of contributions made to either retirement or Section 529 plans. The latter are college savings accounts in which contributions are made in after-tax dollars, but in which interest accumulates tax-free.

The Senate Finance Committee aide said Baucus wants to ensure that Section 529 plans are available to all Americans, and is "very interested in seeing if this proposal would work to serve that purpose."

Ray Boshara, vice president and director of asset building at the New America Foundation, said his group proposed expanding the saver's credit to include Section 529 contributions more than a year ago -- as one of a number of ideas to make such benefits available to lower income families.

He said he was surprised that the idea turned up in the White House budget proposal...

For the complete article, please visit the National Journal website. (subscription required)

National Journal Profiles Daniel Levy

Communications — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 18:54:00 -0500

New America in the News:

On a warm day in late December, two dovish Washington groups, the American Task Force on Palestine and the Foundation for Middle East Peace, hosted a panel discussion at a historic mansion on 18th Street NW. The topic on the table was "After the Iraq Study Group: Possibilities for Arab-Israeli Peace..." It was, in short, the usual Washington peace-wonk crowd, and when the time for questions came, the first man to rise said that everything everyone had said was true and good, but hadn't they all been expressing the same true and good sentiments for 25 years now?

One of the panelists, an Israeli named Daniel Levy, who directs a Middle East initiative at the New America and Century foundations, nodded, listening intently. Levy had been nodding a lot during the session, moving his head slowly up and down whenever he wasn't staring pointedly at other speakers, scanning the audience's reactions, furiously rewriting his prepared remarks, or clutching his chin in thought. Clad in a monochromatic gray suit and shirt, lacking a tie, he cut a dapper figure even before he began to speak. When he took the podium, though, he became downright dashing. Most think-tank denizens, put behind a microphone, stand calmly and speak dryly. Levy bounces and sways. He grips the podium, points emphatically, and punctuates with crescendos and whispers. The audience, which had already listened to nearly an hour of speeches, sat up noticeably as Levy settled into his oratory...

He describes his work here, which he calls a sabbatical, as largely an extension of his work there. He'd appeared at several think tank events in the U.S. to promote the Geneva Accord, and he'd gotten into conversations about the hawkish nature of U.S. discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "There was this notion that the debate going on back in the region is not always reflected here," he said. So Levy, together with the New America Foundation and the Century Foundation, decided to import the debate by bringing Israeli and Palestinian moderates to Washington.

Once ensconced at New America, he began to host a Who's Who of the Middle East peace crowd at the foundation, drawing some key Senate staffers in addition to the usual wonks...

For the complete article, please visit the National Journal website.