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Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D. Vice President, Domestic and Economic Policy Studies, Domestic Policy E-mail Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D. areas of expertise: |
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view all papers by Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D. summary: Stuart Butler has been generating ideas for The Heritage Foundation since 1979, when the young British scholar joined the still relatively obscure conservative think tank as a policy analyst specializing in urban issues. Now as Heritage's Vice President of Domestic and Economic Policy Studies, Butler's ideas continue to change the course of public policy in America. Recently, he has played a large role in the national "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour," in which a group of nonpartisan, ideologically diverse budget realists have been traveling the country to build public support for tackling the growing budget threat posed by the "Big Three" entitlement programs – Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Featuring U.S. Comptroller General David Walker and experts from the Brookings Institution, the Concord Coalition and Heritage, this touring company of budgetary experts has visited almost two dozen cities, meeting with editorial boards, business leaders, academics and town hall gatherings of regular citizens at every stop. It has also has received attention from the national media, notably a 60 Minutes story that aired in March 2007. Butler also has played a major role in shaping the policy debate on a wide range of domestic policy issues from health care and Social Security to welfare reform and privatizing government services. National Journal, Washington's most influential magazine of politics and policy, named him in the 1980s as "one of 150 individuals outside government who have the greatest influence on decision-making in Washington." Then there's "enterprise zones," which encourage development in blighted neighborhoods by offering entrepreneurs tax and regulatory relief if they start businesses in the area. Butler introduced them in his first paper for Heritage the 1970s. It caught the attention of then-Rep. Jack Kemp (R-NY), who co-sponsored legislation in Congress (with then-Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of the South Bronx) based on Butler's idea. There are now at least 70 zones in cities across the country. Butler has attained a reputation for reaching across the ideological spectrum in academic circles. In 2002, he was asked to spend a semester at Harvard University as a Fellow at the Institute of Politics. Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Graduate School. Butler grew up in the sheep-farming county of Shropshire, about 80 miles south of Manchester, England, the son of a mechanic who left school at age 13. His modest roots influenced both his values and his approach to policy. Although he has strong academic credentials – degrees in physics and math and a doctorate in American economic history from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland – Butler believes that empowering ordinary people is the best way to solve social problems. In his early days as a policy analyst, for example, he visited tenements in the South Bronx and Washington, D.C., to discuss with residents how best to deal with the problems of public housing. That led him to help design such approaches as tenant ownership of public housing and school choice. Butler's abiding passion is health-care reform, where he has argued for a restructured system based on consumer choice and state-led innovation. His manifesto, "A National Health System for America," published in 1989 with Edmund Haislmaier, explained how distortions in the tax code have created a health-care system that denies individual choice and drives up costs. When President Clinton took office in 1993 and launched his effort to federalize health care, Butler was one of the most-quoted experts in the country on why the scheme wouldn't work. But he also worked with lawmakers to develop an alternative reform. Even many liberal pundits thought Butler's approach was superior, with then-editor of The New Republic Michael Kinsley calling it "the simplest, most promising, and in an important way, the most progressive idea for health care reform." More recently, National Journal again noted Butler's influence, calling him one of Washington's twelve "key players" on health care. Butler has been a leading proponent of finding bipartisan ways of widening health insurance coverage. He has been working with a wide range of organizations to develop new approaches. And with Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution he brought together some of the most liberal and most conservative members of Congress to craft and introduce House and Senate bills to encourage bold state initiatives to reduce the number of uninsured Americans. Butler also has been published in leading academic journals, such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and Health Affairs, and in leading newspapers, including The New York Times. In addition to the dozens of research papers he has written for Heritage, Butler is the author of three books, Enterprise Zones: Greenlining the Inner Cities (1981), Privatizing Federal Spending (1985), and Out of the Poverty Trap (1987), co-authored with Anna Kondratas. He has been profiled by The Washington Post and has appeared on all the leading television networks commenting on policy issues. He has testified before Congress dozens of times on a range of policy issues. Butler became a U.S. citizen in 1996. He is married with two children and lives in Washington, D.C. |
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