Charles Blahous
Encyclopedia
Charles Paul "Chuck" Blahous III (born 1963) is a research fellow at Stanford University
's Hoover Institution
, specializing in domestic economic policy, a U.S.
public trustee
for the Social Security
and Medicare
programs, and a former (2001–2007) Special Assistant to US President
George W. Bush
for Economic Policy within the National Economic Council
whose Deputy Director he was in 2007-2008. He lives in Rockville, Maryland
.
Blahous was born in 1963 in Alexandria, Virginia
, USA, the second of three children of Charles Paul Blahous II of Czech descent and Marjorie Alice Robertson of Scot
/English
ancestry. He was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
and received an undergraduate degree
in chemistry
from Princeton University
in 1985, and a Ph.D.
in computational quantum chemistry
from the University of California, Berkeley
in 1989.
Between 1989 and 1996, Blahous worked as a legislative aide
to Senator Alan Simpson
of Wyoming
; he was his Congressional Science Fellow in 1989-1990 and Legislative Director in 1994-1996 (sponsored by the American Physical Society
). After Simpson's retirement, Blahous served from 1996 to 2000 as a Policy Director for Senator Judd Gregg
of New Hampshire
. From June 2000 through February 2001 he served as the Executive Director of the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security. From 2001 to 2007, he served as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, during which time he also served as Executive Director of the bipartisan President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. From 2007 to 2008, he held the position of the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council
. After the end of George W. Bush
's second term in office
in January 2009, Blahous joined the Hudson Institute
as a Senior Fellow. In 2010, Blahous left the Hudson Institute and became a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution
.
His ideas about Social Security reform issues are explained in Reforming Social Security for Ourselves and Our Posterity, a book he published in September 2000. Blahous' second book, Social Security: The Unfinished Work, was published by Hoover Institution Press in November 2010, and a third, Pension Wise: Confronting Employer Pension Underfunding - And Sparing Taxpayers the Next Bailout, was released by the same publisher in December 2010. Apart from politics, he is also a member of the Society for American Baseball Research
and has published several articles on baseball
in renowned American baseball journals. His publications cover also federal entitlement
s, demographics
and chemistry
.
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
's Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
, specializing in domestic economic policy, a U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
public trustee
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
for the Social Security
Social Security Trust Fund
In the United States, the Social Security Trust Fund is a fund operated by the Social Security Administration into which are paid contributions from workers and employers under the Social Security system and out of which benefit payments to retirees, survivors, and the disabled, and general...
and Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...
programs, and a former (2001–2007) Special Assistant to US President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
for Economic Policy within the National Economic Council
National Economic Council
The National Economic Council of the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering economic policy matters, separate from matters relating to domestic policy, which are the domain of the Domestic Policy Council...
whose Deputy Director he was in 2007-2008. He lives in Rockville, Maryland
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
.
Blahous was born in 1963 in Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
, USA, the second of three children of Charles Paul Blahous II of Czech descent and Marjorie Alice Robertson of Scot
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
/English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
ancestry. He was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
and received an undergraduate degree
Undergraduate degree
An undergraduate degree is a colloquial term for an academic degree taken by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. It is usually offered at an institution of higher education, such as a university...
in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1985, and a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in computational quantum chemistry
Quantum chemistry
Quantum chemistry is a branch of chemistry whose primary focus is the application of quantum mechanics in physical models and experiments of chemical systems...
from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1989.
Between 1989 and 1996, Blahous worked as a legislative aide
Aide
Aide may refer to:* A person who assists another; an assistant. In military contexts; an officer who acts as assistant to a more senior one; an aide-de-camp.* Aide , a purported Basque deity....
to Senator Alan Simpson
Alan K. Simpson
Alan Kooi Simpson is an American politician who served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States Senator from Wyoming as a member of the Republican Party. His father, Milward L. Simpson, was also a member of the U.S...
of Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
; he was his Congressional Science Fellow in 1989-1990 and Legislative Director in 1994-1996 (sponsored by the American Physical Society
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
). After Simpson's retirement, Blahous served from 1996 to 2000 as a Policy Director for Senator Judd Gregg
Judd Gregg
Judd Alan Gregg is a former Governor of New Hampshire and former United States Senator from New Hampshire, who served as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. He is a member of the Republican Party and was a businessman and attorney in Nashua before entering politics...
of New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. From June 2000 through February 2001 he served as the Executive Director of the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security. From 2001 to 2007, he served as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, during which time he also served as Executive Director of the bipartisan President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. From 2007 to 2008, he held the position of the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council
National Economic Council
The National Economic Council of the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering economic policy matters, separate from matters relating to domestic policy, which are the domain of the Domestic Policy Council...
. After the end of George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's second term in office
George W. Bush's second term as President of the United States
George W. Bush's second term as President of the United States began at noon on January 20, 2005 and expired with the swearing-in of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, at noon, Washington, D.C...
in January 2009, Blahous joined the Hudson Institute
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
as a Senior Fellow. In 2010, Blahous left the Hudson Institute and became a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
.
His ideas about Social Security reform issues are explained in Reforming Social Security for Ourselves and Our Posterity, a book he published in September 2000. Blahous' second book, Social Security: The Unfinished Work, was published by Hoover Institution Press in November 2010, and a third, Pension Wise: Confronting Employer Pension Underfunding - And Sparing Taxpayers the Next Bailout, was released by the same publisher in December 2010. Apart from politics, he is also a member of the Society for American Baseball Research
Society for American Baseball Research
The Society for American Baseball Research was established in Cooperstown, New York, in August 1971 by Bob Davids of Washington, D.C. The Society's mission is to foster the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball, while generating interest in the game...
and has published several articles on baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
in renowned American baseball journals. His publications cover also federal entitlement
Entitlement
An entitlement is a guarantee of access to benefits based on established rights or by legislation. A "right" is itself an entitlement associated with a moral or social principle, such that an "entitlement" is a provision made in accordance with legal framework of a society...
s, demographics
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
and chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
.