The first quarter of 2005 has been an exciting time for the National Center for Policy Analysis, including several noteworthy developments:

• Czech Republic President Václav Klaus visited the U.S., met with President Bush and released his new NCPA book.
• We hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on 2005 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports featuring Trustee and NCPA Senior Fellow Thomas R. Saving.
• We prepared a new study on how to eliminate the income tax, to be presented to the President’s Bi-partisan Commission on tax reform in May.
• We unveiled new Kellye Wright Samuelson Fellowship in Healthcare Economics.
• We exceeded our first quarter revenue goals by 34 percent.

Release of Klaus Book

The NCPA has published a new book by President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus. To officially release the book – On the Road to Democracy: The Czech Republic from Communism to Free Society – the NCPA hosted President Klaus in Dallas and in Washington, D.C. for a series of receptions and news events.

President Klaus officially unveiled his book at a Dallas news conference March 7, which was aired live over the Internet to an international audience, including viewers in the Czech Republic. That night, the NCPA Board hosted a dinner honoring President Klaus at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., attended by the Czech Ambassador, U.S. Senators, among others.

The next day President Klaus met with President Bush at the White House. Following that meeting he was the featured speaker at the National Press Club’s Newsmaker Series, where he explained how the lessons learned transitioning the Czech economy could apply to other developing countries. The newsmaker appearance was broadcast nationally on C-Span. The book and his visit to the

U.S. attracted extensive media interest, including interviews on CNBC and the Fox News Channel, and coverage in Time Magazine Europe, Czech Television and the Czech News Agency.

Social Security

Following the release of the 2005 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report in March, the NCPA hosted a Capitol Hill briefing. At the briefing, NCPA Senior Fellow and Social Security and Medicare Trustee Thomas R. Saving announced that the total unfunded liability of Social Security has increased by about $600 billion, up from $10.4 to $11.1 trillion.

Last year, for the first time in more than 20 years, the combined deficit in Social Security and Medicare required a net transfer from the Treasury equal to almost 4 percent of federal income tax revenues. That figure will double in the next five years and double again in the five years after that.

Dr. Saving twice testified before Congressional committees about the problems facing Social Security and Medicare. On February 17 he testified before the Senate Budget Committee, telling them that the existence of Medicare is the single most important reason to reform Social Security. On March 9 he told the House Ways & Means Committee that Social Security is on an unsustainable course that will require an ever increasing portion of federal revenue.

Taking the message outside the beltway, our Team NCPA initiative to inform the public about the need for investment-based Social Security reform has targeted 10 key states for an intensive education and marketing effort. In each state Team NCPA is recruiting a leader and a citizens’ advisory council to speak to local civic organizations and the media. Team NCPA currently has teams in place in six of the 10 states. In addition to establishing teams in the remaining four, the next phase of the effort will be to launch an advertising campaign in each state. The project is amassing tremendous support. I n addition, this week we have unveiled the newly redesigned Internet site for this project – www.TeamNCPA.org.

Tax Reform

We are currently developing proposals that the NCPA will present to the Tax Reform Commission in May, outlining how to replace the nation’s income tax with a flat tax, value-added tax or a retail sales tax.

Healthcare

The NCPA has also recently developed its first Fellowship – the Kellye Wright Samuelson Fellowship in Healthcare Economics. The mission of the Fellowship is to promote a patient-centered healthcare system that strives to produce high-quality healthcare at an affordable cost, allowing patients to make their own decisions in consultation with their families and physicians. The Fellowship will fund scholarly research, conferences, briefings, public presentations and exchanges of ideas among scholars, healthcare professionals and the general public.

In addition, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson appointed me to the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council of the National Institutes of Health. The Council advises and makes recommendations to the government for awarding $300 million in scientific research grants every year.

In January, I was the featured speaker at The 2nd Annual World Health Care Congress, co-sponsored by The Wall Street Journal and CNBC; I debated Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution on Health Savings Accounts.

Marketing Our Ideas

We have found that institutions work best when they empower individuals and take advantage of the strength of free markets. For this reason, the mission of the NCPA is to discover, develop and promote private sector alternatives to government regulation and control. The NCPA’s strategy is to develop policy ideas well before the politicians are ready to act. By communicating to target audiences, the NCPA helps develop the case for reform outside Washington long before the case is made to Congress.

For all of 2004, NCPA ideas reached 402 million households at an advertising-dollar value of $18.4 million. Over the past year, the NCPA’s sites experienced 62 million hits and subscribers to our online newsletters surpassed 15,500.

Already, this year is proving to be a very important one for the NCPA. These accomplishments are possible because of your support.

Warm regards,

John Goodman
President

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