Donors often wonder what difference a think tank makes.

Right in the middle of an intense election campaign, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the top policy advisor for John McCain, flew to Miami to join us at our Chairman’s Council Conference in May. His message: He and others are increasingly turning to the National Center for Policy Analysis for solutions to some of the nation’s most critical public policy problems.

Although the NCPA cannot be involved in elections, McCain is one of many candidates who have adopted NCPA ideas. Interestingly, according to a recent Newsweek article by George Will, Barack Obama also likes an NCPA idea: automatic enrollment of employees into 401(k) plans with diversified portfolios. This makes sense. Good ideas should have bi-partisan appeal.

Debate. Just as presidential candidates have been debating issues, NCPA personnel also have had debate on our minds, and health care has been the prime issue:

• In June, I debated  a representative  of the Children's Defense Fund and one from the Kaiser Family Foundation before social work graduate students in Washington D.C. (Yes, I know: two-against-one was their idea of a level playing field).
• The NCPA co-sponsored a health care debate in Dallas with the Dallas Democratic Forum. I debated Jeanne Lambrew, health advisor to Sen. Hillary Clinton.
• Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WA) hosted a Capitol Hill debate that pitted me against Len Nichols, president of the New America Foundation, on how to tackle the triple problems of cost, quality, and access to care.
• To round out the quarter, John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, and I debated David Himmelstein, the nation’s number one advocate of socialized medicine, and Berkeley professor Michael Perelman at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas.

Student Debate. The NCPA has several youth-development programs that support the emerging generation of future leaders. One such program is designed for the nation’s 400,000 high school debaters. Through www.debate-central.org, a comprehensive Web site that receives over 1.5 million hits per month, the program’s main objective is to provide students with access to the latest and best debate material available. It is the only comprehensive debate Web site that is completely free to users. The debate subject for the coming year is very topical: alternative energy.

iDebate – Developing Leaders with General Tommy Franks. We are partnering with Retired Four Star General Tommy Franks to conduct a camp that teaches young people debating skills and leadership ability. We will sponsor a 5-day camp in August in Oklahoma City. On August 7, the final day of the camp, FOX News will be broadcasting live feed from the programs. Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano, debate moderator and FOX analyst, will be sending updates from iDebate to FOX throughout the entire day.

One of the most compelling goals of iDebate is to bring students together to vigorously debate and walk away as friends. We hope to set a very important example this election year that adult candidates would do well to follow. The high school debaters attending iDebate will be debating such timely topics as the flat tax, privatizing social security and universal health care. 
Internships and Junior Fellowships. Another one of the NCPA’s ongoing efforts to introduce the younger population to public policy are our internship and junior fellowship programs. Junior Fellows spend the spring semester working 20 hours a week at the NCPA’s Dallas office, and then spend a month in the summer working in our Washington D.C. office. This gives students the opportunity to learn how the think tank world and the legislative world intersect. The NCPA hosted two interns in Dallas this past quarter, Robert Reeves of Louisiana Tech University and John O’Keefe of the University of Dallas. The Junior Fellows were sponsored through a private donor and a grant through the University of Dallas, respectively.

• Social Security and Medicare Unfunded Liabilities Now Exceed $100 Trillion. This bad news is from the latest Social Security Trustees report, courtesy of NCPA Policy Analyst Pamela Villarreal. The combined unfunded liabilities of these two programs are more than seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times the size of the outstanding national debt. To keep its promises to the elderly and balance the budget by 2020, the federal government will have to stop doing one in every four things it currently does. By 2030, about the midpoint of the baby boomer retirement years, the federal government will have to stop doing about one in two things it currently does. (That, by the way, will not be all bad).

• Why Work? A new study by NCPA Senior Fellow Lawrence J. Kotlikof and David S. Rapson finds that most Americans face marginal tax rates of up to 50% or higher when they work extra hours. The penalties come in the form of present and future taxes as well as lost welfare and social insurance benefits.
• Are the Rich Getting Richer? Yes, but so is everyone else, according to a study by NCPA Senior Fellow David Henderson. The vast majority of Americans in the top fifth of the income distribution are in households comprised of older married couples who both work. Households in the bottom fifth consist of single parents who are young, not married and predominantly unemployed. Any comparison of the top and bottom should note that marriage, work and maturity correlate with more income.

Our Birthday. The NCPA is celebrating 25 years of victory and progress through leadership. As a part of our 25th anniversary celebration, we are hosting a gala dinner on Friday, September 26, 2008 at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas. Retired General Tommy Franks, former Commander-in-Chief of Central Command of the United States Armed Forces, will be our keynote speaker. President Bush will provide a video welcome. The NCPA will recognize and thank those who have supported us through the years. We hope you can attend this event. For registration information and table prices, visit http://anniversary25.ncpa.org

On September 25 and 26, prior to the Gala (and in the same hotel), the Atlas Economic Research Foundation will join with the NCPA to sponsor a conference on how free societies can deal with the problem of risk. This event will attract a wide range of people from around the world who care deeply about individual rights, free enterprise and limited government under the rule of law.  To attend this conference, visit http://anniversary25.ncpa.org/atlas

We greatly appreciate your investment in the NCPA. Your generosity allows us to continue seeking innovative private-sector solutions to America’s most difficult public policy problems and inspiring new generations to also become our next free-market leaders.

The enclosed report provides a more detailed account of NCPA second quarter activities. Thanks so much for your valued support, which makes all our activities possible.

Warm regards,

John C. Goodman

President