Daniel Mitchell, Ph.D.

McKenna Senior Fellow in Political Economy

Heritage’s chief expert on tax policy and the economy, Dan Mitchell advocates supply-side tax policy and fundamental tax reform. Mitchell fights for smaller, less intrusive government. He was an active proponent for President Bush’s tax rate reductions and urges further supply-side tax rate reductions to boost the economy and constrain the growth of government.

Mitchell is one of the nation’s leading experts on tax reform and supply-side tax policy, and he knows how to explain the politics and complexities of tax policy in easy-to-understand terms. As former Presidential candidate Steve Forbes said of Mitchell’s 1996 book, The Flat Tax: Freedom, Fairness, Jobs, and Growth, “Mitchell marvelously demonstrates how the flat tax will rip away the principal source of political pollution in Washington.”

In addition to tax policy, Mitchell is a trenchant observer of economic developments and an expert of Social Security privatization - particularly the fiscal policy impact of reform and what the US can learn from other nations that have created personal retirement accounts.

Mitchell also is the nation’s leading opponent of tax harmonization schemes developed by the Brussels-based European Union, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations. His September 2000 analysis of the OECD’s “harmful tax competition” initiative was the opening salvo in a campaign to shift the position of the United States government and thus stymied international proposals to persecute low-tax jurisdictions.

Mitchell’s by-line can be found in such national publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, and Washington Times. He is a frequent guest on radio and television and a popular speaker on the lecture circuit, both domestically and internationally. Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in economics from the University of Georgia. Prior to joining The Heritage Foundation in 1990, Mitchell was as an economist for Senator Bob Packwood and the Senate Finance Committee. He also served on the 1988 Bush-Quayle transition team and was Director of Tax and Budget Policy for Citizens for a Sound Economy.