Dick Gephardt and a panel of government and fiscal experts discuss the lame duck session in Congress and the looming Fiscal Cliff.
Moderator
Caren Bohan, Managing Editor, Domestic Policy, National Journal
Panelists
Matthew Cooper, Editor, National Journal Daily
The Honorable Bob Bennett, Founder, Bennett Consulting Group
The Honorable Dick Gephardt, President and CEO, Gephardt Government Affairs
The Honorable Phil Sharp, President, Resources for the Future
Bio
The Honorable Bob Bennett
Bob Bennett served as a U.S. Senator from the state of Utah from 1993 until 2011. He was a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee and a member of the distinguished Joint Economic Committee, where he was at the center of national economic policy discussions. He also served as the ranking Republican on the Senate Rules Committee and as a member of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, where he worked to balance fiscal discipline in government with the needs of maintaining a strong national economy.
Senator Bennett is a highly successful entrepreneur. Prior to his political career, he served as the CEO of Franklin Quest, Inc., where he grew the business from four employees to more than 1,000,
and got it listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In addition to his success at Franklin Quest, he has been a key participant in multiple private and publicly held companies. His success has been based on his ability to see clearly the inter-dependence of private enterprise and an expanding national economy.
Caren Bohan
Caren Bohan is managing editor for domestic policy at National Journal. Before that, she was a White House correspondent for Reuters. As White House reporter, she traveled around the world with Presidents Obama and Bush, covering topics ranging from international summits to the federal
budget to the policies on Afghanistan and the Arab Spring. In 2008, she was the lead correspondent for Reuters covering then-Senator Obama’s presidential campaign. She has interviewed President Obama three times, twice during his campaign and once during his presidency. Earlier in her career, Ms. Bohan covered economic policy and financial markets for Reuters, first in New York and then in
Washington. She was president of the White House Correspondents’ Association from July 2011 to July 2012. Born in Boston, Ms. Bohan earned her B.A. in English Literature from McGill University
and holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.
Matthew Cooper
Matthew Cooper is the editor of National Journal Daily. He has held reporting and editorial positions at several of Washington’s most respected news organizations, serving as White House
correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, deputy Washington bureau chief for Newsweek, deputy Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for Time, and politics editor for Time.com. Mr. Cooper has also been an editor for Washington Monthly and The New Republic, Washington editor for Condé Nast Portfolio, politics correspondent for TheAtlantic.com, and editor-atlarge
for TalkingPointsMemo.com. Mr. Cooper has also contributed to Slate and The New York Times. Prior to joining National Journal, he was senior advisor to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
The Honorable Dick Gephardt
Dick Gephardt is president and CEO of Gephardt Government Affairs, providing strategic advice to clients on issues before the House, Senate, and the Executive Branch.
Mr. Gephardt served for 28 years in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1976 and 2004, where he represented Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District. In his first year in Congress, he was
appointed to both the House Budget and Ways and Means Committees. He was elected to serve as House Democratic Leader for more than 14 years, as Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995 and Minority Leader from 1995 to 2003. In his role as Leader, Mr. Gephardt emerged as one of the leading strategists
of the Democratic Party’s platform and chief architect to landmark reforms on issues such as healthcare, education, energy independence, and trade policy.
Mr. Gephardt earned his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
The Honorable Phil Sharp
Phil Sharp became President of Resources for the Future on September 1, 2005. His career in public service includes ten terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana, and a lengthy tenure on the faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. He will be serving, effective immediately, on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on America's Climate Choices.
Dick Gephardt, president and CEO of Gephardt Government Affairs, predicts what could happen to the American economy if a resolution isn't met regarding the impending fiscal cliff.
