Peter Ferrara

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Peter Joseph Ferrara (born April 26, 1955)[1] is an American lawyer, policy analyst, and columnist who is an analyst for The Heartland Institute. He is former general counsel for the American Civil Rights Union. A libertarian scholar, he is known for supporting privatization of the Social Security program.

Early life and education

A 2005 profile for the Harvard Law Bulletin reported that Ferrara recalled at age nine "being transfixed while watching television as Barry Goldwater stormed the 1964 Republican National Convention."[2] Ferrara grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and graduated in 1976 from Harvard College with an A.B. in economics magna cum laude and from Harvard Law School in 1979 cum laude.[3][4][5] At Harvard, Ferrara wrote at the student newspaper The Harvard Crimson.[6] While in law school, he also participated in the Harvard Libertarian Association.[7] Future Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts attended both Harvard College and Law School with Ferrara.[4]

Career

His senior law school thesis evolved into the debut hardcover publication by the libertarian Cato Institute in 1980, Social Security: The Inherent Contradiction.[2] From 1981 to 1983, Ferrara served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Ronald Reagan and was an Associate Deputy Attorney General from 1991 to 1993.[3] Between those positions, Ferrara became a Heritage Foundation analyst specializing in Social Security issues.[8] He also became an insurance consultant[9] and provided expertise in Social Security to media.[10][11] In 1987, Ferrara joined the faculty of the George Mason University School of Law and directed its legal writing programs until 1991.[12] As late as 2003, Ferrara has taught there.[13]

In the early 2000s (decade), he founded the Virginia chapter of Club for Growth and directed the International Center for Law and Economics.[14][15]

Ferrara took money from erstwhile lobbyist Jack Abramoff to write op-ed pieces favorable to Abramoff clients. (Ferrara did not disclose which pieces he was paid to write, but Business Week noted that he wrote favorable articles in the Washington Times about the Northern Marianas Islands and the Choctaw Indian tribe, both Abramoff clients.) Ferrara argued those writings were entirely consistent with his independently held views, remained unrepentant, and intended to pursue the practice in the future: "I do that all the time. I've done that in the past, and I'll do it in the future."[16]

Ferrara was a senior policy adviser at the Institute for Policy Innovation.[17] In April 2011, Ferrara became senior fellow for entitlement and budget policy at The Heartland Institute. Concurrently, he formerly served as general counsel for the American Civil Rights Union and policy director of the Carleson Center for Welfare Reform.[5][18]He was formerly a member of the District of Columbia Bar but is now on inactive status.D.C. Bar member search.

Ferrara's articles have been published in such outlets as National Review,[13][15] The Washington Times,[19][20] The American Spectator,[21] and FoxNews.com.[22] He is a regular guest on the Thom Hartmann radio program.[23]

Viewpoints

In 1987, The New York Times published an op-ed by Ferrara in which he advocated capping the Social Security payroll tax.[24] The newspaper also interviewed Ferrara that year about a proposal by Secretary of Health and Human Services Otis R. Bowen to expand Medicare; Ferrara criticized the program for "a lot of gaps in medical coverage for the elderly" and found "no basis for just expanding Medicare to take over coverage that private sector provides now."[25] The George W. Bush administration championed Ferrara's plan to privatize Social Security.[26]

National Review magazine published his essay "What Is An American?" in its September 25, 2001 issue, after the September 11 attacks.[13] In the essay, he claims that "there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan",[13] although census numbers show Afghanistan has roughly ten to fifteen times as many Muslims as the United States.[27] The essay was reproduced in a chain e-mail claiming that an Australian dentist wrote it.[28] Ferrara, reflecting on that essay in 2007, still stood by it and supported "more selective immigration so that the U.S. gets a 'better-educated class of Mexican immigrants.'"[29]

Ferrara has also written about climate change, asserting that human activity is not the main cause of global warming.[30][31][32]

Bibliography

  • America's Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb (2011)
  • Stop the Raid: Social Security the Biggest Rip Off in History (with Denison Smith) (2008)
  • Common Cents, Common Dreams: A layman's guide to social security privatization (ISBN 1882577760) (September 1999)
  • The Choctaw Revolution: Lessons for Federal Indian Policy (ISBN 096658340X) (September 1, 1998)
  • Religion and the Constitution: A reinterpretation (1983)
  • Social Security: The Inherent Contradiction (1980)

References

  1. ↑ http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/12184b.htm
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Peter Ferrara: What Is An American? National Review online, September 25, 2001.
  14. ↑ International Center for Law and Economics
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Institute for Policy Innovation
  18. ↑ The Carleson Center for Welfare Reform
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Ferrera, Peter: Contributors: Peter Ferrara. Accessed February 11, 2013.
  22. ↑ FoxNews.com: Peter Ferrara archive.
  23. ↑ Peter Ferrara search on the Thom Hartmann YouTube channel
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Ferrara graduated from the law school in 1979, according to his ACRU biography
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Ferrara, Peter (December 1, 2011). "Salvaging The Mythology Of Man-Caused Global Warming" Forbes, Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  31. ↑ Ferrara, Peter (January 22, 2013). "As The Economy Recesses, Obama's Global Warming Delusions Are Truly Cruel" Forbes, Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  32. ↑ Ferrara, Peter (May 26, 2013). "To The Horror Of Global Warming Alarmists, Global Cooling Is Here" Forbes, Retrieved November 26, 2014.

External links

  • Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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