[![Michael D. Tanner](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2021-01/Michael%20Tanner.jpg?itok=ZmAma4tf)](https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2021-01/Michael-Tanner.jpg) 

# Michael D. Tanner 

Former Senior Fellow

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](mailto:mtanner@cato.org) 

Michael Tanner was a Cato Institute senior fellow and headed research into a variety of domestic policies, with an emphasis on poverty and social welfare policy, health care, and Social Security and entitlement reform.

More recently Tanner has undertaken a major project to develop innovative solutions to poverty in California, which is widely seen as a model for building bipartisan consensus around innovative ways to reform government-imposed barriers to economic participation by the poor and marginalized groups. The Project on Poverty and Inequality in California builds on Tanner’s most recent book, [*The Inclusive Economy: How to Bring Wealth to America’s Poor*](https://www.amazon.com/Inclusive-Economy-Bring-Wealth-Americas/dp/194864701X/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?tag=catoinstitute-20), a comprehensive look at the ways government contributes to poverty in the United States.

Tanner is also the author of numerous other books on public policy, including [*Going for Broke: Deficits, Debt, and the Entitlement Crisis*](https://www.amazon.com/Going-Broke-Deficits-Entitlement-Crisis/dp/1939709741/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?tag=catoinstitute-20), [*Leviathan on the Right: How Big‐​Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution*](https://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Right-Big-Government-Conservativism-Republican/dp/1933995009/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?tag=catoinstitute-20), [*Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It*](https://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Competition-Whats-Holding-Health/dp/1933995106/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?tag=catoinstitute-20), [*The Poverty of Welfare: Helping Others in Civil Society*](https://www.amazon.com/Poverty-Welfare-Helping-Others-Society/dp/1930865414/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?tag=catoinstitute-20), and [*A New Deal for Social Security*](https://www.amazon.com/New-Deal-Social-Security/dp/1882577639?tag=catoinstitute-20). He also contributed a chapter on libertarian solutions for poverty to Libertarianism.org’s [*Visions of Liberty*](https://www.libertarianism.org/books/visions-liberty).

Called a “lucid writer and skilled polemicist” by the *New York Times* and hailed as one of the nation’s five most influential experts on Social Security by *Congressional Quarterly*, Tanner’s writings have appeared in nearly every major American newspaper, including the *New York Times*, the *Washington Post*, the *Los Angeles Times*, the *Wall Street Journal*, and *USA Today*. A prolific writer and frequent guest lecturer, Tanner appears regularly on network and cable news programs.

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