[![Romina-Boccia-cropped2.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2022-09/Romina-Boccia-cropped2.jpg?itok=JFTKLQrg)](https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2022-09/2022-09-15-Romina-Boccia.jpg) 

[Policy Scholars](/experts) 

# Romina Boccia 

Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy

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Romina Boccia is director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, where she focuses on federal spending, the budget process, the economic consequences of rising debt, and reforms to Social Security and Medicare. She is the principal author of the *Debt Dispatch* (Substack), the leading fiscal policy newsletter read by members of Congress. Her new book, *Reimagining Social Security: Global Lessons for Retirement Policy Changes* (Cato Institute, 2025), coauthored with Ivane Nachkebia, has received high praise from leading social policy scholars. Boccia previously served as director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, where she was the principal author of the *Blueprint for Balance*, the organization’s flagship budget plan, which informed President Trump’s first-term budget proposal.

She has contributed chapters to *A Fiscal Cliff: New Perspectives on the U.S. Federal Debt Crisis* and published on James Buchanan’s case for a balanced budget amendment in the peer-reviewed journal *Homo Oeconomicus*. Most recently, Boccia was managing director at Dialog, an invite-only leadership network cofounded by Peter Thiel and Auren Hoffman, which convenes global leaders across politics, business, technology, the military, the arts, and academia for off-the-record conversations and retreats. She began her policy career as an analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum, which in 2013 named her among the “women who should run for public office.” She cofounded Liberty Toastmasters in Washington, DC, and serves on the board of America’s Future.

A native of Augsburg, Germany, Boccia holds a BA and MA in economics from George Mason University.

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#### Featured Content 

[![Daughter with mother financial planning at kitchen table](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-09/mother-daughter-planning.jpg?itok=m_hjj5Wd)](https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/rethinking-social-security-global-perspective) 

Study 

### [Rethinking Social Security from a Global Perspective](/policy-analysis/rethinking-social-security-global-perspective) 

By [Romina Boccia](https://www.cato.org/people/romina-boccia) and [Ivane Nachkebia](https://www.cato.org/people/ivane-nachkebia) 

Policymakers should fundamentally restructure Social Security to protect seniors from poverty while enabling younger workers to save more on their own.

[![Homeless man sits at a bus stop below a sign displaying the national debt](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2021-12/National%20Debt-min.jpeg?itok=-MJOKvIX)](https://www.cato.org/policy-report/july/august-2023/bankruptcy-gradually-then-suddenly) 

Policy Report 

### [Bankruptcy—Gradually, Then Suddenly?](/policy-report/july/august-2023/bankruptcy-gradually-then-suddenly) 

By [Romina Boccia](https://www.cato.org/people/romina-boccia) 

Even if the current federal government spending trajectory was affordable in the sense that Congress would simply need to raise the taxes to pay for it, the fact that most of the growth in federal spending will go toward subsidizing consumption, rather than toward productive investments, is problematic.

[![Social Security Trust Fund Visual Feature - Piggy Bank Hero Still](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-04/socialsecurity-trustfundmyth-piggy.jpg?itok=A9JpsWS2)](https://www.cato.org/visual-feature/social-securitys-financial-crisis) 

Study 

### [Social Security’s Financial Crisis: The Trust Fund Myth Uncovered](/visual-feature/social-securitys-financial-crisis) 

By [Romina Boccia](https://www.cato.org/people/romina-boccia) and [Ivane Nachkebia](https://www.cato.org/people/ivane-nachkebia) 

Most people misunderstand the Social Security trust fund, believing it holds real financial assets that ensure future benefits. But there’s a big problem.