Peter R. Orszag

The Most Debated Issues of the Country -- And How They Affect You

In these challenging times, Congress and the White House are engaging in debates that will shape our financial future for generations to come. How are those debates playing out in the halls of power? How will they affect my company’s bottom line? How will they affect my family’s financial security? As a leader who has been on the frontlines of many of our nation’s recent economic battles, Peter Orszag will help your audience boil down the complex worlds where economic and political policy collide. Dr. Orszag has been on both sides of these converging constituencies, and offers a unique perspective as an economist, and a political insider who had the ear of a President.

What's Happening in Washington and Its Effect on Business

During Peter Orszag's tenure, Congress debated and enacted the recovery act and the healthcare reform act, among numerous other pieces of legislation. Dr. Orszag opens the curtain on how these legislative policies were implemented and their fiscal implications with a masterful ability to recall, synthesize and humanize economic data. President Obama sought direction from Dr. Orszag on numerous issues involving our national economy, including debt, job creation, regulations, and healthcare spending. In his speeches and Q&A sessions, Dr. Orszag engages in informed conversation and debate with the audience – both those who support and those who criticize the reforms passed during his tenure. Beyond the white-hot timeliness of his content or his insider’s perspective, his engaging delivery brings to life the stories behind the data and within the White House.

Navigating the Economic Horizon

As one of President Obama’s key aides on all economic issues, Peter Orszag directed the Office of Management and Budget. A member of the Cabinet, Dr. Orszag’s input was central to decisions on bolstering the economy, reforming healthcare, and all the various other economic issues that have faced the Obama Administration. From an insider’s point of view, he discusses the negotiations and players that have affected all recent world economic decisions and reviews the fiscal implications of legislative policies enacted. Dr. Orszag addresses the dynamics of the Administration’s, Congress’ and the world’s wrangling over economic issues and the very real challenges of job creation, economic growth, deficit reduction, and Washington and the world’s attitude toward business.

Reforming America’s Healthcare

Peter Orszag was a major strategist in developing and pushing the health reform act through Congress. There is no other speaker who was more intimately involved with the development and consequences of the healthcare reform bill on our nation’s economy, budget and legislative policy. As a member of President Obama’s Cabinet and as Director of the OMB, Dr. Orszag highlighted the economic effect of our nation’s skyrocketing healthcare costs and played a crucial role in securing cost-cutting measures and limits in the new healthcare law. Breathing new life into the healthcare economics debate, Dr. Orszag identifies the critical fiscal points on the horizon and discusses the controversial decisions made on the road to reform – such as why he felt it necessary to create an independent advisory board to review Medicare spending, which some argue dangerously deflects power from the legislative branch in favor of the executive branch.

As the 37th Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama Administration, Peter R. Orszag oversaw the nation’s budget, advised President Obama on fiscal policy, mapped the annual budget sent to Congress and devised legislative strategy required to implement fiscal reform. After the endless negotiations over the stimulus package, which included billions for the research and computer systems that Dr. Orszag believes are crucial to the future of healthcare, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "In my mind, if there is a hero in all of this, it is Peter Orszag." In the healthcare reform act, Dr. Orszag's two top priorities—an independent commission empowered to aggressively reform Medicare and a tax on high-value insurance plans—survived the enactment of the bill.

Dr. Orszag is Vice Chairman of Global Banking at Citigroup, Inc. He is also a contributing columnist at Bloomberg View and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to joining Citigroup in January 2011, he served as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributing columnist at the New York Times.

Dr. Orszag serves on the Board of Directors of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, and the Partnership for Public Service. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, the Trilateral Commission, the Hamilton Project Advisory Council, and the Marshall Scholarship Alumni Advisory Board.