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Kurt Couchman

Senior Fellow in Fiscal Policy

Kurt Couchman is senior fellow in fiscal policy for Americans for Prosperity. He develops and supports innovative solutions to federal and state budget and governance challenges while promoting freedom, prosperity, and opportunity.

He comments regularly on talk radio and television programs, and his opinion articles have appeared on Fox News, National Review, The Ripon Forum, Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Townhall, The Hill, CNN, The National Interest, and elsewhere.

Couchman has written extensively about preventing shutdowns, balanced budget amendment design, federal and state budget targets, a comprehensive congressional budget, and inflation. He has contributed chapters to edited volumes A Fiscal Cliff: New Perspectives on the U.S. Federal Debt Crisis (Cato, 2020) and Public Debt Sustainability: International Perspectives (Lexington, 2022). He is the author of Fiscal Democracy in America: How a Balanced Budget Amendment Can Restore Sound Governance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025).

Couchman has held government affairs positions with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Defense Priorities, the Cato Institute, Sunoco, Inc., and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. He has served in the offices of several members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Couchman holds a master’s degree in economics from George Mason University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania/Cook Honors College. He and his family reside in northern Virginia.

Featured Publications

A Balanced Budget Amendment Is in Democrats’ Interests

Oct 2, 2025 by Kurt Couchman

Modernizing Federal Budgeting Starts with Preventing Shutdowns

Sep 29, 2025 by Kurt Couchman

Well-Designed Balanced Budget Rules Support Sound Governance

Sep 15, 2025 by Kurt Couchman

BBA competition in the House can rebuild broad support

Aug 20, 2025 by Kurt Couchman

Block grants can reconcile state aid with health, prosperity, and federalism

Feb 20, 2025 by Kurt Couchman

How States Can Assert Financial Freedom

Feb 11, 2025 by Kurt Couchman

A Well-Designed BBA and Statutory Solutions Can Help Congress Address the U.S. Debt Crisis

Dec 11, 2024 by Kurt Couchman

Kansas Legislature can improve state budget process with these 4 changes

Oct 28, 2024 by Kurt Couchman

What is the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act?

Sep 5, 2024 by Kurt Couchman

Congress Can Rehabilitate the Federal Government with a Comprehensive Budget

Aug 15, 2024 by Kurt Couchman

Appropriations process highlights need to upgrade congressional budgeting

Jul 22, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

Bidenflation Blame Game: How Big-Spending Politicians Scapegoat Business

Jun 27, 2024 by Kurt Couchman

Is Social Security in Trouble? Yes, and We Need Automatic Fiscal Stabilizers to Help

Jul 20, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

Empowering Committees Can Restore Congress – and Our Democracy

Jun 14, 2024 by Kurt Couchman

Congress's broken budget system helped create inflation

Jul 14, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

President Biden claims credit he didn’t earn, misses the mark on proposals

Jun 1, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

Unparalleled inflation continues its historic rise while Washington points fingers

May 18, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

Senator Braun leads the way back to fiscal sanity

May 15, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

Arrington proposes a next-generation budget amendment

May 15, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

U.S. fiscal health is poor. Here are the GAO's latest solutions.

May 12, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

Congress needs better budget approaches

Apr 8, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

Government shutdowns have always been a mistake

Jan 26, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

DoD's biggest problems with a continuing resolution come from Congress

Jan 10, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

Organizing Congress for budget reforms

Jan 4, 2022 by Kurt Couchman

Stand-alone reconciliation must end

Dec 13, 2021 by Kurt Couchman

Unified budgets can help revive Congress

Dec 1, 2021 by Kurt Couchman

Biden's budget agenda only pretends to be responsible

Nov 12, 2021 by Kurt Couchman

Raise the debt limit while starting to fix the budget

Sep 18, 2021 by Kurt Couchman

States show how Congress can fix a broken budget process

Jun 21, 2021 by Kurt Couchman

Effective fiscal rules build on consensus

Oct 1, 2020 by Kurt Couchman

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