Kurt Couchman
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). His book Fiscal Democracy in America: How a Balanced Budget Amendment Can Restore Sound Governance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) will be released in summer 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.