From office hours to the Oval Office?: BU prof. Larry Kotlikoff sets his sights on the White House

“I’m very serious,” Kotlikoff said of his candidacy. “I may be delusional, but I’m confident that if I get the nomination, I’ll end up president.”

Kotlikoff said he was driven to run not by any desire to actually hold the country’s highest office, but by a frustration with the way current leaders place partisan politics ahead of the needs of citizens.

“If you had a patient on the operating table badly needing an operation, would you call a politician?” he said. “No, you’d call a surgeon. So I think it’s time for us to have an economist as president because one of our major concerns at this point is the economic problems.”

Kotlikoff’s policies focus on economic reform, in keeping with his background: After studying economics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, he went on to teach the same subject at UCLA and Yale before serving on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers in 1981. He has written 15 books, including the upcoming The Clash of Generations, in which he and financial writer Scott Burns offer their opinion that members of the Baby Boomer generation operate without concern for their children’s financial health.

Addressing supporters from his Brookline apartment on a Friday night in late January, Kotlikoff stood in front of a fireplace in his well-decorated living room, dressed in a pink Ralph Lauren button-down, glass of sangria in hand -- not exactly contradicting those Baby Boomer stereotypes. But he spoke of a type of generational warfare, wherein older Americans leave their bills to the nation’s youth. Case in point: the lack of funds for Social Security.

“This is exactly what you’d expect to see in a society where the old people don’t care about their kids,” Kotlikoff said. “We have to band together and act like a family, because otherwise it’s not going to turn out good for the 8 million Baby Boomers because the potential for getting paid off from their kids is not there. We’re at the end of the chain letter.”

If the Boomers and Millennials are at war, Kotlikoff sees himself as a type of double agent, working within the ranks of his contemporaries to promote the best interests of the other side. Generational equity is a key component of his Social Security reform plan.

“I’m here to try and represent young people,” he said. “We’ve been trying to hide what we’ve been doing from younger people. The whole fight between Democrats and Republicans is a sideshow from the main event, which is to take from the young and give to the old.”

Kotlikoff said he believes an independent president could act as a mediator between the two political parties. To him, Democrats and Republicans want the same basic things, but they let their different ideologies drive a wedge between them.

“They’re like a divorcing couple,” Kotlikoff said. “They can agree with a third party, but they can’t necessarily agree with each other. That’s partly what I would bring to this office -- the ability to mediate between the two sides.”

If he doesn’t make it onto the presidential ballot, don’t expect to see Kotlikoff offering up Purple Plans at a state or local level. The economist said he has no interest in holding another office because becoming a part of the political system would require him to compromise his principles to adhere to party lines.

“I think that President Obama should think about becoming mayor of a small town, or Mitt Romney should do that,” he said. “They could probably do a good job in that role, but they’re not doing a good job in this role. I invite them to take a different job.”

About Katie -- Currently a Brookline resident and BU senior, I grew up in New Hampshire, meaning I get confused when charged sales tax and can discuss at length the differences between multiple varieties of apples. At any given moment, I likely have my iPhone in my hand and at least one newspaper in my purse. I'm a political junkie, as well as an iced coffee addict. My interests include journalism, canvas sneakers, and pretending I'm in Ireland.

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