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#7 | Celebrating the Bush Center's top ten milestones of 2011

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Learn more about Hannah Abney.
Hannah Abney
Chief Communications Counselor
George W. Bush Presidential Center

Milestone #7: Launched the 4% Project and brought together innovative leaders in economic growth. In the area of economic growth, the Bush...

Milestone #7: Launched the 4% Project and brought together innovative leaders in economic growth. In the area of economic growth, the Bush Institute has a clear goal: to see the United States achieve real, sustained growth of 4 percent a year. We chose this goal because long-term growth is more important than other pressing economic issues, such as reducing the federal debt, reforming entitlement programs, and improving the tax system. All those economic challenges can be tackled much more easily if the country achieves stronger economic growth, and 4 percent is a realistic aspirational goal that was achieved through most of the nineteenth century. In April we kicked off our program in this area by convening a 4 Percent Growth Conference that featured four Nobel Prize-winning economists, as well as other top policy experts and prominent CEOs and entrepreneurs. Their discussion ranged widely over public and private factors that make strong growth possible, including tax and monetary policy, budget issues, immigration, innovation, federalism, and energy policy. In 2012, we look forward to continuing the momentum with another leverage point for changing the country’s economic discussion when we publish our first book: The 4% Solution: How to Unleash the Economic Boom America Needs in the 21st Century. All of the Bush Institute’s programs in this area will spur research and develop initiatives that will help accelerate America’s economic growth. We will increase awareness of public policies and private business strategies that increase opportunity and prosperity for Americans, steering economic debates toward specific policies and practical measures that can transform our economy into one that consistently grows at a 4 percent annual rate.