Biography
David Keating
David Keating is executive director of Club for Growth, a political action group that promotes tax reform and reduction, Social Security reform and other pro-economic growth issues. The Club is the nation’s largest political action group supporting pro-economic growth policies. In this election cycle, the Club and its members raised over $15 million, including over $5 million in hard money donations. Under his direction, Club membership increased 15-fold since 2000.
In May 1996 he was appointed to the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service by then Senator Bob Dole because of his leading role in the development and passage of the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights. These measures were first enacted into law in 1988 and 1996 and provide protections for taxpayers in the tax audit and collection process. The Commission’s report was released in June 1997, and served as the basis for legislation approved by Congress in 1998, which included a further expansion of taxpayers' rights as advocated by Mr. Keating during his work on the Commission.
Mr. Keating first began work in the taxpayers movement in 1978 when he joined the NTU as a researcher. After becoming legislative director in 1980, he was promoted to executive vice president and later joined the NTU Board. He guided the organization to steady growth in influence and members. He became president of a loosely affiliated research affiliate, renamed it NTU Foundation and guided its development of several innovative studies, including the widely cited reports that tally the cost of legislation sponsored by members of Congress.
Under his guidance, NTU developed a political action committee that had much success in the 1994 elections. Mr. Keating remains a member of the NTU Campaign Fund's Board of Trustees. He also pioneered the use of issue ads to educate voters in 1996, raising and spending almost a half million dollars in the months leading up to the election.
He is an expert on tax reform and tax issues that affect middle class taxpayers, the proposed balanced federal budget and tax limit amendments, state and local tax limitation initiatives, income tax indexing, and the federal budget process.
Mr. Keating is often interviewed by major media organizations. He has appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” NBC’s “Today” and “Dateline”, ABC’s “Good Morning America” and "20/20," CNN’s “Inside Politics,” PBS’s “The Newshour with Jim Lehrer,” and each of the network television evening news programs. He is often asked to comment on tax issues for Cable News Network and has been interviewed on hundreds of major radio and television talk shows on taxpayer issues. His op-ed articles or book reviews have been published in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the San Diego Union, and many other newspapers.
State and local taxpayer organizations often seek his advice on drafting tax limitation initiatives and on political strategy. Mr. Keating has a long history of effective grassroots and political action.
Mr. Keating served as the Washington Director of Americans for Fair Taxation in 1998 and 1999. AFT is leading the national campaign for an innovative tax reform proposal known as the Fair Tax, which would replace the current income and payroll tax system with a tax on consumption.
He also is president of Citizen Strategies, a political consulting and direct marketing firm, and serves as a director of National Taxpayers Union and the Citizen Legislator Caucus Foundation. He is on the advisory boards of Democracy 2000, a group that promotes problem-solving in the political arena, and the Initiative & Referendum Institute. Keating has served as a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Task Force on State Tax and Budget Policy and was vice president of Taxpayers Associations International, an international research organization representing taxpayers organizations in countries including the United States, Australia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Japan.
Keating received his B.A. from Vassar College.