Bruce Reed

Bruce Reed is president (since 2001) of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). He is credited with coining the welfare reform catchphrase, "end welfare as we know it." [1]

Reed served as chief speechwriter for Tennessee Senator Al Gore from 1985 to 1989. He was founding editor of the DLC magazine, The New Democrat and served as policy director of the DLC from 1990 to 1991 under DLC Chairman and Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton. In 1992, he was deputy campaign manager for policy of the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign. During the Clinton presidency, Reed served as chief domestic policy advisor and director of the Domestic Policy Council, and helped to write the 1996 welfare reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act.

Reed is a native of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the son of Idaho State Senator Mary Lou Reed. He attended Princeton University and earned a master's degree in English Literature from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Reed is the author of the taunt, "change you can Xerox," from the February 21, 2008 presidential primary debate in Austin, Texas. Reed supplied Senator Hillary Clinton with the phrase to invoke accusations of plagiarism against rival Senator Barack Obama while parodying his campaign slogan: "Change you can believe in."^[1]