Bently Thomas "Ben" Elliott is an American writer who served as President Ronald Reagan’s director of speechwriting from 1982 to 1986.
At Bucknell he played free safety for the Bison football team and was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.
[4] When Treasury Secretary Don Regan took over as Reagan’s chief of staff in 1985, he asked Elliott to resign, which occurred in 1986.
Eleanor Clift reported, “Elliott, a staunch believer in supply-side economics and a fervent right-to-life advocate, clashed with Regan and other top presidential assistants over the rhetorical tone of the President's State of the Union address last January.
Although Elliott was widely believed to have won the battle, his language was nevertheless softened considerably.”[5][6] After leaving the White House, Elliott wrote speeches for Jack Kemp, William Simon, Steve Forbes, IBM, Pepsi, Goldman Sachs and the New York Stock Exchange.