[5] From August 1989 to July 1990, Holtz-Eakin served as a Senior Staff Economist on President George H. W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.

Holtz-Eakin was tenured faculty at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University from 1990 to 2003, where he was appointed professor in 1995 and chair of the department of economics from 1997 to 2001.

[9] In 2009, he joined the Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress as a fellow focusing on health care reform issues, but left later that year to found his own think tank.

[11] In early 2010, Holtz-Eakin became president of American Action Forum,[12] a conservative think tank focused on fiscal and public policy issues.

[13] Since joining American Action Forum, Holtz-Eakin has appeared on Fox News to argue against a 2010 health care bill,[14] as well as writing a similarly worded Op-Ed for The New York Times.