Walter Heller, Economist for 2 Presidents, Dies

Walter Heller, an economic adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and one of the leading figures of Kennedy’s “New Frontier,” has died of a heart attack in Washington, his daughter said today.

Heller, 71, died Monday night while visiting relatives in the Seattle area, said his daughter, Kaaren Davis.

Heller was chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1961-64 and served as a consultant to Johnson until the end of the Democrat’s Administration.

He most recently was professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota.

Derided Reagan Policies

Although Heller underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1978, he continued to make frequent appearances on television talk shows and before congressional committees.

Heller, designer of the 1964 tax cut that revived a flagging economy, derided the Reagan-embraced “supply-side” theory, calling it a “supply-side fairy tale.”

But he also advocated deficit spending to spur economic growth and supported federal revenue-sharing with states. His writings include “Monetary vs. Fiscal Policy,” written with Milton Friedman in 1969, and “The Economy” in 1976.