FreedomWorks, That Grass-Stained Organization

Original Link: http://agonyin8fits.blogspot.com/2009/03/freedomworks-that-grass-stained.html

You've all read that Megan McArdle is supporting her boyfriend's former organization, FreedomWorks, an ostensibly grass-roots organization.

Some background on FreedomWorks, from Right Wing Watch:

In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) and Empower America
merged to form FreedomWorks.

CSE
was founded by prominent right-wing funder David Koch in 1984. In the 1990s the group
"won plaudits from both the business community and GOP leaders" for its role in
mobilizing grassroots opposition against Clinton administration proposals on an
energy tax and health care, according to National Journal, which noted that
"Even some business lobbyists acknowledged that CSE has at times served as a fig leaf for corporate
lobbying efforts." CSE spent $1 million on a 1993 campaign against the
proposed energy tax, including advertising and bringing grassroots pressure on
Congress; most of the money came from corporations and trade groups such as the
American Petroleum Institute and the National Association of Manufacturers. CSE spent $5 million
against Clinton's health care proposal, dogging the White House's nationwide bus
tour with its own bus and rallies. For a 1997 campaign, CSE spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars per week running radio ads in 20 markets against proposed
new EPA air standards.

An internal CSE document obtained by The Washington Post in 2000 outlined the close correlation
between corporate donations and issue advocacy.

Empower America was founded in 1993, after Bill Clinton's election to
the presidency, as a kind of "shadow government" of policy advocacy, in the
words of co-founder Jack Kemp, a former congressman and Housing secretary and
future vice-presidential candidate. Gathering Kemp, Bush "drug czar" William
Bennett, former UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, and former Minnesota
congressman Vin Weber, The Wall Street Journal said the group "illustrates how
such tax-exempt nonprofits have become safe harbors for elite figures in the
conservative movement." Leading up to Kemp's 1996 bid, the group provided a
"base" for him "to make $1 million to $2 million a year" giving speeches, and it
played a key role in the Dole-Kemp campaign.

Its early activities included operating "candidate schools" for
Republicans in the 1994 elections, running attack ads against Clinton's health
plan, and opposing from the right an early Republican plan for welfare
reform.

Its agenda:

Its "freedom agenda" is headed by privatizing Social Security, implementing a flat tax and abolishing the estate tax, limiting tort liability, and expanding school vouchers. Other issues FreedomWorks is involved in include judicial nominations (it favors eliminating the filibuster), industrial and environmental regulation, immigration, and welfare.

FreedomWorks is supported at least in part by Bob Perry, who also funded the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Its chairman is Dick Armey and its vice chairman is Steve Forbes, both famously anti-tax for the rich. This grassroots organization is run by and funded by the richest people in America, for the richest people in America. They are implementing Step 2 of the plan to take all your money.

Step 1: Steal all the money you invested.
Step 2: Stop paying any taxes at all.
Step 3: Steal Social Security and Medicare.
Step4: Force you to work for third world wages.

This is not an evil scheme of world domination. This is corporations taking their interests to the next level, never stopping, never satisfied. Never stopped. And Megan's boyfriend was part of it, and probably will be again in the future. As she is now, working for the Atlantic.

Tool of the ruling elite, and proud of it.