Portal:Fix the Debt/Astroturf Partners
Pete Peterson has given at least $5 million to Fix the Debt, according to the Washington Post.[1] Fix the Debt is listed as a project of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) on CRFB's website. Peterson has long funded CRFB and served on its board.[2] CRFB is itself a project of the New America Foundation (NAF). In the 1990s, CRFB partnered with tobacco firms, anxious to avoid higher excise taxes on cigarettes, to tank the Clinton health care plan.[3] Today, critics claim CRFB is a "Trojan Horse" for a similar agenda to cut taxes for wealthy corporations who want to create a territorial tax system.[4]
The Peter G. Peterson Foundation funds at least six of the "partner" organizations listed on Fix the Debt's website:
- Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget/New America Foundation: $2,050,000,[5]
- The Moment of Truth Project: $300,000 (another project of CRFB),[5]
- Comeback America Initiative: $3,100,000,[6]
- Committee for Economic Development: $1,853,616,[7] and
- Concord Coalition: $6,036,060 (including $1,500,000 in matching funds).[8]
With regard to Fix the Debt and its many partner organizations, the National Journal observed: "Singlehandedly, Peterson has created a loose network of deficit hawk organizations that seem independent but that all spout the Peterson-sanctioned message of a 'grand bargain.'"[9]
- ↑ Suzy Khimm, How Fix the Debt is coping with its ‘fiscal cliff’ setback, Washington Post Wonkblog, January 11, 2013.
- ↑ Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, CRFB, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
- ↑ Paul Blumenthal and Ryan Grim, CRFB Corporate Ties: Budget Watchdog Funded By Big Tobacco In 1990s Health Care Fight, Huffington Post, January 24, 2013.
- ↑ Institute for Policy Studies, The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks, organizational report, November 13, 2012.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Peter G. Peterson Foundation, New America Foundation/Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
- ↑ Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Comeback America Initiative, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
- ↑ Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Committee for Economic Development, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
- ↑ Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Concord Coalition Corporation, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
- ↑ Nancy Cook, Billionaire Peterson Sounds Alarm on Deficit, National Journal, November 26, 2012. NB: CAP received half a million dollars from the Peterson Foundation in 2011.
