I'm not going to let this happen in my city without making some noise.

Mercatus Institute Funding

According to a September article in Harper's magazine, Tentacles of Rage, the top conservative donors to the Republican noise machine are as follows:

2 BILLION ASSETS CONSERVATIVE FOUNDATIONS (200I ASSETS)

				  (in $ Millions)
The Bradley Foundation			584 
Smith Richardson Foundation			494 
Scaife Family (Four Foundations)		478.4
Earhart Foundation				84
John M. Olin Foundation 			71
Koch Family (Three Foundations) 		68
Castle Rock (Coors) Foundation		50
JM Foundation				25 
Philip M. McKenna Foundation		17.4

Since 1985, the Mercatus Institute has received 513 grants totaling $45,347,884. Their top donors have been as follows:

• Koch Family (Includes Claude Lambe Foundation): $24,258,797
• Olin Foundation: $7,530,824
  
• Scaife Family (includes Carthage Foundation): $5,031,000
  
• Bradley Foundation: $2,5544,050
  
• Barre Seid: $2,212,000
  
• Earhart Foundation: $996,348
  
• McKenna: $265,000
  
• Jacquelin Hume Foundation: $260,000
  
• Smith Richardson: $254,315
  
• The Walton Family (Wal-Mart): $120,000
  
• JM Foundation: $85,000
  
• Castle Rock Foundation: $75,000

The top twelve donors to the Mercatus Institute include the entire top nine conservative donors. The other three are "conservative angel"Barre Seid, big-time conservative donor Jacquelin Hume, and the Walton family. Together, these twelve sources of funding make up over 95% of the Mercatus Institute's funding since it was founded in 1985. Several of the smaller donors not listed here are also uber-conservative donors.

I am writing this so that there can be no mistake about the Mercatus Institute. It is not partially funded by right-wing donations, it is entirely funded by all of the most active conservative donors. The Mercatus Institute is part of the Republican Noise Machine. Why this is a problem and what I plan to do about it is in the extended entry.

Tim Roemer Participates in The Republican Noise Machine

Last week Tim Romer wrote the following email to Democratic congressional chiefs of staff (emphasis mine):

Dear Fellow Democrats,

I would like to encourage you to join me in Philadelphia on February 4th and 5th, 2005 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel for the 2005 Chief of Staff Retreat. This Retreat is probably the best opportunity of the year for gathering with other senior-level congressional staff both from our party but also with our colleagues across the aisle.

The Retreat is hosted by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. I have been affiliated with this organization for the past two years in an effort to promote sound economic thinking that leads to a more prosperous and fiscally responsible America. The Mercatus Center is a non-profit and non-partisan group that seeks to educate congressional staff about markets, global prosperity for the poor and economics as they relate to the issues you are working on in your congressional or committee office.

This year's program is highly relevant to the issues facing the 109th Congress. We will discuss topics ranging from drug reimportation to Social Security, tax and pension reform, to understanding learning disparities between black and white children.

This past Sunday, on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Roemer declared that he was opposed to Bush's plan for destroying Social Security and defended his vote against Clinton's 1993 budget but in favor of Bush's 2001 budget. To say the least, his already difficult to swallow defense becomes far more difficult to swallow when he is actively working with the Republican Noise Machine to influence Democratic congressional staffers about Social Security and taxes (for an eloquent article about Romer's position on reproductive rights, read this piece by caliliberal).

Yesterday I participated in a conference call with Howard Dean about his newly declared candidacy for chair of the DNC. The majority of Dean's discussion was about how he planned to bring the grassroots into the party. This forms quite a contrast with Roemer, who is not only working on behalf of the ultra-rich, but of the most active, radically conservative ultra-rich.

I would like to hold a protest against the Mercatus Institute retreat for Democrats. We need to tell those who attend this retreat that they should not be talking to the Republican Noise Machine, but they should be talking to the grassroots. We need to tell those Democrats who work on behalf of the Republican Noise Machien that they should be working with us instead. We are never going to change this country if we do not create a counter to the Republican Noise Machine, but actively working on behalf of the Machine will only serve to hasten the damage conservatives are doing to this country. I have already talked with the head of the steering committee for Philadelphia DFA about this, and she is on board. I am sending this article to every member of the steering committee. If either you or an affiliated organization you are involved with are interested in participating in this protest, please email me at chris@mydd.com. Together, we can take back our party.