Right Web

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Empower America, a group founded by former Education Secretary William Bennett in 1993 that after 9/11 helped promote militarist “war on terror” policies, merged in 2004 with Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a rightist pro-free market think tank, to create a new group called FreedomWorks.1 (National Review, September 13, 2004). FreedomWorks focuses mainly on traditional “less-government” issues such as promoting lower taxes and free market healthcare. Commenting on the merger, which occurred during the lead-up to the 2004 presidential election, Bill Berkowitz wrote in a report for MediaTransparency: “Stealing a page from MoveOn.org’s successful organizing playbook, the leaders of FreedomWorks—a complete merger of the conservative think-tanks Citizens for a Sound Economy and Empower America—hope to conduct massive get out the vote and political education campaigns in the swing states on behalf of President George W. Bush. The two groups decided to merge because there was ‘an overlap in issues between the two organizations,’ Shawn Small, the director of policy at Empower America, told me in a telephone interview. It was an opportunity to bring together Empower America, which Small characterized as a 'grasstops' organization driven by such inside the beltway ‘superstars’ as William Bennett, Vin Weber, and Jean Kirkpatrick and CSE's ‘grassroots’ following.”2 Despite the claims of overlap, FreedomWorks has largely abandoned the get-tough foreign policy advocacy that characterized much of Empower America's work, especially in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Among Empower's more notable efforts during the early years of the “war on terror” was the creation of the Bill Bennett-led Americans for Victory over Terrorism (AVOT), an advocacy outfit closely aligned with pro-war neoconservative groups that helped push public opinion to support the invasion of Iraq. AVOT eventually merged with the conservative Claremont Institute. Conservative businessman Steve Forbes is on the FreedomWorks Foundation’s board of directors.3 Led by former House Republican Dick Armey of Texas, FreedomWorks' main agenda items include promoting a slate of rightist domestic policies, mainly dealing with the economy.4 On foreign policy and the war on terror, FreedomWorks focuses on advocating free trade agreements and pushing through immigration reform, including border security. According to the group’s website, “Large-scale illegal border crossings—the vast majority for economic reasons—are compromising the security of America's borders.”5 Indeed, “border security” is as close as FreedomWorks now gets to covering security-related issues. The mission statement for FreedomWorks reads: “FreedomWorks fights for lower taxes, less government, and more economic freedom for all Americans. FreedomWorks combines the stature and experience of America’s greatest policy entrepreneurs with the grassroots power of hundreds of thousands of volunteer activists all over the nation.”6 A 2007 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists listed FreedomWorks’ precursor, CSE, as an organization that received substantial money from Big Oil and provided “disinformation on global warming”: “CSE received $275,250 from ExxonMobil in 2001, an increase from $30,000 the year before. CSE merged with Empower America and became FreedomWorks in 2004. FreedomWorks maintains that the science of climate change is ‘far from settled’ and cites scientists such as Sallie Baliunas”—an astrophysicist who has criticized theories of global warming.7 In both 2004 and 2005, the Scaife Foundation gave $250,000 for general operating funds to FreedomWorks, which also received numerous other grants.8 According to MediaTransparency, in 2005 the revenues for FreedomWorks were $3.8 million.9 FreedomWorks also made hundreds of thousands of dollars through a plan designed by Citizens for a Sound Economy in 2000 in which people buying tax-free medical savings accounts sold by Medical Savings Insurance Co. were asked to become members of the advocacy group. The plan, which has been the subject of a class-action lawsuit begun in 2005, was challenged on the basis that insurance holders were not made clearly aware that they were becoming members of the CSE when signing on. According to the lawsuit's motion for class-action status, "The certificates of insurance issued to class members, despite the clear language contained herein, did not disclose the identity of the Group Policyholder [CSE, and later FreedomWorks] of the group policy, despite the fact that each putative insured must 'join' and pay money to such group as a condition of obtaining insurance.”10 About Empower America According to its mission statement, Empower America was "devoted to ensuring that government actions foster growth, economic well-being, freedom, and individual responsibility. The ideas that have fueled America's stunning economic expansion—opportunity, competition, ownership, and freedom—must be the framework for reform of century-old public systems such as K-12 education, the tax code, and social security. Uniquely positioned in Washington, Empower America bridges the gap between the array of think tanks that produce white papers on the public-policy debate and the actual enactment of policy. In implementing our free-market, entrepreneurial principles into law, we are convinced, through actual experience, that we are the most effective 'delivery' system in existence."11 On national security, the group pushed for a "strong and proactive—but distinctively American—foreign policy, one that rejects both short-sighted isolationism and imprudent multilateralism. We believe that the federal government is primarily responsible for guaranteeing the safety of its citizens. Therefore, our goals are twofold: to insure that the U.S. military is prepared for any challenge it may face, and to rapidly deploy an effective missile defense to protect American citizens and allies." According to writer James D'Entremont, "While Empower America bills itself as a 'nonpartisan, nonprofit organization,' its board of directors is a blue-ribbon panel of right-wing pro-corporate Republicans, and the organization itself is a kind of stepchild of the Heritage Foundation. Amazingly for a nonprofit entity, Empower America proudly declares political candidates to be among its 'products.' Its popular training sessions for reactionary candidates have enhanced the success of the pro-business theocratic right in recent years."12 Among Empower America's main outputs was the yearly publication of “The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators,” which billed itself as a “compilation of facts and figures about the state of American society.”13 Bennett's introduction to the 2001 index stated: "By many measures, the state of our union is extraordinarily strong. We live in a time of peace and unprecedented prosperity. Citizens of America live longer, and more comfortably, than any other citizens in history. The average American today enjoys luxuries undreamed of by the richest and most powerful of kings in the last century." The report also celebrated the country's unrivalled leadership in the world, likening the United States to a "colossus." Wrote Bennett: "In terms of military and foreign affairs, we bestride the world like Colossus. Our military dominance is arguably as great as any other nation's in history. No nation is perfect, but to a degree unlike any other nation, we have used our power to advance the causes of liberty, human rights, and democracy worldwide."