December 11, 2009
Soros Think Tank: 'How dare those billionaires get mixed up in policy!'
Apparently, George Soros's think tank, Center for American Progress, has a blind spot where irony is concerned.
CAP put out a progress report where they blasted the influence of billionaires in making public policy; specifically, the work of a conservative foundation that funds groups like Cato, the Heritage Foundation, and other free market organizations.
From IDB's Capitol Hill blog written by Sean Higgins:
The Center For American Progress sends out a daily "progress report" offering liberal spin on the issues du jour. Today CAP's report was headlined, "The Billionaires Behind The Hate." It was an attack on David and Charles Koch, wealthy philanthropists who, via their foundations, have supported free market groups such as the Heritage Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute.
The column's "how dare they fund public policy groups" pose is, to put it mildly, pretty disingenuous coming from an organization created by multi-billionaire George Soros, expressly for the purpose of pushing his public policy agenda.
Nevertheless the report described the Kochs as "looming in the background of every major domestic policy dispute this year" and "responsible for a vicious attack campaign aimed at obstructing and killing progressive reform." That's another way of saying the Kochs are weighing in on a public policy debate that has enormous, far reaching, effects for everybody.
Because they support free market groups, the Center tries to link the Kochs to every intemperate or outrageous outburst by anybody even tangentially connected with the tea party movement. That includes a person who carried a sign that said "National Socialist Health Care: Dauchau, Germany" at a rally held by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. No doubt the Kochs put the sign right in the fellow's hands.
I guess it depends whose billionaire is being gored.