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The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) or officially the 'Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy', is a think tank founded in 1979 whose stated vision is the promotion of "the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility. The Institute believes these principles are best encouraged through policies that emphasize a free economy, private initiative, and limited government." The institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, and had $4.9M in revenue in 2005. [1] The Pacific Research Institute has associated with other think-tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute.

Contents

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

PRI's Director of Health Care Studies, John R. Graham, spoke at a Workshop at the 2011 American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Annual Meeting. The Workshop was titled, "Rationing By Any Other Name: Medicare's Independent Payment Advisory Board." According to his biography on the PRI webpage, he is also a "Senior Fellow of the National Center for Policy Analysis, Adjunct Scholar of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and member of the Board of Visitors of the Benjamin Rush Society of medical students and physicians.[2] ALEC, the National Center for Policy Analysis, and the MacKinac Center are all members of the State Policy Network, which was one of the sponsors of 2011 ALEC Annual meeting.[3][4]

ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) They fund almost all of ALEC's operations. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. It might be right. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. Learn more at ALECexposed.org.

PRI and the tobacco industry

In February 1987 Philip Morris executive Roy E. Marden sent a memo to other PM staff following a discussion with the then PRI President Chip Mellor "concerning their project on advertising and the market process". Marden noted the project was partially funded by Philip Morris". [5]

In 1998 Philip Morris was canvassing possible organizations that might be an ally in its Youth Smoking Prevention programs. A memo from Roy Marden described the Pacific Research Institute as "I am vice chairman of this SF policy group. They have recently begun an effort on child development/reduction of welfare dependency/etc., & I could explore with them if/where YSP could be involved. We are long-time donors". [6]

PRI and Healthcare

PRI head Sally Pipes, a Canadian residing in the United States, frequently speaks and writes against universal health care. Her bio lists as healthcare topics she had addressed "the false promise of a single-payer system as exists in Canada, pharmaceutical pricing, solving the problem of the uninsured, and strategies for consumer-driven health care." She also authored a 2004 book titled, "Miracle Cure: How to Solve America’s Health Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn’t the Answer." [1]

On the FOX News show "The O'Reilly Factor" on January 10, 2007, Pipes spoke against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to provide all state residents with healthcare. She warned that, "[I]f we provide health insurance, just like we provide welfare and education for illegal aliens, think about people that are illegal in other states. We're going to get a huge influx of illegal immigrants into California. And that's going to make it even more expensive [than the current system]." [2]

On December 26, 2011 Pipes posted the article "Doctors Say Obamacare is No Remedy for US Health Woes," to Forbes. In the article Pipes claims that nearly two-thirds of doctors expect the quality of care in this country to decline. Pipes cites the a recent survey done by the consulting giant Deloitte as evidence to her claims, but does not include the survey in her article. [7] Forbes contributor Rick Ungar responded to Pipes with the article "Koch Brothers Financed 'Research' Institute Steps Up Misleading Obamacare Attacks," in which Unger finds that Pipes incorrectly analyzed the survey results. [8]

PRI and Water Policy

PRI is based out of California, and has been involved in the water policy debate in that state. A publication released by PRI in December of 2008 suggested that the "problem for California is not lack of [water] supply but uneven distribution." PRI criticized California's current plan for facilitating distribution, which was based on state funded water projects. Instead, PRI suggested that distribution would be more properly managed through water markets, with consumers paying for water as any other consumable good. [9]

Areas of work

The PRI think tank lists the following as their goals:[10]

  • Education – to provide all students with access to a quality education
  • Business and Economics – to strike down barriers to economic growth and innovation
  • Health Care – to provide better quality and access to health-care while lowering costs
  • Technology – to identify and limit harmful government regulation in the technology sector
  • Environment – to sustain the trend toward a cleaner environment

They said these were their accomplishments in 2006:

  • Reached an audience of more than 475 million through print and online outlets throughout the year
  • On average, more than 100 articles citing PRI’s research published each month, 1,254 in total
  • Articles placed in all of the top 10 daily newspapers in the nation and in all papers nationwide, including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post.
  • Website page visits totaled over half a million, with 1.3 million pages viewed
  • Reached more than 40 million through radio and television nationwide

Staff

[11]

Former staff

Board of Directors

[12]

Former Board Members

Funding

According to Media Transparency, PRI obtained 117 grants totalling $8,904,800 (unadjusted for inflation) from foundations between 1985 and 2005.[13]

In 2003 PRI states that 50% of its income came from foundations, 13% from corporations and the remainder from individuals. [3] It lists foundation and corporate supporters who contributed over $10,000 in the 2003 financial year as:

Corporations

Foundations

The conservative Capital Research Center (CRC) Spotlight project provides some additional, though a little dated, information on PRI's major funders. CRC lists the Lilly Endowment as having contributed $175,000 annually between 1999 and 2002 (inclusive). [4]

Contact Details

San Francisco Headquarters
755 Sansome Street, Suite 450
San Francisco, CA 94111
Tel 415-989-0833
Fax 415-989-2411
Web:http://www.pacificresearch.org/

References

  1. ↑ Form 990 tax filing
  2. ↑ John R. Graham Pacific Research Institute. PacificResearch.org. Accessed Aug. 11, 2011.
  3. ↑ [American Legislative Exchange Council, 2011 Conference Sponsors and Workshops, conference brochure on file with CMD, August 11, 2011]
  4. ↑ Directory, State Policy Network. SPN.org. Accessed Aug. 11, 2011.
  5. ↑ R.E. Marden, Philip Morris Pacific Research Institute/Advertising Project Memorandum. 1 pp. February 26, 1987. Philip Morris Bates No.2023646840
  6. ↑ Roy Marden YSP ally possibilities Email to Tina Walls. October 22, 1998. Bates No. 2069615360
  7. ↑ Sally Pipes Doctors Say Obamacare is No Remedy for US Health Woes, Forbes, December 26, 2011
  8. ↑ Rick Ungar Koch Brothers Financed Research Institute Steps Up Obamacare Attacks, Forbes, December 27, 2011
  9. ↑ "Why Water Markets Should be Part of the Vision for the Delta and all of California" Pacific Research Institute Publication, December 2008.
  10. ↑ About page, Pacific Research Institute, accessed July 2007.
  11. ↑ Staff", Pacific Research Institute, accessed July 2007.
  12. ↑ Board of Directors, Pacific Research Institute, accessed December 2008.
  13. ↑ Grants to Pacific Research Institute, Media Transparency, accessed July 2007.

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