Portal:Fix the Debt/Astroturf Partners

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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:

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]

  1. Suzy Khimm, How Fix the Debt is coping with its ‘fiscal cliff’ setback, Washington Post Wonkblog, January 11, 2013.
  2. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, CRFB, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
  3. Paul Blumenthal and Ryan Grim, CRFB Corporate Ties: Budget Watchdog Funded By Big Tobacco In 1990s Health Care Fight, Huffington Post, January 24, 2013.
  4. 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. 5.0 5.1 Peter G. Peterson Foundation, New America Foundation/Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
  6. Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Comeback America Initiative, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
  7. Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Committee for Economic Development, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
  8. Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Concord Coalition Corporation, organizational website, accessed January 2013.
  9. 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.