>Who cares what the libertarians say. We are more interested in what they
>do. The Cato Institute is a think-tank that provides ammunition for
>right-wing politicians who are trying to turn back the clock to the
>Victorian era. That they have largely succeeded is a function of the
>ability of Cato, Heritage Foundation, and other inside-the-beltway outfits
>to push the political agenda to the right. When votes are cast in favor of
>ending welfare because of the steady drum-beat emanating from such outfits,
>people die. The money from right-wing corporations like Koch oil, Coors
>beer and Olin-Mathensin arms keeps these think-tanks in fighting trim. Our
>fight is not with libertarian philosophy, it is with a section of the
>ruling-class that wants to grind the workers into the dust.
One reason these right-wing think tanks are so successful is that they know how to coddle the press. If you call their PR office looking for, say, a radio guest on a specific topic, they've got one for you in minutes. (They do almost no original research; Max's EPI is one of the few DC think tanks that does serious new work.) Call, say, Citizens for Tax Justice or the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and you're lucky to get the call returned by the time the show airs - not by the potential guest, but by the press officer. Cato can get you someone to talk about the virtues of social security privatization inside 5 minutes.
Doug