Jump to full article: SourceWatch (Center for Media & Democracy), 2006-11-04
Intro: Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) is a powerful industry-funded think tank, promoting deregulation. It was founded by Koch Industries interests and continues to maintain strong links. In 2003, an internal rift between CSE and its affiliated Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation led to a split in which CSEF was renamed as a separate organization, called Americans For Prosperity.
In July 2004, CSE announced it was merging with Empower America to create FreedomWorks. [1]
CSE is often described as a "consumer group," but according to internal documents leaked to the Washington Post, 85 percent of its 1998 funding came from major corporations. "The 'citizens' in question [are] companies like Amoco, Bell Atlantic, Citibank, General Electric and General Motors", Washington Babylon explains (p. 15). . . .
In August 2003 Oregon Senate proposed to balance the state's budget by adding a range of tax measures to a bill renewing a 10-cents a pack cigarette tax that had been in place for a decade.
The bill became a tempting target for CSE, which proceeded gather 50,420 petition signatures from registered voters to place the question of overturning the bill on the ballot for February 2004.
"Our aim is to be the voice of the right like Ralph Nader is the voice of the Green movement," CSE's Oregeon director, Russ Walker, told the Statesman Journal.
As to whether the tobacco industry was helping fund the campaign remains unclear but Walker is relaxed about corporations funding their campaigns. "For me, it doesn't seem unusual that a company would look at us and say, 'You guys are doing the hard work, maybe we should give money to them,' â€| We by no means ever turn away that kind of funding," he told the journal.
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