The Anti-State Coalition
Who makes up this well-organized and well-funded political movement dedicated to radically reducing American government?
To understand how the anti-government movement has become so powerful in this country, you need to appreciate the extensive network of organizations and groups involved in promoting its agenda. The anti-government coalition is much more extensive that it first appears. Conservative policymakers and the Republican Party are only the tip of the iceberg. There are several other different kinds of groups who are playing key roles in this effort to denigrate and reduce government. These groups include: think-tanks, the right-wing media, grassroots anti-tax organizations, and parts of the Christian Right. Even more important are two groups operating largely in the background funneling billions of dollars into the anti-government effort: wealthy conservative philanthropists and the business community.
Anti-Government Idea Factories
Ideas, information, and analysis are forms of political power. They are extremely useful for promoting and justifying particular policy positions. Conservative and libertarian think tanks have become a main source of this kind intellectual power for the anti-government movement. They have come to play an essential role by (1) refining the anti-government political philosophy; (2) developing a political language that frames current discussions and debates in ways that are inherently critical of government; (3) conducting studies to justify reducing government; and (4) providing the specific policy plans to implement this reduction. In effect, think tanks have become the intellectual arms dealers for the war on government – providing the intellectual ammunition needed by those who are fighting to de-fund and dismantle government.
Not all the activities of these think tanks are focused on anti-government policies – they also work on social issues, foreign policy, and other conservative concerns. But virtually all the main conservative think tanks do have an explicit commitment to reducing government and dedicate a substantial part of their work to this goal. The largest and most influential think tanks with anti-government agendas are the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Cato Institute. These organizations are now considered among the most powerful think tanks in Washington. As The Wall Street Journal observed: "No policy shop has more clout than the conservative Heritage Foundation.” The libertarian Cato Institute is one of the most vociferous in its attacks on government – and in the words of the Washington Post, “Cato is now the hot policy shop” in the capitol.
The prominence and influence of these conservative and libertarian idea factories is not surprising, given that their collective budgets are four times that of liberal think tanks.1 The Heritage Foundation alone has an annual budget of over $40 million; and it is estimated that over the last several decades, conservative donors have funneled over $1 billion into the top-twenty right-wing think tanks.2
The primary work of these organizations is to develop and push their anti-government/pro-business ideas to the press, policymakers and the public. They hire the best conservative experts in the areas of tax policy, welfare, privatization, environmental regulation, health care, Social Security, tort reform, education, and so on. These people churn out dozens of books and hundreds of articles a year. Their most important product, however, is the material created explicitly for the media and thus intended to affect the broader public. They churn out thousands of press releases, op-ed pieces, and editorials conveying their conservative – and largely anti-government – message. They also spend considerable time responding to reporter queries, appearing on television news and talk shows, and arranging press conferences to publicize their latest policy ideas.
Also influential are the policy handbooks put out by these organizations – books containing scores of specific policy proposals spanning the complete range of issues. The Washington Post described Cato’s Handbook on Policy as “a soups to nuts agenda to reduce spending, kill federal programs, terminate whole agencies and dramatically restrict the power of the federal government.” Among other things, the handbook advocates repealing all anti-trust laws, cutting virtually all federal student aid programs, eliminating all welfare programs, and terminating the Medicaid health care program for the poor – just a few of the more than 100 programs it wants to eradicate.
These handbooks are used as policy blueprints by many conservative lawmakers, administrators, and their staffs. The Reagan administration said publicly that it relied heavily on the 3,000-page, 20-volume set of policy recommendations compiled by the Heritage Foundation, and the think tank later claimed that that the administration implemented 60 to 65 percent of Heritage’s policy recommendations. George W. Bush’s administration also used similar tomes from Heritage, Cato, and other think tanks as guides for its policy initiatives.
Importantly, these flagship conservative think tanks are only the tip of the iceberg. There is now a vast network of almost 500 right-wing think tanks spread across the fifty states – a staggering number.3 Some, like the Heartland Institute in Illinois, produce conservative policy “play books” for state legislatures. Others focus on specific policy areas. For example, there are several legal think tanks – like the Mountain States Legal Foundation – that specialize in developing legal attacks against environmental laws and regulations.