Rational Grounds

We've already talked about Citizens for a Sound Economy and their various incarnations. This category does have gradations as well, though mainly along the Secrecy-axis. The Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Health Care does a pretty good job of looking legitimate, and has the benefit of folk wisdom behind their agenda, while The Future Faster is more easily identifiable as an industry group by the average skeptic. The Pass the Energy Bill site is just a shell for the purpose of collecting phone numbers and addresses and sending form letters.

Citizens Against Government Waste

What about Citizens Against Government Waste? Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) grew out of the Grace Commission, a 1982 Reagan initiative to root out government waste and abuse. This was a corporately staffed and funded commission, led by businessman Peter Grace, head of W.R. Grace Co. until 1993. (You may be more familiar with Grace Co.'s waste-disposal work in the Woburn, MA area around the same time.)

According to its website, CAGW receives 85% of its funding from individuals, with the other 15% coming from corporations or corporate foundations. Sounds pretty legit to me, right? It’s easy to imagine the millions of citizens honestly concerned with how their tax dollars are being spent ponying up some cash to help a like minded watchdog organization. Their website seems pretty straightforward, pointing out pork and other federal boondoggles. They criticize the drug war and the medical marijuana decision, and even corporate welfare! Where’s the angle there?

Well, if we take a quick stroll through the Prime Cuts Database, CAGW's comprehensive proposal to cut the waste out of the federal government, we can see some overarching trends emerge. From the "Government-Wide and Multi-Agency Recommendations" section:

• All federal agency IT investment decisions must be technology and vendor neutral, meaning no preference should be given to either open source or proprietary software.
• Allow agencies to enter into Energy Performance Savings Contracts (see the GAO's report on these from January)
• Limit the amounts obligated or expended for travel expenses for officers and employees of the federal government.
• Sell increasing portions of the government's direct loan portfolio to the private sector.
• Sell federal land lacking environmental significance in urbanized areas through competitive auctions.
• Prohibit the use of outside consultants.
• Prohibit the use of official time by government employees for union activities.
• Fully privatize of the three housing GSEs by eliminating lines of credit and imposing property taxes.
• Cut overhead costs in the executive branch.
• Sell most of the government's 1,200 civilian aircraft.
• Create emergency funds for disaster relief by requiring each agency to put aside 1 percent of its budget.
• Eliminate the Council of Economic Advisors.
• Sell most of the government's 602,000 non-tactical, non-postal vehicles.
• Cut regulatory agency budgets by 25 percent and enact a regulatory budget.
• Eliminate pork-barrel spending.
• Deregulate the electric industry, thereby reducing the cost of electricity to the federal government. ...

Deregulate. Sell off government equipment and property. Ease rules on access to government agencies. Go harder on unions. These are eleven of the first sixteen items in that section. Read through the rest yourself. This has much more to do with reducing the federal government and privatizing parts of it than fixing waste.

What do all these ideas have in common? Well, they probably all benefit the corporations and groups represented on CAGW's board of directors:

• Jack Anderson, Co-Founder (with Peter Grace) and Chairman
• Jeffrey P. Altman, Partner, McKenna & Cuneo, L.L.P.
• George S. Goldberger, Chief Administrative Officer, Progenitor Cell Therapy, L.L.C.
• Patrick P. Grace, President, MLP Capital, Inc.
• Thomas A. Schatz, President, Citizens Against Government Waste
• Hon. Vin Weber, Senior Partner, Clark & Weinstock, Inc.

McKenna & Cuneo (now McKenna Long and Aldridge) is "an international law firm comprised of nearly 375 lawyers and public policy advisors... Our clients are a mix of numerous Fortune 500 firms, mid-size companies, major government contractors, real estate developers and non-profit organizations of all types."

Progenitor Cell Therapy is "a client-based, cell engineering / cell therapy services company with facilities and personnel to serve client needs in the development of new cell therapy products."

Clark and Weinstock is "a consulting firm that specializes in reputation and crisis management, regulatory issues, mergers and acquisitions, public affairs, government and financial relations, and investment community relations." They work on "the positive positioning of clients and their important issues with the institutions, individuals, and audiences that will influence the outcome of client objectives."

So what do we make of this? Certainly, combating government waste is a noble effort, and one with widespread appeal. Citizens Against Government Waste does appear to do some above board work toward that goal. But much of their agenda has little to do with government waste and everything to do with lobbying for deregulation, outsourcing government responsibilities, and opening up departments for corporate contracts. Contrast this with groups like Project on Government Oversight and OMB Watch. These guys are serious about what government is supposed to do, and their directors are policy experts, academics, and veterans of non-profits.

Citizens Against Government Waste has been co-opted, likely from their very inception, by the corporate interests backing them. Does that make them astroturf? I don't know.