Some of America’s largest technology and telecoms companies,
including Facebook, Microsoft and AT&T, are backing a network of
self-styled “free-market thinktanks” promoting a radical rightwing
agenda in states across the nation, according to a new report by a
lobbying watchdog.
The Center for Media and Democracy asserts that
the State Policy Network (SPN), an umbrella group of 64 thinktanks
based in each of the 50 states, is acting as a largely beneath-the-radar
lobbying machine for major corporations and rightwing donors.
Its policies include cutting taxes, opposing climate change
regulations, advocating reductions in labour protections and the minimum
wage, privatising education, restricting voter rights and lobbying for
the tobacco industry.
The network’s $83.2m annual warchest comes from major donors. These
include the Koch brothers, the energy tycoons who are a mainstay of Tea
Party groups and climate change sceptics; the tobacco company Philip
Morris and its parent company Altria Group; the food giant Kraft; and
the multinational drugs company GlaxoSmithKline.
More surprisingly, backers also include Facebook and Microsoft, as
well as the telecoms giants AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon.
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