Conservative Groups Behind Attack On Medicaid Exposed

The Guardian and the Texas Observer have gotten their hands on documents detailing the funding of one particular think tank that wants to sabotage Medicaid.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) [is] an influential thinktank funded largely by rightwing foundations, corporations and wealthy Texans. TPPF has been instrumental in preventing increased spending on Medicaid and other social welfare programs in Texas. Perry, Cruz, Cornyn and other politicians frequently turn to TPPF to help make the intellectual case for reducing government involvement in healthcare. The press conference was part of TPPF’s multi-year strategy to remake Medicaid in accordance with free-market principles. The thinktank would later claim credit for helping block Medicaid expansion in Texas under Obamacare.

Now, new documents show how TPPF and another conservative group, the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute, coordinate their attacks on the public sector with a far-flung network of conservative organizations and funders. The documents – obtained by the Guardian and shared with the Observer – contain 40 funding proposals from 34 states, offering a glimpse of the conservative agenda for 2014.

The proposals were shepherded by the State Policy Network, a coalition of groups that act as incubators of right-wing policy at the state level. The proposals were to be funded by the Searle Freedom Trust, a private foundation that pumps money into right-wing, corporate-friendly organizations. The intermediary between Searle and the State Policy Network, the Guardian reports, was Stephen Moore, an editorial writer with the Wall Street Journal and an occasional speaker at TPPF events, including a January “plenary session” Moore hosted with senators Cruz and Cornyn.

The Guardian and Observer have taken the liberty of posting all the paperwork that fell into their hands here.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.