CATO Again Favor Thompson Over Ron Paul~Rupert Murdoch (owner of Faux Snooze) is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cato Institute. Perhaps he

Rupert Murdoch (owner of Faux Snooze) is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cato Institute. Perhaps he is holding the purse strings as well? So it seems, besides the Heritage Foundation, the respected CATO Institute is in the pocket of the new world order. (CFR)


CATO Again Favor Thompson Over Ron Paul
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
NEWS ANALYSIS


CATO has seemingly done it again. In what is turning into one of the more bizarre stories of the GOP primary season, the Libertarian CATO Institute continues to run articles favoring big government conservative and GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

It is no small matter to Libertarians in the country who have long seen CATO as a free-market bastion in the Washington DC swamp of entitlements and handouts.

CATO is founded by Ed Crane, a legendary founder of the Libertarian party itself. GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul is, in fact, a former Libertarian candidate for president, and thus was once the leader of Ed Crane's party.

It's all very strange, according to some supporters who are considering withdrawing their support from the venerable free-market institute. They don’t understand why there is not more overt support for “one of their own.”

FMNN recently ran a story on CATO’s support here:

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CATO’s Tanner: Thompson Support Small Gov – What of Ron Paul?
[link to www.freemarketnews.com]

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Here is the latest CATO Daily Dispatch on Fred Thompson, dated October 29.

[link to www.cato.org]
Thompson Alone Tackles Entitlements

"As baby boomers enter the starting gate into retirement, the cost of America's entitlement programs -- foremost, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- is projected to balloon to levels that are unsustainable," reports The Christian Science Monitor. "Already, those three programs make up 40 percent of the federal budget. … In the hyperpartisan atmosphere of the 2008 presidential campaign, the topic of entitlement programs is also a matter of dispute between parties. Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R) of Tennessee, the most impassioned candidate on entitlement spending, suggests that it's the nation's most important domestic problem -- and, alone among the top-tier Republican candidates, is willing to take the risky step of discussing cuts in benefits."

In "At Last a Small-Government Conservative?" Michael D. Tanner, Cato's director of health and welfare studies, writes:

"Republicans have been increasingly split between traditional small-government conservatives in the Reagan and Goldwater molds and a new breed of big-government conservatives who believe in using an activist government to achieve conservative ends -- even if it means increasing the size, cost, and power of government in the process. ... Most of the current candidates fall squarely into the big-government camp. ... Does Fred Thompson, then, offer an alternative for small-government conservatives? While he is not quite the second coming of Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan, a look at his record shows that he has generally supported limited government."

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FMNN previously summarized Fred Thompson’s record this way:

[link to www.freemarketnews.com]
Fred Thompson Vs. Ron Paul

While in congress, Thompson, reportedly a good friend of Senator John McCain, (R-AZ) supported two obviously anti-free market bills: the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform act and the Shays-Meehan bill restricting issue ads. He is also a member of Council on Foreign Relations, a main think-tank behind the idea of a North American Union that would eventually dissolve borders between Mexico, Canada and the United States to create one big super-nation. Thompson also seems to believe in a robust military presence worldwide and apparently advocates continued US military involvement in Iraq.

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Here is a bio of Ed Crane from Wikipedia

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Edward H. Crane is the founder and president of the Cato Institute. In the 1970s, he was one of the most active leaders of the Libertarian Party. He was the Party's national chairman from 1974 to 1977, and managed Ed Clark's high-profile 1978 campaign to be Governor of California. In 1977, with the funding of Charles Koch and the assistance of Murray Rothbard, Crane established the Cato Institute, which would grow into the best-known libertarian think-tank in the world.


[link to www.freemarketnews.com]