The free-market-promoting Competitive Enterprise Institute receives funding from the drug lobby. When an issue arises where the drug lobby’s position is at odds with the Institute’s stated principles of free enterprise, the Institute sides with free enterprise instead of with their donor.
It says something about the way the Left works, perhaps, that a liberal magazine finds this odd. Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones follows up on her Obamacare-must-be-great-if-the-biggest-hospitals-like-it piece with an article asking “Why Is Big Pharma Financing a Conservative Group Trying to Destroy Obamacare?”
This isn’t a connect-the-dots type piece that finds a special interest behind a push for a profitable policy. No, it’s a “hey, Big Pharma, stop cavorting with libertarians, instead dance with the one that brought you” piece.
The highlights:
I served a fellowship at the Competitive Enterprise Institute last decade, and I’m currently a fellow at another pro-free-enterprise think tank mentioned in the piece, the American Enterprise Institute. Both of these organizations have corporations among their donors. Both organizations are very clear that their donors don’t get to influence the policies advocated by scholars. That’s the way any reputable think tank works. Mencimer seems to think there’s something wrong with this.
