CATO is the linchpin in the Koch’s Brother’s policy and legislation network. Charles Koch provided the initial funding, and was intimately involved in its creation alongside Murray Rothbard and Ed Crane. CATO’s objective is to drive policy, media coverage and “societal” changes.
CATO staff have created research and policy papers that underpin many right-wing political positions, often providing the intellectual heft for the Republican party. CATO has helped drive the GOP’s anti-union efforts and the party’s relentless push for privatization. The think-tank provides the policy support behind the GOP’s opposition to minimum wage laws, public schools, affirmative action and anti-trust laws. CATO (and the Kochs) have been extremely successful at turning these priorities into policy through the vehicle of the Republican party. The institute helped undermine campaign finance laws, pushed tax cuts and drove the effort to privatize social security.
Many of these policies have directly or indirectly benefited the wealthiest Americans like the Koch brothers.
CATO of course, has other policies it promotes. It produces research advocating for decreased military intervention, questioning police brutality and advocating for legalizing marijuana. Yet somehow, the institute has worked far less diligently at turning these priorities into concrete policies and legislation. Perhaps because they don’t directly impact the Koch brother’s pocketbooks. It’s almost enough to make one believe CATO as an institution pays lip-service to these issues merely to maintain some semblance of a credibility as a “libertarian” rather than “Republican” think-tank.
Through it all, for over 40 years, Ed Crane has been at the center of it all. And now, Politico reports:
Three former employees of the famed Cato Institute say they were sexually harassed by Ed Crane, the 73-year-old co-founder and president emeritus of the think tank and one of the most recognizable figures in the libertarian movement.
One former employee said Crane asked her to take off her bra. Another said he compared her breasts to pornographic images on his computer. A third said he sent her an email on breast augmentation. Crane also settled an additional sexual harassment claim by a former employee in 2012, her lawyer confirmed to POLITICO. [...]
Crane retains the title of president emeritus at Cato and was paid more than $400,000 annually from the powerful think tank in the years after he left, but a Cato spokesperson said his consulting contract has ended and he is no longer employed by the think tank.
— www.politico.com/...
Crane would routinely view pornography at work and several employees confirmed the allegations that he harassed female employees. Former employees describe hiring practices that focused on recruiting attractive young women.
— @subirgrewal