CATO Institute

The Cato Institute's building in Washington D.C..

The Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, is one of the America's most prominent nonprofit public policy research organizations, advocating less government involvement. Its research and reports cover numerous issues; such as the Second Amendment and gun rights versus the Police state, defense spending, social security and the Welfare state, monetary policy and fiscal conservatism, natural resource policy, international trade. Cato's current president is co-founder Edward Crane. The organization has approximately 95 full-time employees, 20 fellows, and 70 adjunct scholars, plus interns.

History

In 1977, Edward H. Crane and David H. Koch, formed the Institute with a $500,000 grant from Koch Industries (see Koch brothers), a chemical and petroleum company. They based the foundation in Washington D.C. and named it the Cato Institute, after a series essays by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon [1] written in the 18th century called the Cato Letters. Cato stated that “Cato’s Letters… presented a vision of a society free from the tyranny of excessive government power. Those same ideals inspired the architects of the American Revolution and continue to inspire the work of the Cato Institute today."

Goal

According to the Cato Institute's website, it[2],

“

Seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Toward that goal, the Institute strives to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, concerned lay public in questions of policy and the proper role of government.

”

Political Orientation

Although many of the Institute's political positions are shared by social conservatives, the Institute's brand of conservatism leans more libertarian. The Institute takes a laissez faire approach to marriage, calling the federal marriage amendment “unnecessary, anti-federalist, and anti-Democratic.”

The Institute also supports the total abolishment of several federal agencies including the agencies of Commerce, Education, Energy, Agriculture, Labor, Interior, Transportation and Veterans Affairs. Cato also supports the privatization of several federal services, including Social Security.

The Washington Post referring to Cato’s policies stated, “"A soup-to-nuts agenda to reduce spending, kill programs, terminate whole agencies and dramatically restrict the power of the federal government."

Funding

In 2005, the Cato Institutes revenues amounted to over 22.4 million, with approximately 80 percent of the funding coming from individual donations, and another 8 percent from corporations. It is classified as a tax-exempt educational foundation, falling under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Milton Friedman Prize

Every second year since 2002, the Cato Institute has awarded The Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty (named after British economist Milton Friedman) to an individual judged to have made a "significant contribution to advance human freedom". The recipients have been:

• 2002: British economist Peter Bauer
• 2004: Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto
• 2006: former Estonian President Mart Laar
• 2008: Venezuelan political activist Yon Goicoechea
• 2010: Iranian writer and journalist Akbar Ganji

See Also

• Cato Letters
• Conservative news organizations: Conservative Media, Conservative Magazines , Conservative blogs, Conservative columnists, Conservative news websites, Conservative video, Conservative Youtube channels, Conservative podcasts, First Amendment and the Constitution First Amendment Press Association ([3])
• Conservative Organizations: Major conservative organizations', Conservative think tanks, List of conservative, neoconservative and libertarian think tanks, Conservative Companies
• Conservative Links : Conservative resources, Conservative humor and satire resources
• Investing in Tangibles for Economic preparedness
• Stategic relocation: The Vote with your feet movement and American Redoubt - Free State Project - Free State Wyoming - Free states versus Non free states
• Fiscal conservatism: Ludwig von Mises' conservative libertarian Austrian economics and Capitalist Conservative economic policies of Ron Paul
• Limited government: Conservative values/Traditional values - Modern conservatism - Modern preparedness, Capitalism and Free enterprise are the original American Patriot Founding Fathers' values
• American values and Free enterprise-Capitalism
• Small town values of Real America
• Family values: Parental rights, Homeschooling and Parochial school
• Modern preparedness: "if times get tough, or even if then don't", Debt is financial cancer, Tax is theft, Renewable energy, Financial security, You are in control of your life
  • Invest in tangibles: Rural farm land, Tools, Food storage, Precious Metals, Copper-jacketed lead and Firearms
  • Agriculture-Permaculture-Gardening]: Growing your own food, Food storage and Water storage
• Essay:Conservative Benefits

Contrast With

• Liberal media elite: Mainstream media
• Liberalism: Liberal values, Similarities between Communism, Nazism and liberalism
• Public school values: Entitlement mentality Indoctrination of the Teacup Generation by Public schools in the United States and Common Core
• Teachers' unions: National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers
• Hollywood values: List of celebrities against Second Amendment - always Liberal Elitists
• San Francisco values: Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Leland Yee
• Fashion industry values: addiction and eating disorders
• Professor values and Political correctness
• Obamunism: Income redistribution of Obamanomics Economic planning of the Obama administration fiscal policy, Obama administration monetary policy, Obamacare, Federal funding via Crony capitalism (Obama donor list, Bailout, Obama administration corporate bailouts, Obamageddon)
• National Debt: Debt Ceiling-Deficit spending and the Federal Reserve System's Ponzi scheme of Quantitative easing-Debt monetization devaluation of Fiat currency through Money supply-Treasury bills bought mostly by China and Japan

• Globalization-Globalism: United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank
• Liberal Keynesian economics: John Maynard Keynes and Fabian Socialist influence on Barack Obama
• Banksters: Elitist Quantitative easing of the Federal Reserve Bank, MF Global, Goldman Sachs, AIG, Rothschild family, Bernie Madoff, Dianne Feinstein
• Big Government: Liberal ObamaCare-Common Core-Social Security Welfare state leads to Nanny state, leads to Gun control, Militarization of police, Asset forfeiture and Domestic mass surveillance of law-abiding citizens via the Police state: Globalist-United Nations-Statist-Socialist-National Socialist-Communist
• Militarization of Police: SWAT and Pre-dawn No-knock raids, Sneak and peek warrant
• The Perpetual War: War on Drugs, War on Terror and the Police state
• Asset Forfeiture: Confiscation for Police budget deficit via RICO
• Domestic Mass Surveillance of Law-Abiding Citizens: via Utah Data Center, PRISM, NSA-DHS-BATF-FBI-CIA and other Intelligence agencies' Computer surveillance, Eavesdropping, Data mining, Spyware, Wiretap - Roving wiretap, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, National security letter, Patriot Act, NDAA, Executive Orders, United States Census, Common Core, "Stasi"-like secret police "If You See Something, Say Something" informants, and other exponential expansion of the Police State
• Nazism and socialism: National Socialism - the Nazis were elitist Police state liberals not conservatives
• Liberal totalitarianism

External Link

• The Cato Institutes official website
• Cato Board of Directors