Center for Freedom and Prosperity
For Immediate Release
Monday, April 6, 2015
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org
Coalition for Tax Competition Calls for Ending Taxpayer Subsidies to OECD
(Washington, D.C., Monday, April 6, 2015) The Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P), joined by representatives from 20 influential free market and taxpayer advocacy organizations, today sent a letter to members of Congress calling on them to protect the interests of U.S. taxpayers by defunding the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Link to the letter: http://freedomandprosperity.org/files/OECD/ctc-OECDFunding-2015-04-06.pdf
The Coalition for Tax Competition letter cites the OECD’s work opposing tax competition, eroding privacy rights, and promoting big government programs. The letter further argues that U.S. taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the ideological work of an international organization that increasingly works to lower the standard of living for American citizens. The U.S. provided over 21% percent of the total OECD budget in 2014.
The free-market and taxpayer advocacy groups called on Congress to take the sensible and financially prudent step of ending subsidies to the Paris-based bureaucracy, writing:
“There’s never a good time to ask American taxpayers to fund lavish paychecks for international bureaucrats working against their interests, but it’s especially egregious to do so when Washington can’t balance the budget. The undersigned organizations call upon Congress to defund the OECD.”
Andrew Quinlan, President of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, explained, “The OECD has been turned into an advocacy group for rich-nation finance ministers.” He continued, “If OECD bureaucrats truly believe the work they do is worthwhile, they can appeal to the market for voluntary contributions like every other ideological organization.”
CF&P Chairman and Cato Institute Senior Fellow Dan Mitchell added, “On a per-dollar-spent basis, funding for the OECD may be the federal government’s most economically destructive outlays.”
The coalition letter was signed by:
Andrew Quinlan ~ President, Center for Freedom & Prosperity
Grover Norquist ~ President, Americans for Tax Reform
Pete Sepp ~ President, National Taxpayers Union
Phil Kerpen ~ President, American Commitment
J. Bradley Jansen ~ Director, Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights
Seton Motley ~ President, Less Government
David Williams ~ President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Bob Bauman ~ Chairman, Sovereign Society Freedom Alliance
Tom Giovanetti ~ President. Institute for Policy Innovation
George Landrith ~ President, Frontiers of Freedom
Iain Murray ~ Vice President, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Andrew Moylan ~ Executive Director, R Street Institute
Tom Schatz ~ President, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
Sabrina Schaeffer ~ Executive Director, Independent Women’s Forum
James L. Martin ~ Chairman, 60 Plus Association
Heather Higgins ~ President, Independent Women’s Voice
Lew Uhler ~ President, National Tax Limitation Committee
Karen Kerrigan ~ President, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
Wayne Brough ~ Chief Economist and Vice President of Research, FreedomWorks
John Tate ~ President, Campaign for Liberty
Richard Manning ~ President, Americans for Limited Government
For additional comments:
Andrew Quinlan can be reached at 202-285-0244, andy@freedomandprosperity.org
Brian Garst, Dir. of Policy and Communications, can be reached at bgarst@freedomandprosperity.org
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