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Job Creators Network jcn

dormant?

booster for voodoo tax bill, ironic b/c corps buy stock back, not hire ppl:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/03/28/ginni-thomas-crowdsourcers-anonymous-donations/

ref

a little-known conservative activist group led by Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, collected nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations to wage a cultural battle against the left over three years, a Washington Post investigation found.

The previously unreported donations to the fledgling group Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty were channeled through a right-wing think tank in Washington that agreed to serve as a funding conduit from 2019 until the start of last year, according to documents and interviews. The arrangement, known as a “fiscal sponsorship,” effectively shielded from public view details about Crowdsourcers’ activities and spending, information it would have had to disclose publicly if it operated as a separate nonprofit organization, experts said.

The Post’s investigation sheds new light on the role money from donors who are not publicly identified has played in supporting Ginni Thomas’s political advocacy, long a source of controversy. The funding is the first example of anonymous donors backing her activism since she founded a conservative charity more than a decade ago. She stepped away from that charity amid concerns that it created potential conflicts for her husband on hot-button issues before the court.

Thomas’s activism has set her apartfrom other spouses of Supreme Court justices. She has allied with numerous people and groups that have interests before the court, and she has dedicated herself to causes involving some of the most polarizing issues in the country.

In 2020, she privately pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue efforts to overturn the presidential election, and she sent emails urging swing-state lawmakers to set aside Joe Biden’s popular-vote victory in awarding electoral votes. When those efforts were revealed by The Post last year, they intensified questions about whether her husband should recuse himself from cases related to the election and attempts to subvert it.

In recent months, the high court has faced increasing scrutiny over a range of ethical issues, including the lack of transparency surrounding potential conflicts of interest and a whistleblower’s claimthat wealthy Christian activists sought access to justices at social gatherings to shore up their resolve on abortion and other conservative priorities.

In a brief statement to The Post, Mark Paoletta, a lawyer for Ginni Thomas, said she was “proud of the work she did with Crowdsourcers, which brought together conservative leaders to discuss amplifying conservative values with respect to the battle over culture.”

“She believes Crowdsourcers identified the Left’s dominance in most cultural lanes, while conservatives were mostly funding political organizations,” Paoletta wrote. “In her work, she has complied with all reporting and disclosure requirements.”

He wrote: “There is no plausible conflict of interest issue with respect to Justice Thomas.”

A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court did not respond to questions for Clarence Thomas.

In 2019, anonymous donors gave the think tankCapital Research Center, or CRC, $596,000 that was designated for Crowdsourcers, according to tax filings and audits the think tank submitted to state regulators. The majority of that money, $400,000, was routed through yet another nonprofit, Donors Trust, according to that organization’s tax filings. Donors Trust is a fund that receives money from wealthy donors whose identities are not disclosed and steers it toward conservative causes.

The documents do not say how or whether the money was spent. It is not clear how much compensation, if any, Ginni Thomas received.

CRC, which bills itself as an “investigative think tank,” is dedicated to uncovering anonymously funded influence campaigns by unions, environmental groups and other left-leaning nonprofits. Among its trustees is Edwin Meese III, the conservative elder statesman and former attorney general in the Reagan administration. Its president is Scott Walter, a former aide to President George W. Bush.

Around the time CRC agreed to channel the anonymous donations to Crowdsourcers, CRC signed a brief asking the Supreme Court to hear a case that conservative groups hoped would rein in fuel emission regulations in Oregon, records show. The court voted not to take up the case. As is routine, the votes of the individual justices were not disclosed.

Paoletta wrote that “Ginni Thomas had no knowledge of nor any connection whatsoever to an amicus brief CRC joined.”

Walter did not respond to requests for comment.

Meese said in a brief telephone interview that CRC’s trustees agreed to the arrangement because Crowdsourcers “was a group that had similar objectives and it was felt it would be helpful to them.” Such arrangements are common among other nonprofits, experts said.

Former CRC chairman Michael Franc told The Post that it was “a courtesy for this group so that it could get going without having to start up on its own, something to ease the ability of this group to raise and use their money.”

Walter proposed the Crowdsourcers arrangement to the think tank’s board members and mentioned Ginni Thomas’s involvement, Franc said.

Seeking ‘culture warriors’

On May 18, 2019, Thomas told influential right-wing donors and activists about Crowdsourcers in a private meeting, video from the event shows. The left, she said, was pushing “cultural Marxism” and “eroding the pillars of our country.”

“We have some culture warriors, but we have a lot more to do,” Thomas said at a meeting of the Council for National Policy in Northern Virginia, according to the video, which was obtained by the nonprofit watchdog Documented and has been previously reported. “Conservatives and Republicans are tired of being the oppressed minority."

[pix vid]

May 18, 2019, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, presented Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty in McLean, Virginia. (Video: Council for National Policy via Documented)

The concept for Crowdsourcers had taken shape during discussions with “35 of the best thinkers about what the left is doing,” she said.

Mitchell, chair of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, speaks at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Camp Hill, Pa., in April 2022. (Matt Rourke/AP)

O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on March 4. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Thomas said partners in the effort included Cleta Mitchell, chair of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a nonprofit that submits amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in election law cases. Mitchell planned to establish a political action committee to “protect President [Donald] Trump,” according to a slide Thomas displayed during the closed-door meeting. James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas — known for hidden-camera stings that aim to embarrass liberals — would lead an effort to “protect our heroes,” she said. And Richard Viguerie, a pioneer in conservative direct-mail campaigns, would head up an effort to “brand the left,” she said.

Mitchell said in a brief phone interview that she did not know anything about Crowdsourcers and that nothing ever came of the political action committee.

“Ginni has asked me over the years to do a lot of different things,” she said. “I always try to respond.”

O’Keefe and Viguerie did not respond to requests for comment.

Thomas described herself as having a key role in bringing Crowdsourcers together. “I’m not the answer person. If anyone knows me, you know this. I’m merely a convener,” she said. “I find the talent and I put them in a room and I help them talk to one another.”

She said the group was “now under” the Capital Research Center, though she did not mention the funding. It is not clear exactly when in 2019 the anonymous donations were made.

Crowdsourcers had held its first meeting four months earlier at the Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, Va., a 340-acre bucolic retreat with equestrian facilities. Attendees at the January 2019 meeting gathered for dinner and met in a conference room the next day, splitting into several groups — each dedicated to a theme such as politics, education or family — to brainstorm ways to counter the left, said a person who attended and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private event.

Members communicated through a private Google group, emails obtained by The Post show. The emails contained warnings not to share information that would reveal the identities of the group’s members. “ABSOLUTELY … DO NOT FORWARD EMAILS FROM HERE WITHOUT REMOVING ALL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION FROM THIS LISTSERV,” warned one.

In February 2019, Thomas’s assistant emailed the Google group announcing the addition of new members, including Charlie Kirk, president of the pro-Trump student group Turning Point USA; Larry Solov, chief executive of Breitbart News; and Allen B. West, a former Republican congressman from Florida. Thomas replied, “WELCOME new leaders!!!”

Both Thomas and her assistant used email addresses belonging to her for-profit consulting business, Liberty Consulting.

In that same message, Thomas wrote that she had been trying to raise money for Crowdsourcers. “We had many great meetings with interested donors, but we don’t yet have specific funding yet, so prayers still needed,” she wrote.

She added that Crowdsourcers’ next biweekly conference call would include a presentation from Steve Hantler, an adviser to Bernie Marcus, a Home Depot co-founder and major conservative donor. Hantler is listed as the “principal officer” in a nonprofit group called theJob Creators Network Foundation, its tax filings show. The group has in recent years asked the Supreme Court to strike down the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program.

Hantler declined to comment. Spokespeople for Kirk and West did not provide comment for this story. A spokeswoman for Solov said that “sometimes Breitbart people get put on informational lists ... to know what people are thinking and doing.”

By late 2019, Crowdsourcers had engaged Tim Clark, who spearheaded Trump’s 2016 campaign in California, to serve as its national director.

In an email obtained by The Post, Clark issued an invitation to a March 2020 public launch of the group. He made clear that Crowdsourcers did not have the money to pay for members’ travel and lodging for the event, which was to be held in Washington.

The launch was scheduled for March 6, 2020. “Culture Summit 2020 will focus on the Left’s escalating war across American culture and how we go on offense to better preserve America’s liberties for another generation,” read the invitation obtained by The Post.

It’s not clear whether the meeting — which would have taken place just as the nation was beginning to grapple with the spread of the coronavirus — was held as planned.

Clark did not respond to a request for comment.

A ‘temporary accommodation’

CRC’s funding relationship with Crowdsourcers continued through the end of 2021, records show. The relationship was described in CRC tax filings as a “fiscal sponsorship arrangement.” Under such agreements, an existing charity houses a start-up group with a similar mission until the smaller group gets off the ground.

In its tax filings, the think tank wrote that it provided “fiduciary oversight, financial management and other administrative services to help build the capacity” of Crowdsourcers. The filings describe Crowdsourcers as an “informal, unincorporated nonprofit association which serves as an incubator for ideas across a network of conservative leaders, cultural entrepreneurs, and cultural influences.”

Franc, the former CRC chairman, said the idea “didn’t seem like it was particularly controversial” when it was presented to the board for approval. “It was maybe putting some money in one of our accounts to make it easier to access it,” he said. “It was presented to us as a courtesy, something that was more of a temporary accommodation.”

Franc said the think tank had no role in raising the $596,000 that it channeled to Crowdsourcers.

Crowdsourcers was never established as an independent nonprofit group, according to a search of an IRS database.

Philip Hackney, a former IRS attorney who is now an associate law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said such arrangements are not uncommon or improper. He said they do allow the start-up group to avoid having to disclose information that independent nonprofits must reveal in annual tax filings, such as its officers or details about its spending.

“You would be able to keep names and salaries off of any documents,” he said.

Indeed, Thomas’s title in Crowdsourcers is not a matter of public record and could not be determined.

CRC’s annual audits show that the $596,000 dedicated to Crowdsourcers was “released” from donor restrictions over three years, meaning donors’ conditions on how it could be spent had been satisfied or lifted, experts said.

About $207,000 for Crowdsourcers was released in 2019, $85,000 in 2020 and the remaining $303,000 in 2021, the audits show. CRC’s most recent tax filing in 2021, obtained by Documented, said it had ended its agreement with Crowdsourcers at the close of that year.

An intersection with the court

[pix Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation in Washington in October 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)]

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In 2019, the year the funding arrangement began, a trade group that represents industrial companies, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, had unsuccessfully sued Oregon over a program that regulates how fuels are produced and transported.

On Feb. 8 of that year, CRC joined free-market groups including the Cato Institute and the Pacific Legal Foundation in an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to reconsider lower court decisions upholding the program.

It was the only time CRC, founded in 1984, has filed a brief with the court in recent decades, according to Supreme Court records dating to 2001.

For the court to hear a case, at least four justices must agree.

On May 13, 2019, the court declined to hear the case.

The fact that CRC filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court around the same time it was supporting the work of Crowdsourcers does not on its own present a conflict of interest that would have required Clarence Thomas to recuse himself, according to Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert at New York University. If Ginni Thomas was paid for her work with Crowdsourcers — either directly or through her consulting firm — then there could be a recusal issue depending on the size and timing of the payment, Gillers said.

All federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, are required to recuse themselves in certain circumstances, including when they or their spouses have a financial interest in a party before the court or when a reasonable person might question their impartiality. But because the Supreme Court sits atop the judiciary, there is no higher court to review each justice’s recusal decisions.

Gillers said ordinary Americans might find it puzzling that “one half of a married couple is at the ramparts on political issues that then get translated into legal issues that her husband has to decide.” But there is no rule prohibiting that, he said, and it’s not clear how one could be crafted.

Ginni Thomas has long maintained that she and her husband keep their careers separate. “I can guarantee that my husband has never spoken to me about pending cases in the court. It’s an ironclad rule in our house,” she told congressional investigators last year who were examining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “Additionally, he’s uninterested in politics, and I generally don’t discuss with him my day-to-day work in politics.”

Controversy over Ginni Thomas’s political activism dates back to at least 2010, after she founded the nonprofit Liberty Central to harness the energy of the then-burgeoning tea party movement. Though she described Liberty Central as “nonpartisan” and focused on the principles of the Founding Fathers, she spoke even then about “activating a community of grass-roots patriots” to wage a cultural war.

“It’s time to wake up and refocus. Just like in a farm setting we need to till the ground, plant the seeds, tend the crops and pray for rain before we can harvest the crops,” she said that year in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. “The left has been tending their crops, you guys. It has occurred in high schools, in K-12 textbooks, in colleges and Hollywood and mainstream media in our churches and in government. We’ve been asleep.”

Ginni Thomas launched Liberty Central with an anonymous donation of $500,000 and another of $50,000, sparking questions about potential conflicts of interest for her husband. (Months after the launch, Politicoreported that the $500,000 investment had come from Harlan Crow, a Texas real estate magnate and major donor to conservative candidates and causes who had also given Clarence Thomas a Bible worth $19,000 that had once belonged to Frederick Douglass, according to the justice’s financial disclosures.)

Amid those questions, Ginni Thomas stepped away from Liberty Central in November 2010. She went on to establish Liberty Consulting. Because Liberty Consulting is a for-profit firm, it is subject to fewer public reporting requirements. Little is known about the firm’s clients, besides those that have listed payments to Liberty in required disclosures.

A nonprofit called the Center for Security Policy, which filed an amicus brief with the court in 2017 in support of the Trump administration’s Muslim ban, reported in its tax filings that it paid Liberty Consulting a total of $236,000 in 2017 and 2018, the New Yorker first reportedlast year. A political action committee run by Viguerie, the Crowdsourcers member and direct-mail pioneer, also reported paying Liberty $5,000 in 2018 for “video production.”

As a Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas must list sources of his wife’s income on annual financial disclosure forms, but not the amount. Since 2018, he has reported that Liberty Consulting was the sole source of income for his wife, and that the firm paid her a salary and benefits.

Clarence Thomas is not required to report the firm’s clients.

comm dr

Justice Department filed an appeal Thursday after a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas blocked the Biden administration's student debt cancellation program nationwide, declaring it "unlawful" on grounds that legal experts criticized as laughable.

The 26-page ruling by Mark Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas finds that the two plaintiffs who brought the case with the backing of the Job Creators Network Foundation—an affiliate of a right-wing, billionaire-funded business trade group—have standing to sue over the debt cancellation program because the Biden administration didn't allow a public comment period before moving ahead with the plan.

A public comment period is not required under the legal authority the Biden administration used to justify the cancellation of $10,000 to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for most borrowers, but Pittman noted that the plaintiffs dispute that legal authority.

"Because the court must 'assume, for purposes of the standing analysis, that [plaintiffs are] correct on the merits of [their] claim that the [program] was promulgated in violation of the [Administrative Procedure Act],' plaintiffs have successfully alleged the deprivation of a procedural right," wrote Pittman, a founding member of the Tarrant County Federalist Society.

Neither Myra Brown nor Alexander Taylor, the two plaintiffs in the case, are eligible for full student debt relief under the Biden administration's plan—Brown has commercial loans and Taylor did not receive a Pell Grant. The Intercept reported earlier this week that Brown "has herself been a beneficiary of debt cancellation, in the form of a Paycheck Protection Program business loan worth over twice the maximum amount covered under Biden's program."

Pittman's reasoning conflicts with rulings in previous cases in which judges—including one appointed by George W. Bush—dismissed lawsuits against the debt cancellation plan over plaintiffs' failure to demonstrate standing, which requires them to prove direct injury or harm.[twt]

"Today, a federal judge conspired with right-wing politicians and corrupt corporations to block life-changing student debt relief for tens of millions of families," said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC). "In courts across the country, dark money-backed legal challenges are growing like weeds. The Biden administration must use this decision as an opportunity to make it clear that the student loan system will remain shut off as long as these partisan legal challenges persist. Student loan borrowers should never be sacrificed as pawns in Republicans' political games."

Shortly after Pittman handed down his ruling, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that "we strongly disagree with the District Court's ruling on our student debt relief program and the Department of Justice has filed an appeal."

"The president and this administration are determined to help working and middle-class Americans get back on their feet, while our opponents—backed by extreme Republican special interests—sued to block millions of Americans from getting much-needed relief," said Jean-Pierre.

"For the 26 million borrowers who have already given the Department of Education the necessary information to be considered for debt relief—16 million of whom have already been approved for relief—the department will hold onto their information so it can quickly process their relief once we prevail in court," she added.....

11 22 EVIL BUT

https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/job-creators-network/

texas

 Job Creators Network is a group advocating free enterprise and entrepreneurship founded by former Home Depot CEO Bernard Marcus. [1] [2] The group was a proponent of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 and in 2021 unsuccessfully sued Major League Baseball on behalf of Georgia businesses it said were unjustly harmed when the league moved the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver. [3] [4]

CONTENTS

Background

The Job Creators Network is a conservative-leaning group advocating for free enterprise and entrepreneurship. [5]

Bernard Marcus, the founder and former CEO of Home Depot, established the organization, first known as Job Creators Alliance, in 2010. Marcus put $500,000 in seed money into the organization. The Marcus Foundation, the founder’s family foundation, gave another $1 million to the Job Creators Network. [6]

The organization provides companies with employer-to-employee education materials to promote job-creating policies and warn how bad public policy can harm companies and workers. The organization also enlists CEOs and small business leaders to educate students and the public about free enterprise and entrepreneurship. [7]

Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate and one-time Godfather’s Pizza CEO, identified himself as a co-founder of JCN. However, JCN President Alfredo Ortiz has downplayed Cain’s role in the organization. [8]

Donors

Besides Marcus, several other conservative-leaning and pro-business nonprofits have contributed to the JCN. Other donors have included the Anschutz Foundation, the John William Pope Foundation, and the Retail Industry Leaders Association. [9]

Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer and daughter Rebekah Mercer have donated more than $100,000 to JCN. [10]

Advocacy

The JCN Women’s Coalition was established to assist female entrepreneurship. The JCN states U.S. women own more than 11.6 million businesses or about 39 percent of firms employing nearly 9 million people. [11]

The Job Creators Network teamed with the National Association of Women Business Owners to provide employer and employee resources to about 5,000 women-owned businesses. [12]

The national JCN has formed coalitions with several state, local, and regional organizations such as the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, the Colorado Restaurant Association, American Seniors Association, Georgia Motor Trucking Association, Rocky Mountain Food Industry Association, the Highland Ranch Chamber of Commerce. and the National Association of Entrepreneurship. [13]

The Job Creators Network teamed with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) to advocate for the 2017 tax reform legislation. The JCN ran a multi-million-dollar campaign and sent more than 550,000 emails to members of Congress to push the tax bill. [14]

Twitter suspended the Job Creators Network in early 2021 for allegedly “violating rules against platform manipulation and spam.” The suspension came two weeks after Ortiz wrote an op-ed favoring federal regulation of social media companies as a public utility. [15] The account was later restored. [16]

Leadership

Alfredo Ortiz is the president and CEO of the Job Creators Network, a role he took in 2014. He previously worked for Georgia Pacific and Kraft before becoming vice president for CSM Bakery Products’ Food Service Division. [17] He is compensated $446,954 annually. [18]

Elaine Parker is the chief communications officer for the Job Creators Network and president of the J, the organization’s research and education arm. Parker previously worked in public relations for Chrysler, then worked as an independent consultant. [19] Parker is compensated at $220,962 annually. [20]

Phil Willard is the chief financial officer and chief operations officer for the Job Creators Network. Willard has previously worked in senior financial roles for companies such as Celanese, Terex Corporation, and Reliant Worldwide Plastics. [21] He is compensated at $268,269. [22]

Toni Angelini is the senior director of communications for the Job Creators Network. She previously worked in media relations for the National Federation of Independent Business. Before that, Angelini worked in media relations for former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ). [23]

Members of the board of directors are former CKE Restaurants CEO Andrew Puzder, Club for Growth co-founder Stephen Moore, former Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson, 42Growth co-founder Stephen Bienko, and former Camp Bow Wow CEO Heidi Ganahl. [24]

Litigation

In May 2021, Job Creators Network sued Major League Baseball on behalf of Georgia business owners over the decision to move the MLB All-Star game out of Atlanta to Denver because of the passage of a Georgia voting reform law. The complaint alleged the politically motivated move cost Georgia businesses $100 million. [25] [26]

In June 2021, the JCN dropped the lawsuit against MLB after U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York denied the request for an injunction to force Major League Baseball to move the All-Star Game back to Georgia. [27]

After almost 1 million jobs were added in the second quarter of 2021, Job Creators Network President Alfredo Ortiz called it “a vaccine-induced job recovery.” [28] In September 2021, the JCN announced it planned to sue the Biden administration over the planned COVID-19 vaccine mandate for companies with 100 or more employees. JCN defended a company’s right to require vaccines of employees but said the federal government should not compel this. [29] The Job Creators Network Foundation created a Legal Action Fund to handle the lawsuit. [30]

References...

621 aha // to deficit bogeyman to prevent spending $ on ppl, infra, social safety net. educ see 2 santas BS

https://www.mediamatters.org/sinclair-broadcast-group/sinclair-infrastructure-coverage-centers-corporate-front-groups-pushing

zach p

Sinclair Broadcast Group has in recent days aired misleading criticism of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposalsfrom organizations that are corporate front groups or push an anti-spending austerity agenda. But the facts and commentary from economists and other experts show that much of this criticism is disingenuous.

Sinclair sought commentary from pro-austerity organizations funded by corporations and right-wing donors

On March 30, Sinclair’s morning program The National Desk -- which airs on 68 Sinclair-owned or -operated local television stations -- interviewed Manhattan Institute senior fellow Brian Riedl, who opposed spending trillions of dollars on infrastructure and was critical of including spending to combat climate change. Anchor Jan Jeffcoat chose not to disclose the Manhattan Institute’s funding from the fossil fuel industry and other corporate interests.

Also on March 30, Sinclair chief political correspondent Scott Thuman included commentary in his report from Elaine Parker, chief communications officer of the Job Creators Network, which aired on dozens of Sinclair TV stations before re-airing on The National Desk the next morning. Thuman failed to disclose that Job Creators Network is a conservative organization and a corporate front group for wealthy donors.

On April 1, Sinclair national correspondent James Rosen included commentary from Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in his report on Biden’s infrastructure plan, which also aired on dozens of Sinclair stations before re-airing on The National Desk. But Rosen failed to mention the pro-austerity nature of the organization and its namesake.

These pro-corporate Sinclair guests’ commentary on Biden’s infrastructure bill was misleading or lacked full context

The Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl claimed the price tag for Biden’s infrastructure plan is “just too big” to pay for and that Biden’s plan to rate the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% “would return us to the highest corporate tax rate in the OECD,” referring to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. He also said: “The bill will simply not be paid for. Like a lot of what we’ve had with the stimulus, a lot of it's just going to go on the national credit card. So whether you think the infrastructure is helpful or not helpful, it’s probably going to be paid for mostly on the national debt if it’s enacted.” But Riedl’s comments are misleading at best and flat-out wrong at worst.

Job Creators Network’s Elaine Parker hid the context of the business tax deduction she warned about removing when she said: “This is actually going to hit right at the heart of small businesses with that repeal of that 20% tax deduction. … That is the very tax deduction that helps the smallest of the small businesses, the heart of the middle class, and the employees who work for them.”

And the Peterson Institute’s Adam Posen left out necessary context when he warned: “This is the first truly credible inflation threat in decades.” But senior economists have pushed back against this kind of fearmongering over inflation.

Economists and other experts agree Biden’s infrastructure spending plan is needed and beneficial

The fact is, massive investments in infrastructure are badly needed. An April 2 New York Times article explained: “Roadways and bridges are still in use decades after the end of their projected life spans. Sewer and water systems are aged and decaying. And a changing climate threatens to worsen old vulnerabilities and expose new ones.”

Reuters reported that the American Society of Civil Engineers said that “surface transportation, water systems, and schools are the most in need of help,” and that the U.S. “needs to spend $2.59 trillion in the next 10 years to fix existing infrastructure.” Biden’s infrastructure plan includes money for both existing and new infrastructure, such as energy and housing.

Economists from financial analysis firms have predicted that Biden’s infrastructure plan will create millions of jobs over a period of several years. Axios reported that S&P Global “predicts Biden's infrastructure plan will create 2.3 million jobs by 2024” and “raise per-capita income by $2,400.” And as USA Today reported, Moody’s Analytics expects Biden’s infrastructure plan to be more beneficial in the long term:

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, says the projects won't begin in earnest until 2023. He expects the economy to grow just 1.3% from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the fourth quarter of 2022, with the Biden plan adding nothing to the gains.

…

Over a longer period, Biden’s plan would be a big positive, economists say. Zandi expects it to add about half a percentage point to growth in 2023 and 1.6 percentage points the following year. The blueprint, he reckons, would add about 1.4 million jobs in 2024 and 1 million jobs in 2025.

By 2030, the economy would be about $700 billion, or nearly 3%, larger than it would be without the upgrades and an additional 2.7 million Americans would be working, Moody's figures show.

ref

https://news.littlesis.org/2019/02/21/the-billionaire-trump-donors-behind-the-job-creators-network/

An organization that calls itself the “Job Creators Network” has put up a billboard in Times Square that blasts U.S. House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Amazon’s decision to pull its new headquarters out of New York City. Fox News host Laura Ingraham tweeted about it yesterday:

[twt pix ingr]

What is the Job Creators Network, and who is behind it? The short answer is that it’s a Trump-tied, billionaire-backed front group associated with an infamous right-wing public relations executive.It’s part of a network of other astroturf groups that all fight tooth-and-nail to defend elite interests against progressive efforts to regulate corporate power – and all while posing as defenders of “Main Street.”

Perhaps, then, it’s no surprise that the Job Creators Network is using Amazon’s decision to pull out of NYC – which many, of course, viewed as an egregious example of corporate entitlement – as an excuse to go after a progressive politician who is seen as a leader in the growing effort to curb corporate power.

Here are a few things worth knowing about the powerful forces – the billionaires, big Trump donors, and conservative lobbyists – that are actually behind the Job Creators Network:

2/18

ith midterm elections on the horizon and congressional majorities up for grabs, outside groups have jumped at the opportunity to control messaging on tax reform — the one piece of major legislation passed by Congress in 2017.

Corry Bliss, executive director of conservative group American Action Network(AAN), said selling the landmark legislation to voters should be Republicans’ top priority in the coming months.

“Every member of the Republican Party should be spending all of their time selling the tax plan,” Bliss told The Washington Post. “Everything else is a waste of time and money.”

Conservative groups have done their best to corner the market on tax messaging based on pure volume and size of expenditures, but liberal groups too have asserted themselves since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s enactment in late December.

On Jan. 2, the liberal coalition Tax March released TV ads in 23 Republican-held congressional districts — 14 of which Hillary Clinton carried in 2016 — admonishing representatives for their support of a bill they claim “raises taxes on 36 million middle class families.” Tax March has promised to double its spending from last year to $10 million on the issue in 2018 as a part of its Not One Penny campaign.

Not to be outdone, AAN launched its own ads the next day in 23 districts, thanking Republican representatives who voted for the bill, which ads published on their YouTube page claim “will save a typical family more than $2,000.” AAN, which pumped millions of dollars into the bill’s passage, plans to spend another $10 million defending it.

Republican megadonors Charles and DavidKoch are promising the financial support of their powerful political machine. Four Koch-funded groups —Freedom Partners, Americans for Prosperity, The Libre Initiative, and General Opportunity — have already announced their intentions.

According to a release on the Freedom Partners website, the four groups “will be participating in a full scale nationwide education campaign” to “demonstrate the tremendous benefits of pro-growth tax reform and show how this plan is directly helping Americans improve their lives.”

The Kochs have promised to spend up to $400 million on the looming midterm election, CNBC reported recently. That’s roughly 60 percent more than they said they dedicated to the 2016 cycle when they focused on down-ballot races instead of throwing their support behind Donald Trump.

The brothers, whose organizations spent $20 million in support of the tax bill’s passage last year, announced at a recent donor summit that they will allocate another $20 million to promote its perceived benefits to an electorate that remains skeptical.

According to the results of a Pew Research survey released last week, just 37 percent of Americans approve of the tax bill compared to 46 percent who disapprove. It also found that 29 percent of adults believe the overhaul will have “mostly positive” effects on themselves and their families in the coming years compared to 27 percent who anticipate “mostly negative” effects.

In a number of critical districts, it’s not just middle class voters who are concerned with the implications of the overhaul. Wealthier households in more affluent districts will be hit with the downsizing of key tax breaks such as the mortgage interest and state and local tax deductions (SALT).

Graeme Boushey, political science professor at the University of California Irvine in the state’s 45th District, said this poses an interesting dilemma for some Republicans.

“For many Republican voters, this has been an objective — something they’ve desired for a very long time,” Boushey said. “But it’s intermingled with the concern that they will be personally injured by the bill.”

Republican congresswoman Mimi Waters, who represents the 45th District, voted in favor of the bill. Boushey said that, in defending Waters’s vote, GOP tax messaging in the district will have to appeal to voters’ belief that the overhaul will benefit the country at large.

According to the Pew survey, 35 percent of adults expect the overhaul to have “mostly positive” effects on the country at large compared to 40 percent who anticipate “mostly negative” effects.

Landmark legislation is oftentimes mired by unfavorable public perceptions. The Affordable Care Act, which passed in 2010, was largely unpopular during President Obama’s tenure. It has enjoyed its highest levels of support only since Obama left office, in the wake of Republican attempts to repeal it.

Boushey said there are striking political parallels between the passage of the Affordable Care Act  — commonly known as Obamacare — and the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. He cited the pressure placed on both parties to enact landmark legislation on ideological principles when in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.

“This is very similar to the Democrats’ ACA vote,” Boushey said. “Once in 40 years, you get a chance with unified government to enact a sacred cow for the party — pass tax reform here. I think for some of these representatives, there’s a consequences-be-damned attitude to it, even if they know it’s going to cost them in their election.”

Republicans drastically outspent Democrats on healthcare messaging after the passage of Obamacare — using it as a valuable piece of political propaganda even in 2016 when many congressional leaders were elected on promises of repeal and replace. Sensing the potential for a Democratic wave election this year that could threaten congressional majorities, Republicans cannot afford to let the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act follow the same trajectory.

With millions being poured into TV ads, some groups are resorting to more out-of-the-box methods of messaging. The**Job Creators Network**is embarking on a nationwide bus tour to sing the praises of the bill, and Democratic leaders are hosting teach-ins to convey its perceived pitfalls to constituents.

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trump:

By Matt Corley

December 8, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Andy Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns fast food chains Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., as his pick to lead to the Department of Labor. Puzder, who is on the board of the International Franchise Association, has criticized many of the policies of the Obama Labor Department and is expected to roll back regulations if he is confirmed.

The fast food CEO’s nomination, which brings potential conflicts of interest, could potentially lead to federal support for business efforts to influence the political choices of their employees. Puzder is a member of the Job Creators Network (JCN), a non-profit organization started by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and former presidential candidate Herman Cain that seeks to equip businesses with tools to influence the political choices their employees make.

JCN, which issued a press release last month endorsing Puzder for the Labor position and praising his “understanding of how labor regulations prevent small businesses from hiring and thriving,” has developed an Employer to Employee (E2E) communications program to help companies enlist their employees as political advocates. Beyond speaking out on behalf of JCN on issues like the Affordable Care Act, Puzder has incorporated the organization’s materials into his own company.

According to presentation slides obtained last year by CREW, CKE’s Hardee’s used JCN’s E2E materials at its corporate headquarters and Puzder himself would personally encourage franchisees to implement the program as well:

Ortiz Presentation Puzder CKE

JCN presents its efforts as focused on “paychecks, not politics,” but the slides reveal that the organization, and its president Alfredo Ortiz, also promoted the E2E program as being influential on employee voter turnout and choice.

As CREW noted last year, Nipro Diagnostics, a medical device company now called Trividia Health whose CEO is also a member of JCN, allowed JCN to poll its employees before and after being exposed to JCN’s E2E materials.  Not only did the poll show that the E2E efforts shaped employee opinions on issues like whether the corporate tax rate should be lowered, but also their voting choices.  A quarter of the surveyed Nipro employees who voted in the 2014 midterm elections said that the E2E materials influenced how they voted, according to the presentation.

Ortiz CFAD Presentation Vote Impact Slide 2

Most of the organization’s materials focus directly on policy and only implicitly relate to politics, but the group has put out some aggressive materials in the past. In 2012, an early version of JCN created a voter guide that was distributed to employees of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. The pamphlet, which emphasized to employees that voting is important to “protect your job,” criticized Democratic candidates while praising Republicans.

It is unclear whether and how Puzder might use his position as Secretary of Labor to promote the use of such materials, but it is likely that with the agency under his watch American workers could expect to hear even more from their bosses about politics in the next four years.

Related Tags: Conflicts of Interest, Department of Labor, Donald Trump, Job Creators Network

http://www.alternet.org/print/environment/wealthy-ceo-network-behind-fake-anti-fracking-ads

DeSmogBlog [1] / By Anne Landman [2]

Wealthy CEO Network Behind Fake Anti-Fracking Ads

April 29, 2014 |

The online version of the Post Independent, the local daily newspaper in heavily-drilled Garfield County, Colorado, is prominently displaying black-and-white banner ads that read, “Blowing the Lid off Fracking Colorado.”

Readers are led to believe the ads are anti-fracking, but click on them and you're taken to a pro-fracking website, JobCreatorsNetwork.com, that boasts about all the wonderful jobs and economic benefits that drilling and fracking create.

Members of Job Creators Network [3] include the wealthy CEOs of major companies like Home Depot, Whole Foods Market, Staples and Best Buy. Members also reportedly have ties [4] to groups like the Cato Institute and the U.S.Chamber of Commerce.

Despite this, the Job Creator's Network website complains that “Today, small business are under fire” from “confiscatory taxes and suffocating regulations…stifling energy costs…”

The network holds it meetings and events [5] in tony locales, like Scottsdale, Arizona and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

According to Little Sis [6], a free online database that details the connections between powerful people and organizations, Job Creators Network members give overwhelmingly (87%) to Republicans, and the group's biggest donor, Bernard Marcus of Home Depot, has given over $3 million to U.S. politicians.

Far from being anti-fracking as the banner ads lure readers to believe, the JobCreatorsNetwork is not just pro-drilling, but anti-regulation, pro-Keystone XL pipeline, pro-coal, pro-offshore drilling and, of course, in favor of cutting corporate tax rates.

“Fracking Colorado,” [7] the group the CEOs target in their ads, is a grassroots group that supports a moratorium on horizontal hydraulic fracturing until it is assured the practice will not harm health, safety, air, land, water or water security.

See more stories tagged with:

corporate accountability [8],

fracking [9],

Job Creators Network [10],

home depot [11],

whole foods [12]

12.2% to Democrats

$212,950

87.8% to Republicans

$1,528,125

1990 - 2012

(reset)

(mouse over bars to see cycle figures)

Politicians Supported

US politicians supported by people with positions at Job Creators Network

Mitt Romney

Richard Burr

John McCain

Elizabeth Hanford Dole

Virginia Ann Foxx

Walter Beaman Jones Jr

Joe Lieberman

Patrick T McHenry

Jeff Flake

Newt Gingrich

$407,400

$71,250

$70,100

$55,200

$33,800

$33,400

$31,100

$30,900

$25,600

$21,750

Political Organizations Supported

US Political organizations (such as PACs and party committees) supported by people with positions at Job Creators Network

Progress for America Vote...

RNCRepublican National S...

Republican National Commi...

Restore Our Future PAC

National Republican Senat...

North Carolina Republican...

National Republican Congr...

National Restaurant Assoc...

YG Action Fund

Home Depot Inc. Political...

$1,050,000

$859,976

$703,300

$540,000

$346,675

$205,650

$145,125

$111,425

$110,000

$65,000

Top Donors

Top donors to US politicians/PACs with positions/memberships at Job Creators Network

Bernard Marcus

Warren A Stephens

Robert Luddy

Thomas G Stemberg

Richard L Jackson

Michael A Leven

John Kane

Ronald Lazof

John A Allison IV

Michael Holthouse

$3,082,295

$1,253,450

$1,162,800

$371,180

$192,200

$170,250

$139,425

$101,500

$81,116

$73,050

About the data

Federal campaign contributions by people with positions at Job Creators Network

1990199219941996199820002002200420062008201020120100,000200,000300,000400,000500,000600,00012.2% to Democrats$212,95087.8% to Republicans$1,528,1251990 - 2012(reset)(mouse over bars to see cycle figures)

Politicians Supported

US politicians supported by people with positions at Job Creators Network

Mitt RomneyRichard BurrJohn McCainElizabeth Hanford DoleVirginia Ann FoxxWalter Beaman Jones JrJoe LiebermanPatrick T McHenryJeff FlakeNewt Gingrich$407,400$71,250$70,100$55,200$33,800$33,400$31,100$30,900$25,600$21,750

Political Organizations Supported

US Political organizations (such as PACs and party committees) supported by people with positions at Job Creators Network

Progress for America Vote...RNC Republican National S...Republican National Commi...Restore Our Future PACNational Republican Senat...North Carolina Republican...National Republican Congr...National Restaurant Assoc...YG Action FundHome Depot Inc. Political...$1,050,000$859,976$703,300$540,000$346,675$205,650$145,125$111,425$110,000$65,000

Top Donors

Top donors to US politicians/PACs with positions/memberships at Job Creators Network

Bernard MarcusWarren A StephensRobert LuddyThomas G StembergRichard L JacksonMichael A LevenJohn KaneRonald LazofJohn A Allison IVMichael Holthouse$3,082,295$1,253,450$1,162,800$371,180$192,200$170,250$139,425$101,500$81,116$73,050

About the data

==

John Allison

BB&T Corporation

Maximo Alvarez

Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, Inc.

Brad Anderson

Best Buy Co.

Jim Anthony

Anthony and Company

Scott Barron

School Growth LLC

Stephen Bienko

42 Holdings

Fred Eschelman

PPD, Inc.

Blair Fensterstock

Fensterstock & Partners LLP

Dawn Fotopulos

BestSmallBizHelp.com

William "Lee" Hanley

Lexington Management

David Hernandez

Liberty Power

Michael Holthouse

Prepared 4 Life

Christian Infante

SFM Services

Richard L. Jackson

Jackson Healthcare

Leslie Kaminoff

AKAM Living Services, Inc.

John Kane

Kane Realty Corporation

Ralph Ketner

Food Lion, Inc.

Sydney W. "Syd" Kitson

Kitson & Partners

Benton Launerts

Parksman Parking LLC

Ronald Lazof

Behr Processing, Inc.

Michael A. Leven

Las Vegas Sands, Corp.

Javier Loya

OTC Global Holdings, LP

Robert Luddy

CaptiveAire Systems

John Mackey

Whole Foods Market

Bernie Marcus

Home Depot

Gary Rabine

Rabine Group

John Slavic

Slavic Group

Omar Soliman

College Hunks Hauling Junk

Tom Stemberg

Staples

Warren Stephens

Stephens, Inc.

Fran Tarkenton

OneMoreCustomer.com

Scott Verner

Nipro Diagnostics