Bruce Bartlett

Bruce Bartlett was a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). From September 1988 to January 1993 he was deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Treasury Department. In 1993 and 1994 he was a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution during which time he became involved in their pro-tobacco campaign. [1]

Bruce Bartlett is also a member of the 'Board of Advisers' of the 'Free Market Project' at the Media Research Center (now named the Business & Media Institute).

Bartlett was sacked by the NCPA after he became increasing critical of the economic policy of George W. Bush administration. The New York Times reported that "the decision was made after Mr. Bartlett supplied its president, John C. Goodman, with the manuscript of his forthcoming book, 'The Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy'." [2]

• Advisory Board, Free Africa Foundation

Documents & Timeline

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1994 Aug A Alexis de Tocqueville report "The EPA and the Science of ETS" has been funded by the Tobacco Institute. The author was Adjunct Scholar Kent Jeffreys, and the senior reviewer was S. Fred Singer, a Professor of Environmental Science (on leave from the University of Virginia) and a Senior Fellow at the Institute. The final report was scheduled to be complete mid-June and it would be entitled "Science and Environmentalism".

A confidential memo by the president of the Tobacco Institute, Samuel D. Chilcote, Jr., described how this secret tobacco-funded report was being used in legislative lobbying:

This morning Reps. Peter Geren (D-TX) and John Mica (R-FL) held a press conference announcing the release of a study by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution that evaluates the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) scientific principles used to justify policy decisions. Geren and Mica were joined by Cesar Conda, executive director of the de Tocqueville Institution and coauthors Dr. S. Fred Singer and Kent Jeffreys." [3]

"Press coverage included States News Service, Stephens Publishing and Cable Congress. Several congressional staffers also attended, copies of the Geren/Mica "Dear Colleague" letter, press release and the study are enclosed."

[4]

This report is part of a larger coordinated effort to blindside the EPA. A "panel of experts" was assembled to "peer-review" the report. Naturally the majority were people with identified links to tobacco-funded institutes and think tanks, and some who share the same small set of funders.

Academic Advisory Board:

• Dr. Gary Anderson, Professor of Economics, California State University-Northridge
• Dr. Nancy Bord Visiting Scholar The Hoover Institution Stanford University
• Dr. Gordon L. Brady Associate Professor and Director Environmental Studies Sweet Briar College
• Dr. Jeffrey Clark Professor of Economics University of Tennessee-Chattanoogna
• Dr. Michael Darby Professor of Economics and Director John M. Olin Center for Policy University of California, Los Angeles
• Dr. Robert Ekelund Lowder Eminent Scholar Auburn University
• Dr. Michael Gough Project Director Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
• Dr. William Hazeltine Environmental Consultant
• Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gosnell Professor of Economics Rochester Institute of Technology
• Dr. Dwight R. Lee Ramsey Professor of Economics University of Georgia
• Dr. Michael Marlow, Professor of Economics, California State Polytechnic University-San Luis Obispo
• Dr. Thomas Gale Moore Senior Fellow The Hoover Institution Stanford University
• Dr. Malcolm Ross Research Mineralogist U.S. Geological Survey
• Dr. S. Fred Singer Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences University of Virginia and President Science and Environmental Policy Project
• Dr. Gerhard Stöhrer Director of Chemical Risk Program Science and Environmental Policy Project and former Department Head Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
• Dr. Mark Thornton Professor of Economics Auburn University
• Dr. Robert D. Tollison Duncan Black Professor of Economics and Director Center for the Study of Public Choice George Mason University
• Dr. Richard Vedder Professor of Economics University of Ohio
• Dr. Richard Wagner Professor of Economics and Chairman Department of Economics George Mason University

Senior Staff and Contributing Associates
Rachael Applegate,   Bruce Bartlett,   Merrick Carey,   Cesar Conda,   Gregory Fossedal,   Dave Juday,   Felix Rouse,   Aaron Stevens

Ten of the 19 names of the Academic Advisory Board are members of the Cash for Comments Economists Network. At this time S. Fred Singer was a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, but they chose not to credit him with such close links.

These attempt to link the tobacco industry's problems to arguments about climate change were part funded by the Olin Foundation, Koch Family Foundations and Scaife Foundations.

• 20 page Draft document sent to the Tobacco Institute [5]
• The release about the final report (August 11 1994) It is now an attack on "environmental regulation" -- ETS, radon, pesticides and agricultural regulation, and the Superfund toxic waste cleanup program ... and based, supposedly, on the quality of the science used by the EPA. [6]
• The final report was called Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination.' It had the approval of the Cash for Comments Economists Network. [7]

Bartlett Spits The Dummy Over Bush

2005 OctIn a mid-October 2005 column for Townhall.com Bartlett set out his critique of the Bush Administration. "The truth that is now dawning on many movement conservatives is that George W. Bush is not one of them and never has been. They were allies for a long time, to be sure, and conservatives used Bush just as he used them," he wrote.

He complained that central to conservatives disillusionment with Bush has been his failure to radically cut government spending in education and health, its support for campaign finance reform and corporate law reforms after the Enron collapse. "It is the rare conservative who has a kind word for the Bush immigration policy. Most conservatives think that he has been woefully weak on protecting our borders," he wrote.

"I could go on, but the point is that George W. Bush has never demonstrated any interest in shrinking the size of government. And on many occasions, he has increased government significantly. Yet if there is anything that defines conservatism in America, it is hostility to government expansion. The idea of big government conservatism, a term often used to describe Bush's philosophy, is a contradiction in terms," he wrote. [8]

Other Related SourceWatch Resources

• AdTI-Funding
• Center on Regulation and Economic Growth
• Science, economics, and environmental policy: a critical examination

External links

Profiles

• "Bruce Bartlett - Senior Fellow", National Center for Policy Analysis, 2001.
• "Bruce Bartlett", Townhall.com
• "Research Advisor, Bruce Bartlett", Trend Macrolytics.
• "About Bruce Bartlett", Creators.

Articles & Commentary

• Richard W. Stevenson, "In Sign of Conservative Split, a Commentator Is Dismissed", New York Times, October 18, 2005.
• Bruce Bartlett, "The final straw: From the conservative point of view, the list of grievances is a long one", Townhall.com, October 18, 2005.
• Elisabeth Bumiller, "White House Letter: Criticism of Bush leaves conservative in the cold," International Herald Tribune, February 12, 2006.
• Bruce Bartlett is quoted in Jane Mayer's article about the Koch Brothers[9]