Club for Growth

Club For Growth and Founder Steven Moore: Extreme Right-Wing

Moore Pushed For Ending All Assistance To Low-Income Americans, Called Medicare "Catastrophic." In 2000, Moore advocated abolishing welfare, stating, "The most valuable step the Congress could take to help dismantle the welfare-poverty trap would be to abolish all programs that provide benefits for not working: food stamps, AFDC, and public housing, for example." In 2003, Moore wrote, "Every American taxpayer knows full well the fiscally catastrophic impact of programs like Medicare, Medicaid and other black-check income redistribution programs." [Washington Times, 4/07/00; Detroit News, 7/21/03]

Club for Growth Opposed Raising the Minimum Wage, Saying It Would "Harm" Workers. In 2007, the Club for Growth called on members of Congress to vote against the bipartisan bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. Announcing their opposition to the wage hike, the Club cited a conservative foundation that argued "high minimum wages only harm unskilled, low-wage workers." Explaining in a November 2007 interview why Club for Growth so strongly opposes Mike Huckabee, Pat Toomey, then President of the organization, listed a number of Huckabee's "worst hits," including the fact that he "happily signed a minimum wage increase and encouraged national Republicans to do the same." [Club for Growth Key Vote Alert, 2/1/07; National Review Online, 11/28/07]

The Club for Growth Spends Millions of Dollars to Defeat Moderate Republicans in Deference to Extreme Right-Wing Candidates. The Club for Growth "often uses its money to influence what kind of Republicans get elected." In the 2006 election cycle, two-thirds of the more than $2.5 million they spent nationally "went to attack Republican primary candidates like GOP incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island, various candidates in Idaho's 1st District, and Crank and Rivera in Colorado's 5th District." [Rocky Mountain News, 10/30/06]

Club for Growth Wanted Bush's Privatization Plan To Go Into Effect ASAP. Discussing President Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security in 2005, Pat Toomey said, "I think there is a lot of support." In addition, not only did Toomey and the Club for Growth praise Bush's inclusion of Social Security privatization in the 2007 budget resolution, but he lamented that privatization "couldn't be implemented sooner." [CNN, "Crossfire," 3/3/05; Club for Growth Press Release, 2/5/07]

Club For Growth: Right-Wing Shill

Right Wing's Biggest Names Rule Club.  The group's donors "include some of the conservative movement's biggest names: Richard Mellon Scaife, the House majority leader Tom DeLay and the columnist Brent Bozell, as well as businessmen like the pharmaceutical executive Dan Searle, the cosmetics executive Ronald H. Lauder and the financiers Charles Schwab and Richard Gilder. The conservative economists Arthur Laffer and Lawrence Kudlow advise on policy." [New York Times, 4/11/04]

Club For Growth Walks Legal Line

Club Made False Statements according to Ohio Ethics Commission.  In October 2007, the Ohio Ethics Commission ruled that the Club for Growth had made false statements about Ohio congressional candidate Bob Latta "when it issued an Internet and e-mail press release stating Latta supported a penny sales-tax hike in 1998." [Toledo Blade, 10/19/07]

FEC Complaint Filed Against Club for Running Ads in Maryland House Primary.  In January 2008, the campaign of Maryland State Senator E.J. Pipkin, running in the GOP MD-01 primary, filed an FEC complaint against the Club for Growth. "The complaint, filed with the Federal Election Commission, alleges Mr. Harris and the Club for Growth coordinated $250,000 in advertising to attack Mr. Harris' opponents. Mr. Harris and Mr. Pipkin are challenging incumbent Rep. Wayne Gilchrest in the Republican primary for the Eastern Shore congressional seat." [The Capital, 1/16/08]

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