Earlier today when I posted about President Obama’s decision to name Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the CEO of the Walmart Foundation, to become the head of the Office of Management and Budget, I made the error of identifying her as CEO of the Walton Family Foundation. It was obviously a mistake, and readers quickly called my attention to it. I made the change at once. I didn’t realize that the Walton billionaires have two different foundations. In addition, members of the family give a lot of money to political campaigns for candidates and issues, always on the same side of the political spectrum.
The Walton Family Foundation has given $158 million for each of the last two years (see here and here) to support vouchers and choice and to influence public opinion on behalf of privatization.
The Walmart Foundation seems to have the mission of winning good public and community relations for Walmart. Since Walmart has a bad habit of driving small stores out of business and disrupting communities, it is important to the corporation to buy goodwill. When Walmart comes to a town or region, mom-and-pop stores die, and sometimes Main Street itself dies, emptied out of tenants who could not compete with Walmart.
This is the Nation’s description of the Walmart Foundation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We have been bought and sold plus tied up in a pretty package for the vultures. Believe me this is PAY OFF time and Obama and company (wife and children, etc) will get paid back 100 fold after he leaves office. Oh, and he can take all campaign contributions as personal income. Congress voted this one in. Politicians are well….you don’t to know.
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Maybe they’ll sell him some comfortable shoes …
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Many people have already sent him some comfy shoes. For free.
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You for got to add union busting and anti-worker, Their workers are forced to go on food stamps and Medicaid because Walmart does not provide health insurance and pay decent wages. I also think that reform and choice should have quotation marks around them and we should not let the “reformers” define these terms.
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So there’s really not a lot of difference between them after all. Rich white people wanting to control everyone else’s lives.
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But not to worry. She has a strong background with the Gates Foundation as well. From the NYT story to which you linked:
“She has worked in the nonprofit world since leaving politics, spending much of the 2000s at the Gates Foundation, the $36 billion fund that finances global health and poverty-eradication programs.”
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Her connections with Robert Rubin are more troubling. Rubin is little better than a crook.
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