Real Koch Facts

Senator Shelby Gets Primary Boost In Exchange For Supporting Kochs’ Anti-Dodd Frank Agenda

March 1, 2016

It’s election day in Alabama and Senator Richard Shelby is facing a “tougher than expected” primary challenge. Luckily for Shelby — or, in return for his support of their selfish agenda — Charles and David Koch have been more than willing to chip in on his behalf.

Citizens for a Sound Government — a dark money group with Koch ties — has spent $413,000 in the Alabama Senate primary, including over $45,000 on ads praising Shelby. And 60 Plus Association — a Koch-funded “astroturf” group that purports to represent seniors — has similarly boosted Shelby. The group last week released a statement in support support for Senator Shelby, and FEC filings show that the organization has also spent money on telephone voter contact on Shelby’s behalf.

Why are the Kochs helping Shelby ward of his primary challengers? Because they know he’ll continue their selfish crusade to repeal Dodd-Frank.

The Kochs have been actively […]

Koch Support Pays Off For Washington Republican Joe Heck

March 1, 2016

American Bridge 21st Cenutry Press Secretary Katie Lewallen released the following statement in response to the Koch backed “veterans” group, Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) recent ad buy backing Congressman Joe Heck:

“Koch support has paid off for Washington Republican Joe Heck, who has advocated special interests over representing Nevadans. Joe Heck and the Koch created CVA push policies that would privatize the VA and could result in one-fifth of future veterans being ineligible for VA care. Those who served in uniform deserve to receive the care they were promised, and Joe Heck has proven that he will not represent working and military families in Nevada.”

Read more about the Concerned Veterans for America here, “The Vets Group That Fights Against Veterans.”

Read more about Heck’s record on voting against legislation to protect veterans’ healthcare from being turned in to a voucher program and opposing increased funding for PTSD treatment and awareness:

Heck’s Record On Veterans’ Healthcare

2011: VOTED AGAINST A BILL TO […]

New Academic Study Proves American Bridge Right About The Kochs

February 29, 2016

A new study by Professors Alex Hertel-Fernandez and Theda Skocpol details the pervasiveness of the Koch brothers’ network to take control of the Republican Party.

Quick findings from the study:

Koch-backed organizations fund 76% of all of the budgets of “GOP-conservative organizations newly created since 2002.”

Koch-funded organizations encourage politicians “to compete to prove they can be effective spokespersons for, and executors of, the Koch agenda,” instead of making candidate endorsements.
According to Americans For Prosperity’s national congressional scorecards, Republican House and Senate members “have voted with AFP most of the time…with compliance rising from 73% in 2007 to 88% in 2015.”

Complete report: “The Koch Effect: The Impact of a Cadre-Led Network on American Politics”

Below is an excerpt of Profs. Hertel-Fernandez and Skocpol’s interview with Henry Farrell, Monkey Cage, Washington Post:

“To us, it has been fascinating to discover that, unlike most policy advocacy groups, the Koch network does not just stand apart […]

SHOT/CHASER: Under Oath, Americans For Prosperity Reveals Dependency on Kochs

February 24, 2016

SHOT:
Americans For Prosperity President Tim Phillips compares Kochs to small grassroots donors:
“We have over 80,000 donors. The two that get the most notoriety are two fellows named David and Charles Koch… We’re proud to have their support but we’ve got over 80,000 folks who have given money. Sometimes that means $5 online; sometimes it means $100 through direct mail; sometimes it means thousands and thousands of dollars. But we’ve got over 80,000 donors in all 50 states.”

CHASER:
Law 360: Koch Bros. Group’s CEO Defends Donor Secrecy At Trial
AFP CEO Luke Hilgemann “testified that ‘seven-figure’ donors are the group’s ‘lifeblood,’ and added that a major part of his role as CEO is assuring the major donors that their names will not be made public.”

Main Street Bondholders’ Puerto Rico Campaign Was Manufactured By The Kochs

February 24, 2016

On Monday, CNN Money profiled Puerto Rico bondholders to “put a face on the crisis.” The nine people featured told stories about losing their hard earned money due to the debt crisis in the territory. Undisclosed in the article is that four out of the five profiles were members of the Main Street Bondholders, a project of the Koch-front group 60 Plus.

According to The New York Times,

The group cast the victims of a bankruptcy as ordinary Puerto Ricans and retirees who owned government-issued bonds. In November, 60 Plus recruited a group of these individuals, calling them ‘Main Street Bondholders,’ for a news conference in San Juan.
..

Exactly who the group was speaking for was unclear. Puerto Ricans own less than a fifth of the island’s debt, according to government officials. And while 60 Plus claims to represent millions of seniors, most of the group’s revenue comes from a few large, […]

The Kochs Just Sent Marco Rubio A Babysitter

February 23, 2016

An inspiration to all participation award recipients everywhere, Marco Rubio — who, remember, has yet to win a single state and won a mere 9 delegates to Donald Trump’s 68 — is teaming up with Charles and David Koch to bring their selfish agenda to the White House.

In the latest sign that the Kochs — like RNC Reince Priebus and the rest of the GOP establishment — are getting seriously nervous about Donald Trump, Politico reports that Marc Short, “the Koch brothers’ top political adviser in Washington and a trusted member of their inner circle for five years,” is jumping aboard Marco Rubio’s expectations-mangling presidential campaign.

Short’s Team Marco migration is a serious indication that Rubio’s surging ahead in the Koch Primary. But that’s hardly a surprise — there have for months been indications that Rubio’s a Koch favorite.

In the last weeks alone, we’ve seen Koch operatives jump to Rubio’s defense on social media, as […]

Kochs’ LIBRE Initiative Backs Regressive Flat Tax That Helps Kochs But Hurts Working Latinos

February 22, 2016

Daniel Garza, executive director of the the LIBRE Initiative — Charles and David Koch’s Latino-outreach front-group that works against the interests of Hispanic families — has appeared to endorse a flat tax, a highly regressive proposal that’s good for the Kochs but hurts the families that LIBRE claims to represent.

In a post on Medium, Garza argues, “Hispanics will never be able to lift themselves out of poverty or achieve prosperity if we’re forced to pay higher taxes every time our incomes grow.”

That sounds nice, but what Garza’s left unsaid there is that he similarly doesn’t think billionaires like the Koch brothers should be “forced to pay higher taxes” every time they make a few more millions — because, he claims, it “will be of no help to our community.”

Garza’s argument is — at best — questionable logic, because a flat tax is enormously regressive, conferring massive benefits on the wealthy few at the […]

Kochs’ Anti-Veterans Group Back To Denying It Wants To Privatize Veterans’ Health Care

February 19, 2016

Concerned Veterans for America, Charles and David Koch’s veterans front group that works against the interests of veterans, is back to denying its plans to privatize veterans’ health care.

CVA has in the past openly advocated policies that would, by their own admission, privatize the Veterans Affairs healthcare system — proposals that the group itself has described as making VA health care “private” and “premium support”-based. If that’s not enough evidence, less than two weeks ago, a CNN fact-check confirmed not only the group’s Koch ties, but also it’s privatization goals.

But it’s the Kochs we’re talking about — and Charles and David have never let facts get in the way of their selfish agenda. In a Wednesday op-ed for the Hill, CVA VP Dan Caldwell angrily denounced those who have accused the group of privatization advocacy, accusing them of having “denigrated and misrepresented [his] organization” by “saying we in […]

Kochs Praise Corporate Inversions That Hurt Small Businesses, Consumers

February 19, 2016

This week, the Koch-sponsored Mercatus Center Program Coordinator Adam Michael defended corporations that take their headquarters overseas while retaining its material operations in its higher-tax country of origin to avoid paying taxes, commonly known as corporate inversion:

“There’s nothing illegal about a corporate inversion,” Michel said. “It is the process by which a corporation merges with a partner, another corporation, and moves their headquarters to the partner’s country.

Koch group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), has also backed corporate inversion, going as far as to suggest that companies that move to other countries are avoiding the “disease” that is the American tax system.

This might be one of the first instances where we can’t call the Kochs hypocritical. Because the Koch brothers don’t just defend corporate inversion, they practice it.

Koch Industries has averted paying millions in what they should to the U.S. in taxes by using a set of foreign subsidiaries in […]

Huffington Post: The Kochs Are Plotting A Multimillion-Dollar Assault On Electric Vehicles

February 19, 2016

The Koch brothers are once again proving that their involvement in politics isn’t about fighting government regulations — it’s about rigging the system to boost their bottom line. Just like they’ve done with solar energy, the Kochs are launching a new group to pull the plug on electric cars:

“Industry analysts and conservatives familiar with Koch world say the new initiative seems to fit the playbook that advocacy outfits backed by the Koch network have deployed in recent years to fight solar and wind power, battles that are fueled by ideology mixed with bottom line concerns.”

All their claims about “good profit” are nothing but a PR stunt. Read more about what’s at stake for the Kochs in their battle against renewable energy: