Real Koch Facts

On Puerto Rico, The GOP’s Livin’ La Vida Koch-A

December 2, 2015

Ricky Martin’s in Orlando today, drawing attention to the GOP agenda that hurts his fellow Puerto Ricans, as well as Latinos in Florida and across the country. That GOP agenda is one and same with Charles and David Koch’s selfish agenda — a reality that’s no more evident this week than in the singer’s home island of Puerto Rico, just over 1,100 miles to the southeast of Martin’s Orlando event.

Tuesday’s initial debt deadline required Puerto Rico to make a payment of $354 million, or face a default — all thanks to heavy lobbying by the billionaire Koch brothers and a Republican Congress eager to do their bidding.

How did we get here? The Kochs have been using several organizations, including Main Street Bondholders, a “concerned retirees” front group — yes, seriously — to get congressional Republicans to block the passage of legislation that would allow Puerto Rico to access Chapter 9 […]

Kochs’ GOP Senate Allies Advance Anti-Medicaid Expansion Agenda

December 2, 2015

The Koch-controlled Senate Republican Conference is going after the two billionaire brothers’ sworn enemy: the Medicaid expansion that’s broadened access to quality health care for millions of Americans.

Politico reports on the GOP’s latest assault on low-income, working American families:

This week, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is poised to clinch the elusive 51 votes he needs to pass a repeal [of Obamacare]…the new version also would gut an expansion of Medicaid that’s put millions of Americans from low-income households on the insurance rolls.

Charles and David Koch have wanted to destroy Medicaid for years — long before the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act that enabled states to launch expansions of the program. As detailed in Bridge Project’s report, “The Koch-Backed Effort to Kill Medicaid,” Koch network groups have claimed that Medicaid disincentives people to work harder, and they’ve shilled budgets that would end the program as we […]

Amid Historic Climate Talks, Kochs Continue Multi-Million-Dollar Misinformation Campaign

December 1, 2015

150 world leaders are gathered in Paris for what promises to be ground-breaking climate talks. Meanwhile, Charles and David Koch continue a selfish, profit-motivated campaign promoting climate change denial. Over the years, the two brothers have spent tens of millions of dollars bankrolling a misinformation campaign that aims to advance their polluting business interests over the health and public welfare of the American people.

The Kochs’ known influence in climate change denial circles has been anecdotal for some time, but a new scientific study published last week proves that their corporate influence has created polarization in public debate despite the fact that the scientific community is largely in agreement on climate change. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which examined the efforts backed by 164 groups funded through the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil, finds:

[O]rganizations with corporate funding were more likely to have written and disseminated texts meant to […]

“Non-Partisan” LIBRE’s Unabashed Partisanship Does The GOP No Favors

November 30, 2015

The LIBRE Initiative, Charles and David Koch’s Latino outreach front group that works against the interests of the Hispanic community, is back in the spotlight. A number of news outlets —the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — have in the last week published stories exposing the organization, which claims to be politically neutral, for the partisan sham that it is.

Among other purposes, the Kochs — whose interest-group-funding organization, Freedom Partners, has “donated $6.5 million in 2014, $2.9 million in 2013 and $3.3 million in 2012 to Libre” — use LIBRE to build out their vast repository of voter file data, which they then contract out to candidates and the RNC through i360, their proprietary data firm. National Review last month got into LIBRE’s methods, which include using offerings […]

Denver Post: Behind the scenes, Koch brothers spent big in Colorado, filings show

November 30, 2015

The billionaire Koch brothers promote themselves as libertarians who don’t fight the far right’s fight on social issues, but, as the Denver Post reports, the groups they bankrolled in 2014, including CitizenLink, Evangchr4 Trust, IACE Action, Colorado Women’s Alliance, and others, spent “tens of millions” pushing an extreme, far-right agenda — all in the name of electing one of the billionaire brothers’ puppet candidates in Colorado.

Coloradans were kept in the dark until more than a year after the Kochs spent millions through shadowy front groups. Now, as the Koch network gears up to spend nearly $900 million in 2016, imagine what we’ll learn about what their money bought them in this election, but not until November 2017, of course.

Still On The Kochs’ Short List, Carly Scores Invite To “High-Profile” Koch Group Event

November 24, 2015

Just this morning, Charles Koch said it’s still “possible” that he will endorse in the GOP presidential primary. And according to a new report from NBC, Carly Fiorina is still on the short list to win the Koch shadow primary and the millions that come with it.

Fiorina made her first 2016 foray into Kochworld when she appeared alongside the Kochs other candidates at their exclusive summit of rich mega-donors at a luxury resort in August. And she’s clearly still on the Kochs’ radar with a new invitation to “reach the group’s vast network of activists” the day after the next GOP debate in Nevada.

It’s easy to see why Fiorina would get the Koch nod of approval, her business record of putting profits ahead of all else by outsourcing and firing workers, is on par with the billionaire brothers’ philosophy of putting their bottom line fist.

But it’s not just Carly the […]

Kochs Continue To Tout Subversive Agenda And Plans To Buy Elections

November 24, 2015

The Kochs’ PR team needs to keep Charles off TV. They shouldn’t need the brothers’ in-house spy agency to tell them that.

It’s a major setback to the Kochs’ grand PR strategy any time the Koch Industries chairman and CEO is interviewed, because Charles seemingly can’t help but come clean about his and his David’s selfish agenda and shameless willingness to buy elections. Last weekend, a Fox Sunday Morning Futures interview provided Charles his latest opportunity to spill the beans:

First off, Charles decided to come clean on the Koch plan to restrict future seniors’ Social Security eligibility by raising the retirement age. Hardly a burden on him, an 80 year-old who, with a net-worth of $44.2 billion, is the fifth-richest person in America.

Then Charles doubled down on last week’s confession that he thinks “the more money, [in politics] the better.” On Sunday, Charles re-upped his absurd claim that the $900 million […]

Kochs Bringing In Overseas Labor To Run Their Political Takeover

November 23, 2015

The latest evidence that the Koch brothers’ shameless self-interest knows no bounds: Charles and David are struggling to find American supporters of their selfish agenda — so they’re looking overseas. In 2014 alone, Demeter Analytics — the holding company for the Kochs’ voter file data firm, i360 — applied for 7 H-1B visas, which allow employers to hire foreign workers for temporary employment in “specialty occupations.” Yes, the two billionaires are effectively outsourcing their attacks on middle class American families.

i360 is instrumental to the Kochs’ 2016 plans because it aggregates voter information from the range of Koch front groups and contracts out access to Ben Carson and much of the rest of the GOP field. (The one notable exception is Donald Trump, to whom the Kochs have refused access.)

The brothers use Koch network organizations like their sham Latino outreach group, the LIBRE Initiative, to amass voter data at candidate […]

Big Koch Industries $$$ For Charles And David’s Favorite GOP Puppets

November 20, 2015

For months, we’ve seen Charles and David already using their front groups to make big ad buys and bolster their pet candidates in competitive 2016 races, but the brothers are simultaneously using a more direct method to tip the scales: Koch Industries’ corporate super PAC.

October saw KOCHPAC spend heavily in support of Koch favorites in Senate, House, and gubernatorial races across the country. Here’s who the brothers gave big to last month:

Rep. Joe Heck, who’s running for Senate for Nevada and also receiving support from Karl Rove, pulled in $2,500 from KOCHPAC last month.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Charles and David’s New Hampshire favorite, has already benefited from $1.2 million in support from AFP — and KOCHPAC sent her $4,500 last month.

Sen. Roy Blunt, the vulnerable, Rove-backed senator from Missouri, got even more: $5,000 — in October alone.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, mired in controversy over a sketchy contract the […]

FSU Faces Another Koch Crony Appointment To Provost Position

November 19, 2015

Over the years, Florida State University has become a playground for the Kochs to test out the limits of the influence their grants can buy at public universities. FSU students have fought against the billionaire brothers through “UnKoch My Campus” campaigns that highlight the consequences of the college accepting Koch money. Despite these initiatives, the Kochs have still been able to successfully buy their way into public universities across the country, bookbags packed to the brim with Ayn Rand and John Stossel.

At FSU, the installation of Koch crony John Thrasher earlier this year was a big win for the brothers. Now, another Koch favorite, Mark Zupan, is up for the job of provost.

In an opinion piece in the Tallahassee Democrat, Ralph Wilson reports:

Provost candidate Dr. Mark Zupan is the director of the Bradley Policy Center. The namesake refers to the Bradley Foundation, […]