Real Koch Facts

The Kochs go Missing in Oregon

May 21, 2015

Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers’ political arm, has inexplicably abandoned their post in Oregon. According to the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, AFP national has said “ the organization no longer maintains a chapter in that state.”

AFP has been active in numerous cities across Oregon since 2007, even before the Tea Party movement sprung into existence. One possible explanation is that the surplus of local and nationally linked Tea Party groups pushed AFP Oregon out of business. Another possible reason is that some of the local chapters went off the rails when they began to plunge into conspiracy theories about Islamophobia and Agenda 21.

References to the AFP Oregon chapter have been completely scrubbed from AFP’s national website. AFP declined to comment on what relationship exists between the national and local chapters or why the Oregon chapter had been deserted. This is a victory for Oregonians […]

McConnell Names Koch Shill to Key Senate Post

May 20, 2015

Mitch McConnell owes the Kochs big time. The Kochs bought McConnell a slew of GOP Senate seats in the 2014 midterms and handed him his post as Senate Majority Leader. In addition, Koch Industries gave over $10,000 to buoy McConnell in his own Senate battle. Now McConnell is hiring a Koch crony to push the Koch agenda through Congress. McConnell has hired Hazen Marshall, a former lobbyist on behalf of Koch Industries, to serve as his new policy director.

Koch Industries spent a hefty $13 million on influencing the federal government last year. Marshall previously served as partner of the Nickles Group where he worked on behalf of Koch Industries. There, he lobbied on the Kochs’ pet issues, including against the Wind Production Tax Credit. The wind PTC has been crucial to the growth of the wind energy industry as it has boomed in recent years, providing more affordable energy, supporting thousands of new jobs, and protecting our environment. […]

The Kochs’ Continued Attack on Renewables in North Carolina

May 19, 2015

The Koch war on renewables continues in their campaign to halt the threats to their behemoth fossil fuel empire. Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs’ political arm, is lobbying against North Carolina’s House budget proposal, which includes the extension of tax credits for solar and renewable energy projects. Not ones to discriminate in their opposition to different types of renewable energy, Americans for Prosperity is pushing to kill all targeted renewable tax credits.

AFP won’t stop there. In a letter to the House Finance Committee, AFP’s State Director, Donald Bryson, pushed to abolish all renewable tax credits and lower personal and corporate income tax rates to exempt billionaires like the Kochs from paying their fair share.

Despite the Koch efforts to eliminate these successful programs, it’s all too clear that renewable energy credits pay dividends in private investment. According to recent estimates, between 2007 and 2014, $229.8 million in tax credits has resulted in over $2.6 billion […]

Kiss Academic Freedom Goodbye: The Koch Brothers Invade College Campuses

May 19, 2015

College campuses are pushing Koch propaganda and you might not even know it. Case in point: A new study out of Arizona State University says the state could phase out the personal income tax in six to eight years, which would exempt tycoons like the Kochs from paying their fair share. What the study doesn’t say is that the Koch brothers funded ASU’s Center for the Study of Economic Liberty to the tune of $3.5 million, which turned around and produced the very report that would mean enormous gains for billionaires like the Kochs.

Predictably, Arizona Governor — and Koch pawn — Doug Ducey is backing the proposal. Prior to his election, Governor Ducey attended a Koch summit where he was caught professing his love for the billionaire brothers and groveling for Koch funds.

But that’s not all.

ASU also accepted more than $1 million in Koch cash […]

Koch brothers welcome flat tax acolytes Cruz and Paul with open arms

May 15, 2015

It’s hard to understate just how important tax reform is to the Koch brothers, but if you asked them to finally admit that climate change is caused by humans to enact a flat tax, they wouldn’t think twice. The New York Times confirmed todaythat their preferred method of tilting the scales in their favor – the flat tax – is sure to be a major debate in the GOP primary. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Ben Carson, and Rick Perry all strongly support the flat tax, which the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities describes as:

“injurious to working and middle-class Americans, who would have to pay higher taxes to help make up for the massive revenue losses, face deep cuts in key programs — likely including programs such as Medicare — to accommodate the large revenue losses, or both.”

In other words, the flat tax will force low […]

REPORT The Importance of Buying Ernst: Why The Kochs Go Wilde Lobbying the Hawkeye State

May 15, 2015

Bridge Project is continuing the “Month’s Supply of Koch” with the release of the latest report:“The Importance of Buying Ernst: Why the Kochs Go Wilde Lobbying in the Hawkeye State.” It’s a comprehensive look at the impact of the Kochs’ operations in Iowa. In their quest to grow their empire, the early primary state has been a central focus for the brothers’ political maneuvering.

The Koch brothers’ priorities couldn’t be more out-of-step with Hawkeye State values. Perhaps the best example of the Kochs’ self-interest is their opposition to the renewable fuel standard and biodiesel fuel standards – a boon to Iowa’s economy – to protect their own oil profits. In fact, since 2006, Koch companies have lobbied on at least 37 bills in Iowa related to ethanol, biodiesel, and other renewable fuels — despite overwhelming support of biodiesel by Iowans. The Kochs aren’t just hitting Iowa’s farmers […]

Kochs’ hometown newspaper attacks Brownback-Koch efforts

May 14, 2015

The Koch brothers’ hometown newspaper, the Wichita Eagle, printed a nasty editorial that skewers the Kochs and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback for their assault on wind energy. The Kochs and Gov. Brownback, who they propped up financially during his underdog reelection campaign, continue to team up and push through conservative policies that destroy Kansas’ economy and education system but balloon the Kochs’ bottom line.

The latest joint Koch-Brownback effort is the AFP-backed bill Brownback signed this week to weaken the state’s wind power sector. By some estimates, wind power could create 12,000 jobs and $8 billion in investment in Kansas. Seeing the impact to the Kochs’ profits, the Kansas branch of Americans for Prosperity (the Kochs’ political arm) spent more than $300,000 in an effort to repeal the state’s renewable energy standards.

Naturally, the Kochs and their elected officials are opposed to any regulation that hurts their profits. And like always, after bankrolling Gov. Brownback’s […]

Koch Industries’ Plant Closure Will Leave Most Workers Unemployed

May 11, 2015

Most of the workers at a shuttering Georgia-Pacific plant are facing unemployment at the end of the year due to Koch Industries most recent cuts. Koch subsidiary, Georgia-Pacific, announced the closure of its Dixie Plant in Parchment, Michigan on Friday. The Kochs’ move is a devastating loss to the city as it was the last remaining paper producer in the town nick-named “Paper City” for the many paper companies it once was home to. Parchment Mayor Rob Heasley said he was shocked by the move since he believed the plant was doing well.

The impending closure is a stark reminder — while the Koch brothers gear up to spend nearly $900 million picking a conservative Republican and try to buy the White House, they have a long history of destroying livelihoods and families. The historic closing is just the Kochs’ latest maneuver to increase Georgia-Pacific’s profits. In Michigan, the Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity is

The Continued Koch Assault on American Workers

May 8, 2015

The Kochs’ model Governor, Indiana’s Mike Pence, did even more damage to Indiana’s reputation this week when he signed a bill into law repealing Indiana’s common construction wage. The repeal does away with local boards that ensure construction workers earn a fair wage when building public projects.

The Kochs, who have attacked minimum wage laws nationwide, came out with full-throated support of Pence’s bill. Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs’ political arm bought radio ads in Indiana pushing the bill. The Kochs’ love affair with Pence goes back a long way. As Governor of Indiana, Pence enacted tax cuts, which benefited the state’s top earners — a move straight out of the Koch playbook. Also, at least three different former Pence staffers who are now embedded in the Kochs’ political network. Indeed, AFP operatives are so enamored with Pence’s Koch-backed policies that they held up Indiana as a example of a “model state” […]

Billionaire Koch Brothers Argue Against Student Loan Forgiveness

May 8, 2015

The Kochs are on the warpath against college students. Yesterday, Daniel Sutter, the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics at the Koch-funded Manuel H. Johnson Center at Troy University, published a column about why “forgiving college loans would teach students a terrible lesson about economics and responsibility.”

Sutter argues: “Forgiving these loans will not boost the economy. Cancellation would prevent lenders from spending the loan payments and not increase spending overall. The U.S. Treasury can assume the loans to make the lenders whole, but this merely burdens our economy with greater national debt. Prosperity results from voluntary exchange and value creation, not spending.”

Sutter’s argument overlooks the thousands of recent college graduates who have had their career plans dashed or delayed by crushing student debt — which many took on with the belief it would open opportunities. Instead, after graduation, students cannot contribute to the economy because they are crippled by debt.

The […]