Real Koch Facts

Kochs Attack Lawmakers Working to Expand Medicaid to 800,000 Floridians

March 30, 2015

The Koch brothers are campaigning against Florida state Senate President Andy Gardiner (R-Orlando) and 24 other senators who are working to expand Medicaid. Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity is sending mailers to Gardiner’s district and the districts of the other state senators who support the bill and has plans to ramp up its attack once the bill goes to the floor.

The expansion plan, known as the Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange program (FHIX), “includes conservative, free market guardrails that will control the cost and growth” of Medicaid in Florida, said Gardiner. In addition to the income requirements from the Affordable Care Act, FHIX has work and premium requirements:

30 hours a week for childless adults and 20 hours a week for parents of children under 18. Unemployed adults could qualify by spending that time searching for employment, participating in job-training activities or furthering their education. Disabled […]

Koch carbon takes over downtown Green Bay

March 27, 2015

A Koch Industries subsidiary, C. Reiss Coal, is wreaking havoc in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The mineral transport company produces enormous coal piles that have monopolized part of the downtown waterfront for over ten years. A Wisconsin county commissioner is pushing for a study to measure the potentially deleterious health effects of the dust buildup that has become menace to the facility’s neighbors.

Green Bay Mayor, Jim Schmitt, said, “We thought maybe they’d get out of this business, but they’re committed to (it) … I would like nothing more for them to self-relocate (but at a cost of) of at least $20 million, it’s not going to happen in the next four years.”

Unsurprisingly, a spokesman for the facility said they have no plans to move the piles.

This is not the first time Koch Industries has jeopardized the health of it’s neighbors. Over […]

Masking the Real Koch Agenda with Criminal Justice Reform

March 26, 2015

In a recent profile, Koch Industries’ marketing exec, Steve Lombardo, admitted what everyone had already assumed: The Koch’s recent effort to push criminal justice system reform is a facade to advance their financial interests. Lombardo went as far as saying the initiative was part of a larger public relations campaign to combat Koch Industries’ negative image.

“‘Emphasizing criminal justice reform is a key part of the strategy to deflate the negative narrative around the Kochs,’ Lombardo said.”

Even with their newly-found interest in criminal justice, it’s worth looking at their true motives. The Kochs are candid about carving a “do gooder” image that helps their bottom line. It just so happens that the Koch brothers became interested in criminal justice reform after a grand jury’s indictment of employees at a Texas Koch refinery for violations of the Clean Air Act and other crimes. Koch Industries spent […]

Scientists and National Coalition Urge Museums to Break Koch Ties

March 24, 2015

Scientists are calling for an end to the controversial relationship between the Kochs and the world-renowned science museums they have a hand in funding, including the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

In an open letter, the scientists wrote:

We are concerned that the integrity of these institutions is compromised by association with special interests who obfuscate climate science, fight environmental regulation, oppose clean energy legislation, and seek to ease limits on industrial pollution.

When some of the biggest contributors to climate change and funders of misinformation on climate science sponsor exhibitions in museums of science and natural history, they undermine public confidence in the validity of the institutions responsible for transmitting scientific knowledge. This corporate philanthropy comes at too high a cost.

While the public affairs director for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History insists that David Koch only sits on […]

The Koch front on the Export Import Bank

March 20, 2015

The LIBRE Initiative bills itself as a non-profit group that pushes a message of economic freedom and limited government among the Latino community. But the Koch bankrolled group is just a front for the Koch’s self-interested agenda. The LIBRE Initiative has been pushing to block a minimum wage hike, oppose the expansion of medicaid, and fight against clean energy legislation, and now do away with the Export-Import Bank.

The mission of the Bank is to create and sustain U.S. jobs by financing sales of U.S. exports to international buyers. In FY 2014 the export-import bank funded $10.7 billion in small business exports, making small business exports the top category for Ex-Im Bank last year. The reauthorization of the Bank is set to expire in June — if Congress doesn’t act.

Of course, the Kochs are opposed to the program because it gives small businesses an […]

Koch higher education grant comes with strings attached

March 19, 2015

The Charles Koch Foundation has signed on with Papa John’s founder John Schnatter to fund the John H. Schnatter Center for Free Enterprise at the University of Louisville, donating nearly $2 million to the program. So… what’s the catch?

The contract with U of L allows the donors to walk away at virtually any time, says Insider Louisville:

The contracts also allow Schnatter and the Charles Koch Foundation to pull their funding at any time if the center is not living up to its mission, which the contracts say is “to engage in research and teaching that explores the role of enterprise and entrepreneurship in advancing the well-being of society.”

According to the agreements, which were signed by U of L president James Ramsey on March 10, if the donors want to pull funding, they must “make a good faith effort to meet within sixty (60) days to discuss” the reasons with […]

Koch Contamination of the NCAA

March 17, 2015

The Kochs are spreading their gospel through through a multi-year national sponsorship of college sports, making an enormous media buy that will give the company advertising exposure at 15 universities in the Big 10, Big 12, and Missouri Valley Conferences.

Koch, making its first major foray into collegiate advertising and marketing, is using the sponsorships to recruit March Madness fans throughout the Midwest. The in-game mentions, radio advertising, Koch-branded towels, and signage will run during men’s and women’s basketball games and directs viewers to KochCareers.com.

Being a college athlete is a lot like the Koch’s vision for the middle class, says a recent Bloomberg View article:

Like student athletes, many of Koch’s employees also understand what it’s like to work for an organization that is against unions and and the protections they afford. The NCAA has fought efforts by Northwestern football players to unionize, touting the threat to “amateurism” and arguing […]

How Conservatives Took Over North Carolina

March 15, 2015

Once a more moderate state amid the South’s sea of red, since 2010 North Carolina’s state legislature has pushed one of the most aggressive right-wing agendas in the country, advancing the interests of the Tea Party and big business at the expense of the middle class. Republicans in charge of the General Assembly have introduced legislation on a wide set of conservative priorities and managed to enact increasingly extreme policies. Republican lawmakers made it harder for minorities and students to vote, reduced a woman’s right to choose, opposed the minimum wage, slashed unemployment benefits, and gave tax cuts to the wealthy while raising them on the working class, small businesses, and seniors.

Republicans hold such power in North Carolina thanks to changes that began with the 2010 elections, when an influx of outside cash helped the GOP obtain control of both halves of the General Assembly for the first time in […]

Koch-backed veterans group advocates for VA privatization

March 13, 2015

During the 2014 midterm election cycle, the Koch-funded group Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) backed a bevy of extreme conservative candidates and helped send top Koch cronies (and veterans) Joni Ernst and Tom Cotton to the U.S. Senate. Scarcely a couple months into the 2016 cycle, CVA has released a report recommending that much of the U.S. Veterans Administration be privatized, an extreme policy position that would jeopardize the care received by millions of our nation’s veterans.

Last month, CVA’s Fixing Veterans Health Care Taskforce released its final report suggesting “policy reforms” for the VA, namely that the VA’s health care system be converted into an independent, nonprofit corporation and advocating for the creation of a private insurance option for veterans. Additionally, new enrollees into the proposed system would face tougher enrollment standards. According to USA Today, a whopping one-fifth of future veterans would not be […]

Koch-backed governor forbids the Department of Environmental Protection from doing its job

March 10, 2015

Florida Governor Rick Scott has come up with a fool-proof plan for dealing with climate change: ignore the problem and hope it goes away.

According to officials at the agency, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, ostensibly in charge of studying and preparing for the impacts of climate change, is reportedly forbidden from using the terms“climate change” and ”global warming.”

The ban went into effect after Scott took office in 2011. Although Scott denies that he was the one to issue the gag order, historically he has refused to acknowledge the reality of man-made climate change even after a group of Florida scientists sat him down and explained it to him.

Former DEP employees claim they were told never to use either of those terms “in any official communications, emails or reports,” because “we were not allowed to discuss anything that was not a true fact.”

This […]