Real Koch Facts

Closing Argument: Koch Crony Joni Ernst Owes Everything To The Kochs

October 30, 2014

Joni Ernst and the Kochs share so many of the same views, it’s sometimes tough to tell them them apart. Ernst has been such a strong ally for the secretive billionaire brothers that they personally maxed out in contributions to Ernst’s campaign. Joni Ernst is a Koch crony through and through, and a vote for her on November 4th is a vote for electing one of the fiercest defenders of the Kochs’ self-serving, anti-middle class agenda to the U.S. Senate.

On issue after issue after issue, it’s hard to find any air between Ernst’s positions and those of her billionaire oil baron benefactors. Renewable Fuel Standard? Ernst is “philosophically” opposed and her “perfect world” does not allow for it; the Kochs’ political arm Americans For Prosperity opposes RFS. Clean Water Act? Joni Erst opposes it and the heavy polluting Kochs do too. The Farm Bill is another – Ernst says she would have voted […]

Closing Argument: Terri Lynn Land’s Failed Koch Candidacy

October 30, 2014

The billionaire Koch brothers know a thing or two about making economic investments, and so ahead of the 2014 election cycle, they sought to invest in candidates that would push their extreme self-serving agenda in races in that could help expand the senate map for Republicans. In Michigan, they have gone zero for one with Republican Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land.

The wealthy brothers couldn’t have asked for a candidate who would better toe the Koch line than Terri Lynn Land, unfortunately that agenda turned out to be anathema to Michigan voters. Whether she was opposing a minimum wage hike, gushing over unlimited dark money in campaigns, or promising to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act, Land’s positions on the trail have been everything the Koch brothers could hope for. And on top of all that, she had millions of dollars to fund her own campaign.

So the Kochs invested, maxing out to Land’s […]

Closing Argument: Wehby And The Koch Brothers – Not For Oregon

October 30, 2014

While Oregon Republican Senate candidate Monica Wehby briefly appeared to be a potential bright spot for the Republican Party, that moment quickly passed, although not for any lack of effort (money) by the Koch brothers to keep it alive.

The billionaire Koch brothers have spent around $1 million running attack ads against Wehby’s opponent. Wehby received further Koch support when she was endorsed by the Koch-funded National Federation of Independent Businesses, a group that claims to advocate on behalf of small businesses but in reality supports policies that aid big corporations like Koch Industries. Wehby also raked in thousands in personal donations from the Koch family to her campaign, and Tim Phillips, the president of the Kochs’ Americans For Prosperity, offered praise for her campaign at the Koch network’s secretive billionaires retreat this summer.

For the Kochs, Monica Wehby is essentially their ideal candidate. She has opposed efforts to raise the minimum wage, opposed environmental standards from […]

Closing Argument: The Kochs Think Scott Brown Is A Sound Investment

October 30, 2014

The state of the union between the Koch brothers and Scott Brown was strong years before Brown moved to New Hampshire to run for Senate. In 2011, Brown was caught on tape kissing the ring of David Koch, gushing that “your support during the election, it meant a ton. It made a difference and I can certainly use it again.” Since then, Koch-backed groups have doubled down on their support for Brown, spending over $2.6 million on ads attacking his opponent.

As billionaire businessmen, the Koch brothers know a thing or two about making sound investments, and Scott Brown has clearly demonstrated to the Koch brothers that he will represent their interests again if they help him return to the Senate. Brown has voted for tax breaks for oil companies, surely music to the ears of oilmen like the Kochs. The fact that after losing his Senate seat in 2012, Brown gladly […]

Closing Argument: Mitch McConnell Would Lead the Koch Agenda To Victory

October 30, 2014

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has spent thirty years in Washington putting special interests first, and if re-elected, he would undoubtedly prioritize the interests of the secretive billionaire Koch brothers. McConnell said so himself earlier this year at the Kochs’ secret donor summit, where he laid out just what a McConnell-run Senate would look like. In his own words, if McConnell becomes majority leader, “we’re not going to be debating all these gosh darn proposals. That’s all we do in the Senate is vote on things like raising the minimum wage…”

McConnell must know a thing or two about voting on the minimum wage – he has voted against raising it at least seventeen times during his tenure in Washington. The Kochs’ primary political arm Americans For Prosperity also opposes raising the minimum wage, and this is just the beginning of the similarities in the policy agenda […]

Closing Argument: A Second Term For Scott Walker Is A Second Term For The Kochs

October 30, 2014

The Koch brothers’ political arm, Americans for Prosperity, spent heavily in Wisconsin in 2010 to ensure that Scott Walker was one of the many extreme Conservative Republicans swept into office by that year’s Tea Party wave. Over the course of his first term as Governor, Walker and his allies have steered Wisconsin to the far right, cutting education spending by $800 million, working to block an increase to the state’s minimum wage and at the same time, giving massive tax breaks to the wealthy. Led by Walker, the state’s Republican legislature introduced an assault on collective bargaining rights that effectively cut public workers’ pay and destroyed their ability to negotiate over health coverage, safety, or sick leave.

When Walker’s extreme policies were at issue in the 2012 recall election, AFP spent $10 million promoting his — and the Kochs — political agenda. Walker’s current campaign for reelection has also benefited from Koch support, […]

Rick Scott – The Special Interests Governor

October 30, 2014

The heated race for governor in the Sunshine State is just around the corner, and after throwing his fantrum on national television, Rick Scott needs something of a miracle to win reelection. Luckily for Scott, he’s got the support of the billionaire Koch brothers and their extensive political network: Koch Industries has made large contributions to Scott’s campaign, and the Kochs’ primary political arm, Americans For Prosperity, has put more than 40 paid staffers on the ground in the Sunshine State.

Scott’s ties to the Koch brothers go back a ways. In 2013, Scott spoke at Americans For Prosperity’s “Defending the American Dream Summit” in Orlando the very same week that he skipped his own three-day education summit, a stark juxtaposition of priorities that drew this rebuke from Tampa Bay Times:

“Unless he’s worried about his base or the lingering threat of a primary challenge, it baffles us that Scott – who […]

REPORT — Outrage in Oregon: How The Koch Brothers’ Quest For Profit Wrought Havoc On A Mill Town

October 23, 2014

The Koch brothers have shown time and time again that everything they do is motivated by self-interest. Be it the politicians they support, the policies they lobby for, or the business practices they engage in, their ultimate goal is to continue to build their massive fortune, no matter the consequences.

For a microcosm, look no further than Oregon, where the billionaire brothers’ business empire, Koch Industries, has had a profoundly negative impact on the state. While Georgia Pacific, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, has a slew of plants throughout the state, the most quintessential example of their utter disregard for the well-being of the state centers on Georgia Pacific’s Wauna Mill in Clatskanie.

In 2004, Georgia Pacific was granted a massive tax exemption on Wauna Mill under the condition that they fulfill a promise to create a certain number of jobs at the mill site. The plant was the largest taxpayer in […]

Dinner With The Koch Brothers

Sit down for a nice TV dinner with all your favorite family members — including the beloved Koch brothers of course!

In a Boston Globe report yesterday on “dark money” in campaigns, they offered this lovely nugget: “One of every 16 television ads in US Senate races from January 2013 through August were paid for by a single group, Americans for Prosperity.”

One out of every 16 Senate ads the country! And that’s to say nothing of the flurry of other groups that are funded by the Koch brothers. The Kochs’ defenders like to pontificate about free speech and demonize those who continue to make part of the conversation about the billionaire brothers.

But Kochs have truly inserted themselves into the conversation. Not just the political conversation, the dinner conversation. At every. Single. Commercial break.

AFP adds Wisconsin to its roadshow of misleading ads

October 17, 2014

To understand the relationship the Koch brothers’ political arm, Americans for Prosperity, has with the truth, you needn’t look any further than the group’s scorecard on PolitiFact. During this midterm cycle, the group has racked up a consistent stream of “mostly false” and “false” ratings for their claims in ads. A toddler taking a “true or false” quiz is more likely to get a “true” than this outfit, which has also employed paid actors to spout falsified stories about the Affordable Care Act.

The latest “mostly false” rating was issued in response to a misleading mailer AFP is circulating in Northern Wisconsin. According to the mailer, Republican Governor Scott Walker’s administration is responsible for the region’s mining economy “moving forward” and for more people “getting good, high-paying jobs.” Per PolitiFact, AFP’s citation for this claim is Senate Bill 1, a controversial bill partially written by a mining […]