Real Koch Facts

BREAKING: Newly Released Evidence Shows Kochs Back Candidates Who Share Their Extreme, Self-Serving Agenda

August 27, 2014

What do Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton, Cory Gardner, and Mitch McConnell all have in common? They all share key aspects of the Kochs’ extreme, self-serving, anti-working families agenda.

New reporting tonight by The Nation and Huffington Post on audio from a secretive Koch donor conference – where Ernst, Gardner, Cotton, and McConnell all spoke – demonstrates these candidates’ gratitude for the Kochs’ support, and the extent to which they share the extreme Koch agenda.

Whether opposing an increase in the minimum wage (or opposing a federal minimum wage entirely), supporting efforts that would voucherize Medicare, opposing legislative attempts to remedy pay discrimination, or opposing (even “philosophically”) policies that would directly assist those they seek to serve (e.g., the Farm Bill in Arkansas and Renewable Fuel Standards in Iowa), Koch-backed candidates are putting their Koch-backed agenda first above all else.

Supporting research after the jump.

Back to school at Koch University

August 26, 2014

With summer coming to a close, the Koch brothers have created a handy shopping list for all of your Back to School needs:

Pencils
Erasers
3-ring binders
Anti-government propaganda

One of these items may not seem like the others, but according to Slate, the Koch-funded Institute for Humane Studies thinks that teaching materials that “vilify the government” deserve a place in the classroom right alongside the dry-erase markers. This marks the first full school year that The Edvantage, a project of IHS, will make its radical libertarian curriculum materials available online to teachers for free.

According to the report, The Edvantage’s online hub is replete with “educational videos, articles and podcasts on topics including economics, history and philosophy,” that go out of their way to decry the Environmental Protection Agency and the minimum wage while touting sweatshops as being beneficial to workers in the developing world. All of these positions are tenets of […]

Bill Koch considers his brother Charles’ political views “extreme”

Here at Real Koch Facts, we refer frequently to the “Koch brothers” as shorthand for Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who are committed to deploying their wealth in service of their self-serving, Conservative political agenda. But Charles and David actually have two more brothers, Bill and Fred, and this past weekend, Bill gave an interview to the Associated Press. The AP released a few nuggets of the interview, providing a glimpse into the thinking of one of the more reclusive members of the Koch family.

Whether it be their desire to abolish the federal minimum wage, repeal all campaign finance laws or roll back basic environmental protections, there are no shortage of examples of radical policies espoused by Charles and David, their political arm, Americans for Prosperity, and the Republican candidates they support. Earlier this year, Charles Koch […]

Americans for Prosperity wants to keep the GOP on Cruz control

August 22, 2014

After he shut down the government last year, and derailed House Republicans’ attempt to pass a bill in response to the Mexico border crisis this summer, it’s evident that Senator Ted Cruz is responsible for pushing the GOP even further to the far right. His extreme-Conservative-or-nothing approach to governing is now driving the Republican agenda on critical issues like health care and immigration reform.

Just ask the Koch brothers’ political arm, Americans for Prosperity, who are so convinced of Cruz’s leadership that they’re hosting him twice this month. Tonight, Senator Cruz will be joining a phone “chat” with AFP’s president Tim Phillips, where “grassroots activists” can learn how they, too, can help grind the work of government to a halt. Later this month, Cruz is the headliner for an AFP summit that promises attendees the opportunity to hear from lawmakers “leading the charge against big government.”

In addition to giving Senator Cruz […]

Nobody Arraigning On Rick Perry’s Koch-Parade

Rick Perry was due to appear in court in Texas today for the formal reading of his two felony charges after being indicted for an abuse of power. But Perry thought to himself, why waste time at my arraignment in Travis County when I could be flying to New Hampshire to appear at an event with the Koch brothers’ Americans For Prosperity?

That anyone could think Rick Perry might be able rehabilitate his image to the point of being a viable presidential candidate in 2016 is stupefying. Perry’s 2012 campaign went down in flames, and since then, he’s compared homosexuality to alcoholism and been indicted on multiple felony charges. But clearly Perry is still eying that impossible comeback, because YOLO.

Why else would Perry, the governor of Texas, be flying to New Hampshire to stump with Koch cronies about the state’s business tax rate? The trip highlights Rick Perry’s Tea Party priorities, for sure. But worse, it’s yet another indicator […]

Joni Ernst and Terri Lynn Land: Fighting for Small Businesses Like Koch Industries

August 20, 2014

Yesterday, Iowa Republican Joni Ernst announced that she was “proud” to receive the endorsement of the National Federal of Independent Business (NFIB) for her candidacy for U.S. Senate. Michigan Republican Terri Lynn Land was similarly flattered when she received NFIB’s endorsement last month (oh, except for that time she walked away from a question about it). Either way, one thing should be clear: NFIB is not about small business, it’s about the Kochs.

NFIB received more money in 2012 from the billionaire Koch brothers’ Freedom Partners than it did any other source, and has now been shown to have close ties with ALEC, the advocacy group of choice for dozens of multinational corporations like ExxonMobil, AT&T and Altria. NFIB’s advocacy for tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest Americans, like the Koch brothers, is but one example of the group not having the interests […]

What do Joni Ernst, the Kochs and Glenn Beck have in common?

August 15, 2014

Ever the Koch brothers’ crony, Iowa candidate for Senate Joni Ernst is in lockstep with their radical agenda, advocating the Kochs’ stance on numerous issues, including opposition to an increased minimum wage and support for cutting Medicare’s guaranteed benefits. Turns out the Kochs and Ernst don’t just share the same extreme, out-of-touch policy positions, they also subscribe to the same obscure conspiracy theories.

Yahoo News has the scoop this week on Ernst’s repeated rants against Agenda 21, an anti-U.N. conspiracy theory favored by the likes of Glenn Beck. Agenda 21 is a voluntary community planning provision that has been on the books for decades, yet as MSNBC notes, it seems like Ernst has “given the fringe topic quite a bit of thought.” Indeed, according to the Yahoo report, Ernst has warned “that Agenda 21 could force Iowa farmers off their land, dictate […]

REPORT: Legacy of Loss: Koch Industries’ Layoffs and Environmental Harm in Battleground States

August 14, 2014

It’s no secret that the billionaire Koch brothers’ top priority is continuing to grow their massive fortune, no matter what it takes. Their oil conglomerate, Koch Industries, is the second largest privately held corporation in America, and states across the country are feeling the impacts of their activities. Koch Industries and its subsidiaries own facilities in 35 states across the country, including battleground states like Iowa, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin and North Carolina — states where the Republican candidates are closely tied to the Koch brothers. These states have been subject to job loss, significant environmental damage, or both, at the hands of the Kochs’ business empire.

This report provides a breakdown of the impact Koch Industries has had on key states. The Kochs’ extreme, self-serving agenda is bad for working families. And that reality is starkly embodied not only by their political persuasions, but by their business endeavors.

Read the full […]

Americans for Prosperity’s Tim Phillips appears on C-SPAN, gets the story wrong as usual

August 12, 2014

On C-SPAN’s Newsmakers this past Sunday, Tim Phillips, president of the Koch brothers’ political arm, Americans for Prosperity, gave the kind of interview you’d expect – one that plays fast and loose with the facts, pays tribute to his backers, and shows just how deluded Phillips and the Koch brothers truly are.

During the interview, Phillips characterized AFP’s work as simply opposing bad policies, but failed to mention that his backers have been pushing their extreme, self-serving agenda for over 30 years. Phillips also suggested that “most Americans… don’t have any sense of who David and Charles Koch are,” but he’s wrong – the Kochs are becoming a liability for the candidates they back.

That’s because voters are recognizing that AFP is essentially the third-largest political party in the country. The group plans to spend over $125 million in dark money this cycle to buy the Senate so Tim Phillips and the Kochs can see their extreme […]

Kochs create “shadow GOP’ to sway Hispanic voters while supporting GOP candidates who oppose immigration reform

August 12, 2014

The Koch brothers have succeeded in taking over the Republican Party, but they’ve found a gaping hole in their plan to take over the country: Republicans’ across-the-board lack of credibility with Hispanic voters. The Kochs know that if they don’t do something, the hundreds of millions of dollars they’ve invested in their candidates could be wasted.

So, as the AP recently reported, they’ve quietly started investing in grassroots efforts to provide Spanish speakers with English classes, health checkups, and courses to help them earn high school diplomas. They’ve invested millions to create the LIBRE Initiative, a grassroots organization that performs outreach across the southwest in places where “conservative organizations don’t typically go.”

But don’t let their generosity fool you – that money comes with strings attached. Their classes on immigration law have a conservative bent, and the food they hand out in communities across the southwest come with bilingual pamphlets in them […]