GOP DEBATE EDITION: When The Kochs & GOP Win, The Middle Class Loses

The Republican candidates are all puppets of the Koch brothers. As they take the debate stage in Boulder on Wednesday, it will be clearer than ever that Republicans support policies that will make the Koch brothers more money by hurting working families. The Republicans let the Koch brothers pull their strings so they can get invited to their secret donor conferences to beg for money and political support. In advance of the CNBC Republican debate, American Bridge and Bridge Project research reveals that each candidate on the stage is more concerned with impressing the Koch brothers than the middle class.

The Koch Brothers: Spending Millions To Push Their Self-Enriching Agenda

David and Charles Koch are billionaire brothers who run Koch Industries, an oil, chemical, and manufacturing company that is America’s second-largest privately owned company. Many Americans haven’t heard of them yet, but together the Koch brothers have spent several hundred million dollars to lobby for pro-corporate policies at the state and national level and to elect candidates who support their agenda. The Koch brothers have a strong libertarian, anti-government ideology. The policies they favor include cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy; reducing and eliminating regulations to protect workers, consumers, and the environment; privatizing and cutting both Social Security and Medicare; and cutting other programs, including Pell Grants for college.

Now, the Koch brothers and their network of affiliated organizations have pledged to spend nearly $1 billion more during the 2016 election to elect candidates who will push for their policies. Already, several of the Republican candidates, including Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and others, have appeared before the Koch brothers seeking their backing. And the Koch brothers have already begun airing attack ads against candidates who do not support their agenda.

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The Top Issues On The Koch Agenda: Good For Billionaires, Bad For Ordinary Americans

Jobs, Economy, & Taxes – The Koch brothers only care about making money so it’s no surprise Republican economic and tax policies only work for big corporations and the wealthy. The Kochs think businesses should be able to fire any worker or outsource any American job they want. They think big corporations should be able to do whatever they want to with no government oversight of health or safety. The Kochs believe the wealthy should get massive tax cuts while working families should pay more.

Environment – The Koch brothers want to make more money by polluting the air and water and the Republican candidates would give them the green light. They are so concerned with making more money that even though they claim to be libertarians they lobby for more regulations on solar and green energy, which hurts the economy and the environment.

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – Billionaires like the Koch brothers aren’t worried about Social Security or Medicare and neither are the Republican candidates. The Kochs want to slash Social Security, which they call a Ponzi scheme, and they support Paul Ryan’s radical budget plan that turns Medicare and Medicaid into a voucher program.

Education – The Kochs support shifting funding out of public schools to help wealthy families pay for their private school tuition. They backed radical budgets that would lay off 38,000 teachers. They also support cutting federal funding for education and ending the federal college loan program.

Women’s Rights – The Koch brothers oppose requiring health insurance companies to cover birth control for women. They oppose equal pay legislation that ensures women are paid the same as men for equal work, and they oppose the Violence Against Women Act. The Kochs also support allowing insurance companies to charge women more than men.

Workers’ Rights – The Koch brothers have fought to weaken workers’ rights to overtime pay, they want to eliminate the minimum wage, and they oppose federal programs that help family farmers. With a history of putting their bottom line first no matter who it hurts, the Kochs are among the strongest supporters of outsourcing policies that continue to ship good-paying jobs overseas.

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The GOP’s Koch Puppets Running For President

Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio admitted he is “clearly aligned on issues” with the Koch brothers and his record tells the same story. From supporting ending the Export-Import Bank to blocking a minimum wage increase and pushing a tax plan to give tax breaks to the top one percent, Rubio isn’t shy about putting the Kochs first. In just the last five years, the Kochs have given Rubio’s campaigns over $60,000, which explains why Rubio said he would “love to earn” the support of the billionaire brothers in 2016. For years, Rubio has hit the Koch circuit, appearing at Freedom Partners donor summits and events for AFP and other Koch network groups. Rubio’s recent campaign finance report even revealed that he took a ride on the Koch Industries corporate jet earlier this year. By closely aligning himself with the Kochs, Marco Rubio is signaling that if the Kochs buy him the White House, he’ll put their agenda first, no matter who it hurts.

Jeb Bush

Jeb Bush has been building a relationship with the billionaire Koch brothers for years. As governor, Jeb allowed Koch-owned Georgia-Pacific to persuade him to weaken regulations surrounding waterways in order to allow them to dump wastewater into the St. John’s River, and the Kochs even got him to lobby his brother, President George W. Bush, into preventing the EPA from enforcing Clean Water Act regulations. And in his current campaign to woo the Kochs, Jeb has appeared at Koch donor summits, hired former Koch network staffers, and is using the Kochs’ political data company. On the issues, Jeb consistently toes the Koch line, including pushing a tax plan that would benefit billionaires and special interest corporations, and an energy plan that would lift the oil export ban – a Koch priority for the more than three decades. As Jeb’s campaign flounders, his efforts to pander to the Koch brothers have ramped up, making clear that if Jeb is the GOP nominee, he’ll put the Kochs first.

Carly Fiorina

Carly Fiorina is on the Kochs’ “short list” and it’s easy to see why — 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. If the Kochs put their cash behind Fiorina, it wouldn’t be the first time they backed her because she’s on their side – the Koch network also backed Fiorina’s unsuccessful 2010 Senate campaign. On issue after issue, Carly has proved she’ll side with the Kochs over middle class families and even has top campaign staffers that are former leaders in Kochworld.

Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz, one of the Kochs’ original chosen five, is a longtime favorite at Koch network events and is one of the loudest advocates and defenders of the Koch agenda in the Senate — putting special interests and billionaires like the Kochs ahead of middle class and working families. Ted Cruz’s deep allegiance to the Kochs in the Senate is just a preview to how he would put the Kochs first if he became president.

The Rest

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John Kasich sided with the Koch-driven opposition to the Ex-Im Bank, which is costing Ohio hundreds of jobs. Ben Carson is no stranger to the Kochs’ ritzy donor summits. Chris Christie has been a staunch defender of the Koch brothers and their dark money spending. The Kochs were big contributors to Rand Paul’s Senate campaign and earlier this year Rand penned TIME’s profile of the Kochs for their 100 Most Influential People issue. Back when Mike Huckabee was a FOX News talking head, he loyally defended the Koch political network. No matter who the GOP nominee is, the Kochs can’t lose. They will spend millions to buy the Republican candidate the White House because the Kochs know he or she will put their self-enriching agenda first, no matter who it hurts.

How Swing State Voters View The Koch Brothers

Recent Bridge Project focus groups with swing voters in swing states revealed that to know the Koch brothers is to dislike them. When a candidate is seeks funding from the Kochs and their network, voters are immediately turned off with the prevailing perception that these candidates are “bought and paid for” by the Kochs and that, if elected, they would return the favor and back their agenda. When provided with a description of who the Koch brothers are and what they stand for, voters see them as deeply unfavorable, describing them as “bullies” and “elitists.” Voters perceive that the Kochs support policies that make their own lives better – such as tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy – but hurt everyday Americans – such as cutting Pell Grants and entitlement programs.

In Their Own Words: How Swing Voters In Swing States Describe Candidates Backed By The Kochs

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Paid for by American Bridge 21st Century Foundation