The Koch brothers have created a monster: The 37 members of the Freedom Caucus have seized control of the House of Representatives. Whomever hopes to be the next speaker of the House needs their blessing, and will be expediently ousted should they revoke it. The election’s a week out, but the Freedom Caucus already has the next speaker in a choke-hold.
The 37 members of the influential House Freedom Caucus present themselves as hard-line conservative mavericks, but a new Politico report suggests that they’ve been extensively propped up by the Koch brothers and the Club for Growth. Regarding the members’ history of Club for Growth financing, a joint Politico-Center for Responsive Politics analysis found:
[T]he Club for Growth, the free-enterprise advocacy group that claims 100,000 members, has contributed $1.77 million [to the Freedom Caucus’s 37 members]…The club was the No. 1 donor for 11 members — more members than any other benefactor.
Meanwhile, Charles and David Koch have done their fair share of Freedom Caucus boostering, too. In fact, Koch Industries’ PAC was the second largest donor to Freedom Caucus members, according to Politico:
Koch Industries, the closely held oil and gas conglomerate out of Wichita, Kansas, contributed $599,400 over time to members now aligned with the caucus. The company’s PAC, combined with individual contributions from Koch employees, ranked as the top contributor only to Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas. But the analysis showed that it spread around enough money to be the second-biggest donor overall to caucus members. The analysis did not cover the wide network of political groups marshaled by the Koch brothers that collectively have evolved as a major funding source for Republican candidates.
Now, Charles and David love a good investment in the form of a malleable, manipulable politician who’ll help them advance their selfish agenda — but they screwed up big time on this one. The House Freedom Caucus has gone rogue — and its refusal to compromise is set to destroy any strains of credibility the GOP has left. Policy leverage should be the least of the Kochs’ concerns.
And rest assured, Charles and David are worried. In a since-deleted tweet, here’s what a Koch Industries spokesman, Ken Spain, had to say on the Freedom Caucus’s hostile takeover of the GOP conference:
For now, anyway, the Koch Caucus looks to be cooperating — read: running the show — and its members are suggesting they’ll support Paul Ryan for speaker in next week’s speaker election.
But that could all change at the drop of the hat — or, more literally, should Ryan make any attempt to pass legislation; or even try to spend some extra time with his family, for that matter.