Real Koch Facts

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 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 […]

The Koch Sponsored Director of the Congressional Budget Office

March 3, 2015

The Koch brothers poured millions into the GOP campaign treasure chest in the 2014 midterms. And now, the newly elected GOP majority is repaying their investors by installing Koch cronies in posts across Capitol Hill. Last week, the Republicans appointed Koch ally, Keith Hall, to serve as the director of Congressional Budget Office. In theory, the Congressional Budget Director analyzes the economic impact of congressional proposals absent any ideological bent. But if you check out Hall’s record, his Koch-funded bias is all too clear.

Prior to his appointment, Hall worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Institute, which is one of the dozens of free-market, anti-regulatory policy shops that the Kochs have bankrolled. The Mercatus Institute has churned out reports arguing for the privatization of Social Security; fingering public employee unions for causing state budget crises; attempting to debunk climate science; and […]

The Gazillionaire-Owned Party: Kochs Complete Takeover Of The GOP

January 27, 2015

To: Interested Parties

From: Brad Woodhouse, President, American Bridge 21st Century
Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Re: The Gazillionaire-Owned Party: Kochs Complete Takeover Of The GOP

Eight-hundred and eighty-nine million dollars. The Koch brothers’ budget for the 2016 elections is $889 million.

That’s what it costs to buy a political party these days, apparently. But then again, the Koch brothers’ net worth fluctuated more than that much yesterday, so what’s it to them?

In early 2014, American Bridge launched RealKochFacts.com, a first of its kind research and rapid response website to shine light on the unsavory activities of the Koch brothers, their decades-long self-interested agenda, their growing power within the Republican Party, and the consequences of their platform for working families. At the time, some asked why we were focusing this much time and effort on two private citizens. It should be clear now, we never had a choice — the Koch network has overtaken GOP.

Consider the realities of the […]

Closing Argument: Kochs Fight To Save Candidate Cronies In Critical Election

October 30, 2014

The midterms are around the corner and the Koch brothers and their vast political network have gone to unprecedented lengths to elect extreme Tea Party candidates who support their self-serving agenda. The Kochs have bought and paid for these candidates (both senate and gubernatorial), and are clearly hoping for an Election night wave to secure support for their anti-working families agenda.

Unparalleled Spending

The billionaire brothers began their dirty campaign early this cycle. By January of 2014, the Kochs’ chief political arm, Americans For Prosperity (AFP), had already poured $22 million in dark money into TV ads smearing Democratic senators up for reelection. AFP did not stop there. They have continued to spend so heavily on television ads, which range from misleading to patently false, that AFP has accounted for one out of every sixteen Senate ads this cycle as of August 2014.

But Americans For Prosperity’s spending is just one cog […]

Closing Argument: Thom Tillis Helped Make North Carolina The Kochs’ “Model State”

October 30, 2014

In 2013, a year before Koch-backed groups had begun their all out assault to help elect Speaker Thom Tillis to the Senate, the head of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) said that North Carolina provided “a great opportunity” to “create a model state”. What exactly did the Kochs have in mind for this “model state?” If their support for his Senate candidacy is any indicator, it probably looks a lot like the extreme, Tea Party agenda enacted by Speaker Tillis – helping the wealthy and special interests at the expense of North Carolina’s schools and working families.

Speaker Tillis’s worked hard to deliver for the secretive billionaire Koch brothers. His budget gave massive tax breaks to millionaires and raised taxes on small business owners and seniors’ retirement income. It stripped $500 million in education funding over two years and cut 13,000 education jobs, causing good teachers to leave the state […]

Closing Argument: Koch Crony Cory Gardner Counting On Kochs to Drag Him Across The Finish

October 30, 2014

In Colorado, Republicans have pinned their hopes on Koch-crony Cory Gardner, a classic supporter of the Kochs’ self-serving agenda. What does that agenda look like in Gardner’s case? More of the same policies the Kochs have been working toward for years, benefitting wealthy special interests at the expense of working families and the middle class.

On issue after issue, Gardner has stood in line with the Koch agenda. Charles Koch has opposed the minimum wage entirely and David Koch ran for VP on a ticket that called for abolishing it. Their primary political entity AFP identified opposition to raising the minimum wage as a key vote multiple years in a row. Cory Gardner said he opposed raising the federal minimum wage. On equal pay for women, Koch Industries lobbied against the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would help women fight back against instances of pay discrimination. Cory Gardner voted against […]

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 […]

To the Surprise of No One, Kochs Spend Big to Buy Access to Republican Governors

September 25, 2014

The New York Times reported yesterday that the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government and ethics watchdog group, uncovered a treasure trove of documents exposing the major corporate donors to the Republican Governors Association. Names on the list include Walmart, Exxon Mobil, and – yep, you guessed it – Koch Companies Public Sector, a.k.a. Koch Industries’ lobbying arm.

While that isn’t surprising, it does shed some light on just what the Kochs and their big-money pals are trying to buy: golf outings, policy breakfasts, secret donor meetings, an “intimate gathering” with Republican governors and Republican VIPs (whatever that means), and the Republican governors’ ears. In short: Access. Influence. Sway.

These donors would be model residents in Kochville, the Koch brothers’ self-serving utopia where horrible things like the minimum wage, social security, and environmental protections don’t exist. And, for the low, low price of $100,000 – or two easy payments of $50,000 – […]

GOP would be in “bad shape” without the Koch brothers

The Koch brothers and their allies have pledged to spend a massive sum of money to influence this year’s midterm elections, at least $500 million, which is why their true, self-serving political motivations merit close scrutiny. After all, their exorbitant political spending is this blog’s entire raison d’être. It turns out it’s also the GOP’s, according to a report from Charlie Cook.

In his discussion of key Senate races this fall, Cook notes that some Republicans’ fundraising and spending efforts are being outpaced by their Democratic counterparts. Yet, political realities don’t necessarily reflect these disparities, precisely because of the Kochs’ exorbitant spending. According to Cook, “GOP strategists have privately said that if it were not for spending by organizations affiliated with the Koch brothers, they might well be in really bad shape.” Out of the mouths of babes!

It’s not just that the Kochs’ largesse is merely backstopping Republicans’ fundraising […]

New documents reveal same-old Koch extortion-as-education scheme

September 16, 2014

Across the country, up and down the Republican ticket, the Koch brothers’ exorbitant campaign spending has helped the billionaire brothers ensure that GOP candidates support the self-serving Koch policy agenda on issues like environmental protections, the minimum wage and tax breaks for the wealthy. Whether it’s through the Young Entrepreneurs program for high schoolers, or the college-level Edvantage curriculum, the Kochs have used charitable donations to education in much the same way, wielding their influence to create programs that indoctrinate students with their extreme libertarian views. It’s therefore disappointing — but not surprising — that higher education institutions, once thought sacrosanct, have also been subject to the Kochs’ attempts to purchase influence.

New documents released by the Center for Public Integrity detail the negotiations that took place in 2007 between the Charles G. Koch Foundation and Florida State University’s economics department over a proposed Koch donation worth millions. The […]

Three Questions for the Kochs as they “Defend the American Dream”

August 29, 2014

This weekend, capping off an interesting week for the Koch brothers, their chief political arm, Americans For Prosperity is hosting their so-called “Defending the American Dream Summit.” This is their public-facing summit, not to be confused with the highly secretive meeting of billionaires that dominated this week’s political conversation, after new audio surfaced from the event.

Those newly released recordings further exposed the degree to which the billionaire brothers have taken the reins of the Republican Party. One key Senate candidate after the next extolled the Kochs and their increasingly powerful network, expressing gratitude for their support and reaffirming their devotion to the extreme agenda they champion. On top of that, the executive director of the Republican Governors’ Association lauded AFP as their strongest partner.

The more we learn about the Koch brothers’ shadowy operation, the more we see how central they’ve become to the GOP. In fact, Washington Post […]

Even non-attending Koch cronies get shout out at secret donor conference

August 27, 2014

As revealed by new reporting from The Nation and Huffington Post, GOP Senate candidates Mitch McConnell, Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton and Cory Gardner all had their chance to kiss the ring at the Koch brothers’ secretive donor conference earlier this year. Luckily for some of their compatriots, in-person attendance to pander to the high-rolling “seminar” attendees wasn’t a prerequisite for receiving shout-outs from the presidents of Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, two key organizations in the Kochs’ political network.

From East to West, AFP president Tim Phillips and Freedom Partners president Marc Short highlighted the Senate campaigns of Virginia’s Ed Gillespie, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy, Minnesota’s Mike McFadden and Oregon’s Monica Wehby, illustrating that two of the Kochs’ top operatives consider all of these candidates to be exemplary of the anti-working class agenda the billionaires are pushing in this fall’s midterm elections. Put simply, all of these candidates are carrying water for the Kochs, AFP and Freedom Partners, or else Phillips and Short wouldn’t have sung their praises to the Kochs’ network of mysterious donors. Phillips told donors at the event that North Carolina’s Tillis offers “the best opportunity” and that McFadden is “a good candidate,” while Wehby is “running a strong campaign” despite being in “a tough blue state.” In extolling the virtues of Gillespie and Cassidy, Phillips and Short noted that Virginia is a “key state for us” and that energy issues (near and dear to Koch Industries’ heart, of course) represent a “key battleground” in Louisiana.

With the Freedom Partners network committing to spend $500 million in this midterm cycle, including AFP’s pledge to pour over $125 million into the election, these new revelations shed light on which candidates the billionaire Koch brothers view as a sound investment. More on Phillips’ and Short’s’ comments lauding key Senate candidates after the jump:

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 […]

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 […]