From the start, there was something suspect about the anti-Puerto Rican bailout lobbying campaign being championed by Koch network-affiliated front groups.
If you follow the money however, it all clears up pretty quickly.
In its report last month, “The Kochs’ Wealth Versus the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,” Bridge Project exposed the Koch connection: Supporters of Charles and David Koch’s network stand to lose a lot of money should Puerto Rico be allowed to access Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. It’s pure self-interest, not libertarian idealism.
Now, The Bond Buyer reports that lobbying spending on the House of Representatives’ Puerto Rico bankruptcy bill doubled to $490,000 in the second quarter.
And the Koch brothers aren’t sitting this one out — they’re running a full court press. According to The Bond Buyer’s Jack Casey:
[T]he National Taxpayers Union, the Center for Individual Freedom and 60 Plus, a senior’s advocacy group with connections to the Koch brothers, also spent money opposing the bill, but it is hard to know how much. NTU spent $30,000 in each of the first and the second quarters, but a spokesman said only a small amount of the money went toward lobbying against the bill. The Center for Individual Freedom spent $12,000 in the second quarter, but the group would not return calls on how much of that was spent to oppose the bill. The group, 60 Plus, is not a listed lobbyist but paid for an anti-bill media campaign in June.
It brings us no great pleasure to say this — but, we told you so.
Read more from The Bond Buyer.