TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Eddie Vale, Vice President of American Bridge 21st Century
RE: One Year Out: Kochs Put Their Anti-Middle Class Agenda & Actions On Center Stage
DATE: November 3, 2015
With a year until Election Day, the billionaire Koch brothers are sitting down for their first-ever joint television interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe. The Kochs’ step into the pubic limelight, albeit pre-taped from their childhood home and not live and on set, serves as a reminder that if Republicans and the Kochs win in 2016, the middle class loses.
While Republican candidates will spend the next year sucking up to the Kochs to try to get a piece of the nearly $900 million they plan to spend on 2016, they’ll also be forced to defend the Kochs’ anti-middle class actions and agenda that hurt real Americans.
While Morning Joe promises a discussion centering on the role of money in politics, the billionaire Koch brothers are poised to disguise how their self-enriching agenda hurts the middle class, how they’ve used their wealth to position themselves as puppet masters of the GOP, and how the Koch network’s main motivation is to advance the political agenda of the billionaire brothers.
For The Kochs, Politics Is About Money — Their Money
The role of money in politics is a fitting topic for Charles and David Koch because for the billionaire brothers, their interest in politics is all about money — their money.
The Koch brothers’ investment in politics centers on protecting their money and growing their bottom line. For years, the Koch network has spent hundreds of millions propping up GOP candidates, but the Kochs’ conservative crusade is solely to enhance their personal profit.
From denying climate change and waging a full-court press lobbying campaign to kill the Export-Import Bank to opposing environmental regulations and actually advocating for more regulations on alternative energy, it’s clear the Koch brothers are motivated by protecting their bank accounts and business interests, no matter who it hurts.
But there’s more — the Kochs back a laundry list of agenda items that are good for millionaires like them but hurt middle class families and working people across the country, including dismantling Social Security and Medicare, privatizing student loans, opposing the minimum wage, and pushing for privatization of our public lands.
And the Kochs continue to use their wealth to buy far-right politicians a ticket to Washington to move the Koch agenda forward – an agenda that’s good for millionaires and billionaires like the Kochs but hurts the middle class.
The Kochs Are The Puppet Masters Of The Republican Party
When the Kochs say “jump,” Republicans across the country say “how high?” Through the billionaire brothers’ investments in Republican politics at every level — from school board to presidential candidates — the GOP is becoming the Grand Koch Party.
On the presidential stage, the Koch brothers’ invisible primary has allowed them to pull the strings in the GOP presidential fight from behind the scenes.
In not making a formal endorsement, the Kochs have ensured the entire Republican field backs the Koch agenda and supports policies that will boost billionaires like the Kochs and hurt middle class and working families.
Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina have made it clear they are salivating at the chance for a bite of Koch cash — siding with the Kochs on issues and orchestrating their schedules around events organized by Koch front groups.
And in their effort to ensure that they don’t lose those who do their bidding in the U.S. Senate, the Kochs have already poured millions into New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to prop up vulnerable Republican incumbents.
But at the end of the day, all of the cash the Kochs promise to pour into 2016 will come with a price tag. Their puppet candidates will have to answer for the billionaire brothers’ words and deeds.
In Kochworld It’s All About Politics
In his new book, Good Profit, Charles Koch claims to be above machine-style politics and argues their political involvement is a form of “philanthropy.” But through a network of so-called constituency groups, the Kochs are pouring millions into our political system to advance the Koch agenda and push people to back their puppet candidates.
Koch front groups claim to work for women, veterans, Latinos, and other groups, but they’re really only working for Charles and David Koch. Leaders of the network of Koch front groups including the LIBRE Initiative, Concerned Veterans for America, and Generation Opportunity, admitted behind closed doors at a Koch conference that they’re only interested in GOP politics & advancing the Kochs’ self-interested and self-enriching agenda.
Furthermore, data collected by the Kochs’ “constituency” groups at events like drivers education classes for Latinos and concerts for military families flows back to the Kochs’ for-profit data company, i360, which is already selling data to the candidates the billionaire brothers like.
Even the Kochs’ investments in higher education are centered on advancing their political agenda, with strings attached to hiring and curriculum backed by the Kochs’ tens of millions in funding to colleges and universities.
Bottom Line
Today’s Morning Joe interview is just another stop on Kochs’ massive PR campaign to soften their image ahead of deploying their infinite resources in 2016.
But the problem for the Kochs is that the more people know them, the more they dislike them.
While Charles and David Koch use the next year spending millions to prop up their puppet candidates and attack Democrats, their actions and agenda will be on center stage — and no matter how hard the Kochs try, they can’t hide how their profit-driven business and political philosophy hurts real families and working people across the country.