Sunday, February 6, 2011

Americans for [Koch] Prosperity

The Koch brothers are spending heavily to influence Congress. LaTi, in an article titled, Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power, reports:

Wichita-based Koch Industries and its employees formed the largest single oil and gas donor to members of the [House Energy and Commerce Committee] panel, ahead of giants like Exxon Mobil, contributing $279,500 to 22 of the committee's 31 Republicans, and $32,000 to five Democrats...


Nine of the 12 new Republicans on the panel signed a pledge distributed by a Koch-founded advocacy group — Americans for Prosperity — to oppose the Obama administration's proposal to regulate greenhouse gases. Of the six GOP freshman lawmakers on the panel, five benefited from the group's separate advertising and grass-roots activity during the 2010 campaign...

The new committee members include a congressman who has hired a former Koch Industries lawyer as his chief of staff. Another, Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, won a long-shot bid to unseat a 14-term moderate Democrat with help from Americans for Prosperity, which marshaled conservative activists in his district. By some estimates, the advocacy group spent more than a quarter-million dollars on negative ads in the campaign. "I'm just thankful that you all helped in so many ways," Griffith told an Americans for Prosperity rally not long after his election...

When the 85 freshman GOP lawmakers marched into the Capitol on Jan. 5 as part of the new Republican House majority, David Koch was there too.


The 70-year-old had an appointment with a staff member of the new speaker, Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). At the same time, the head of Americans for Prosperity, Tim Phillips, had an appointment with Upton. They used the opportunity to introduce themselves to some of the new legislators and invited them to a welcome party at the Capitol Hill Club, a favorite wine-and-cheese venue for Republican power players in Washington...

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), who represents Koch Industries' home district, launched an aerospace company with investment help from a Koch subsidiary. He sold the company last year. His chief of staff is Mark Chenoweth, a former Koch Industries lawyer.


According to LaTi, much of the Koch focus is on limiting the power of the EPA, an agency that has tremendous influence over the Kochs vast energy operations. There should never be any qualms about limiting the power of a government agency, including the EPA. But one wonders what kind of monsters the Kochs are supporting to advance their anti-EPA stance. Providing funding for 22 Republicans and 5 Democrats , when the only clear consistent and princpiled advocate of liberty in the House is Ron Paul, and the Kochs does not support him, is troubling to say the least.

Somehow when it comes to those principled stances against the expansion of government, the votes always seem to be 434 to 1, with Ron Paul being the only vote against expansion, The vote is not 28 against. Again, there is nothing wrong with limiting the EPA, but to cast this as anything but a program of  "Americans for Koch Prosperity" is simply wrong.

2 comments:

  1. Even a broken clock will tell the time correctly twice a day! If the Koch family--and neocons--want to limit the power of the EPA, even for disreputable purposes of their own, it won't be the first time that advocates of liberty have had to crawl into bed with the devil! As long as we know what is going on, as long as dubious, if not criminal connections elsewhere continue to be exposed and highlighted wherever possible, and as long as we can "hit the ground running" in this (long overdue) attack on "cap and trade" legislation, supported by egregious "global warming" fraud, Koch's opposition to this legislation certainly dovetails well with Ron Paul and other libertarian advocates and should be encouraged as much as possible!

    We can always challenge the "Kochtopus" and their neocon agents and stooges on foreign policy, Banking bailouts, and war-on-terror police state filth later!

    PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
    David K. Meller

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  2. The enmity between the Kochs and the Rothbardians goes back to the early 80's. I consider myself a Rothbardian, and am so anti green (when backed by state coercion) to be orange. But, some libertarians want to force GM food labeling, which is akin to making agriculture products be labeled "non kosher"...The Koch brothers give the ACLU more money than Soros does. They sponsor anti war libertarians. Can't we all get along?

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