What is missing from the long list of Koch demands to abolish
virtually the entire government is exactly how it will help Americans. …
It has been just about a year since Charles Koch
wrote a ‘woe is me’ op-ed to combat the bad publicity resulting from
Senators Harry Reid and Bernie Sanders battering the Koch brothers for
assaulting Americans in their quest for power and influence over
government. Now that more Americans are aware that the Kochs own
Republicans and bought them control of Congress, and that their goal is
deconstructing the federal government, the Kochs are launching a huge
multi-media publicity campaign to change their image and convince
Americans the Kochs are their friends and benefactors. The primary
message the Kochs intend to push is that they are not out to increase
their own wealth, but to help Americans and create a better society.
It was reported on Thursday that the Kochs are launching an “aggressive new defense”
of Koch Industries with particular emphasis on educating Americans that
their political ambitions in paying Republicans to eliminate the
government is not driven by a desire for more profits, but is “rooted in the Kochs’ decades-long quest to increase well-being in society.”
Any American familiar with the Kochs would question exactly how
dismantling the government is helping Americans, but that is Charles
Koch’s assertion as well as disabusing any detractors of the idea that
the brothers’ political ambitions have anything to do with increasing
their wealth.
As the public face of the Koch empire, Charles Koch
said he was surprised that anyone might think he and his brother’s
political ambitions were about making more money. In a sense, one can
argue that the Kochs do not need any more money and that what they
really want is unlimited power and control; but that power and control
is to eliminate the government they believe gets in the way of unlimited
wealth. In that sense Koch is a liar as much as his claim that he and
his brother’s drive to eliminate government is to “help American society” no matter how the Kochs frame their motivation.
What is stunning is that Koch had the temerity to
express righteous indignation that anyone would accuse the brothers of
using Republicans to amass more wealth. Charles Koch actually said, “We
are doing all of this to make more money? I mean, that is so ludicrous.
I don’t know how they can say that with a straight face.” It is
easy because the brothers’ assault on all manner of regulations is, by
their own admission, to stop government overreach they claim prevents
businesses from taking unrestricted profits. Any American with even
scant knowledge of the Kochs wonders how he can say with a straight face
that he and his brother are not out for more money, or that their
impetus to eliminate the government is to benefit American society.
Still, Koch lied and said “We oppose as many or more things that would benefit us than would hurt us.”
As an example, Koch bemoaned the potential losses at Koch refineries if
the Keystone XL pipeline is constructed; a pipeline the Kochs spent
millions on gaining Republican control of Congress to skirt the
Executive Branch’s authority over the application process. Further, if
as Koch claimed the pipeline will hurt Koch Industries and cause the
company losses, then why did they acquire over 1.2 million acres of tar
fields in Canada, or contract for Koch refineries to process at least
30% of all tar sand slated for the Gulf Coast and exported on foreign
market? Obviously they did not invest in the tar sand fields to “help American society,” but to profit from a project that provides nothing whatsoever for America or the American people.
Koch is a liar, and like his Republican subjects he
is also a blatant hypocrite. For example, he claims to oppose the
Export-Import Bank because it provides subsidies to aid American
manufacturing companies; something the Kochs condemn as nasty
government-provided “corporate welfare.” All the while, Koch
Industries has been the recipient of well over 100 million dollars in
corporate welfare and special tax breaks, and that does not include
their profits from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The biggest Koch lie of all is Charles’ assertion
that the brothers are spending hundreds-of-millions of dollars to buy
Republicans who pledge to eliminate government to “help American society.”
There is nothing the Koch brothers, their legislative arms the American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and State Policy Network (SPN), or
political activists the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity,
or Cato Institute have supported or opposed that helps American society
or the people. In fact, every government agency, department, and program
the brothers have been paying Republicans to abolish, defund, or
restrict are those that serve and protect the American people and
actually make society better.
There is a very, very long list of government
agencies and programs the Koch brothers want abolished or eliminated
that exist solely to help, protect, and sustain the people; many going
back to the New Deal. For example, the Kochs have made no secret they
want Medicare and Medicaid abolished as much as they want rules
governing the private health insurance industry terminated; including
deregulating the medical industry. They have also demanded for thirty
years that Social Security be eliminated in its entirety because they
claim it is a fraudulent and oppressive program that does nothing
whatsoever to help elderly Americans. In fact, the Kochs are so opposed
to helping any Americans that they demand an end to all government
programs that provide services for children, aid to the poor and
disabled Americans. To keep working Americans poor and toiling in unsafe
working conditions, the Kochs demand the abolishment of the minimum
wage and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).
In spite of it being required in the U.S.
Constitution, the brothers want Republicans to abolish the United States
Postal Service, and in lieu of achieving that Republicans passed
legislation that created the means to bankrupt the Post Office with the
sole intent of transferring all package delivery to privateers. While
they are abolishing parts of the Constitution, the Kochs demand, and
Republicans have recently proposed, terminating all taxation including
abolishing outright the Internal Revenue Service. While the Kochs wait
for the IRS and taxation to be abolished, they want Republicans to
immediately stop all criminal and civil laws against tax evasion.
Obviously they want all state and federal campaign finance laws
eliminated as well as what they call the “despotic Federal Election Commission” abolished to afford them free rein to steal and buy elections.
The most dangerous thing for the Kochs is a
well-educated populace and to ensure their motivation and attempts at
wiping out government will never be discovered, they demand the
abolishment of not only compulsory education, but education itself they
claim is government indoctrination of children. Two current Republican
candidates for the GOP nomination for president propose abolishing the
Department of Education to impress the Kochs, and several Republican
governors devoted to the Kochs are busy either eliminating funding for
schools or using public funding for private religious education. As
typical libertarians, the Kochs insist that education is a choice for
those who can afford it; it is just another of their twisted idea of
helping American society.
The Kochs demand that any department, program, or
agency created to actually protect Americans and help society be
abolished including the Federal Aviation Administration, the Food and
Drug Administration, Consumer Protection Agency, Consumer Product Safety
Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of
Transportation, and Department of Energy. In typical libertarian
fashion, the Kochs demand immediate privatization of all roads,
highways, bridges, and waterways to profit a corporate operator; likely a
subsidiary of Koch Industries.
What
is missing from the long list of Koch demands to abolish virtually the
entire government is exactly how it will help Americans. It is a
question the Kochs will not answer and one that mainstream media
covering the impending media blitz promoting the Kochs as America’s
benefactors will never ask. And why should they? The media, all media,
will be the recipients of a substantial influx of Koch money touting the
blessing to Americans as a result of Charles and David Koch’s intent to
spend just short of a billion dollars to buy the government and
promptly dismantle; all to make more money and destroy American society
no matter what the liar Charles Koch says.
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