1. Trump's America: Trump, The GOP & Fox News Managed To Make Nazis Mainstream (Hitler Is Probably Laughing In His Grave At His Afterlife Win Of WW2!)
2. A General Debunking & Expose Of The GOP's Tax Bill Con
4. Trump's America: The GOP Sentences At Least 15,000 To 17,000 Americans To Death EVERY YEAR! (i.e. The Effects Of 13 Million Uninsured)
Since Koch Brothers have all of the GOP in their pockets and their motto is they 'want to make the government so small they can drown it in a bathtub', the fact that Government is at a stand still when they are out of control and in dissaray and ruins when they are in control, should be no surprise. Laws/regulations are bad for crooks which is why the Koch Brothers want them all removed (at least, the ones that affect them and thier accumulation of power to become the sole Robber Barons of the country). The GOP essentially are a a living mockery to their oath to the Constitution (where this form of Government has been written down). Koch Brothers and the GOP are essentially anti-Constitutionlists (traitors), though the GOP likes to pretend they are not.
The following are a collection of videos and extracts from Media Matters proving that the Kochs are rulers of the GOP and a major threat to America and democracy.
Bernie Sanders: GOP is now a right-wing extremist party
The Republican Party is dominated by the far right wing 'Koch brothers ideology,' says Senator Bernie Sanders, and they want to eliminate 'every federal program passed in the last eighty years.'
For a temporary raise in workers pay by a minuscule amount making o difference to thier lifestyle or finances, Paul Ryan wants credit to seem like he's there for normal Americans and not just his rich owners!
Democracy Now: As Paul Ryan Touts a Secretary’s $1.50 Weekly Pay Hike, Koch Bros. Reap $1.4B from GOP Tax Plan
This weekend, House Speaker Paul Ryan touted a story of a woman whose paycheck increased by $1.50 cents a week as a major benefit to middle-class workers. On Saturday, Ryan tweeted a link to an Associated Press report, writing, “A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week … she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year.” After a deluge of ridicule and outrage, Ryan deleted the tweet hours later. For more, we speak with Richard Wolff, emeritus professor of economics at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and visiting professor at The New School. He’s the author of several books, including, most recently, “Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown.”
Kochs got what they wanted and are now trying to pretend to be nice while people die (a basic "throw the dog a bone" con);
MSNBC: Koch denounces political focus on ‘the privileged few’
About a month later, Yahoo News asked Charles Koch about the role of money in politics and the influence of wealthy donors such as himself. The billionaire replied that he and his political operation make political investments “so there’s less money in politics.” This, too, seemed like a failure of self-awareness.
All of which brings us to Koch’s new op-ed in the Washington Post, which denounces Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs in a memorable way.
To include millions more of our people in true economic progress, our lawmakers must act on behalf of all Americans – not just the privileged few. If they do, I am confident we can regain our citizens’ trust and ensure that America’s best days are yet to come.
It’s a bit jarring, isn’t it? Charles Koch, an influential billionaire and one of the most powerful mega-donors in politics, wants elected officials to focus less on “the privileged few.”
It’s a nice sentiment, to be sure, though as a HuffPost piece added, “Everyday Americans forking over unearned millions – to make up for slashing the corporate rate and estate taxes for the wealthy – could be a description of what just happened in the new tax law, which was vigorously supported by Koch.”
Ha!...
MSNBC: Meet the Koch son who designs literal money bag shirts Wyatt Koch has all the ingredients for an insane tax cut, including an LLC for his business - a line of very interesting shirts.
More information about the Kochs and the paws in their web of lies, deceptions and coverups (& thier primary goal seems to be to destroy America). Notice how much money is being spread to control information and manipulate America for thier treasounous anit-Constitutionlist agenda;
Media Matters: Inside the NRA’s Koch-Funded Dark-Money Campaign How the National Rifle Association sold its grassroots firepower to the Kochs, Karl Rove, and conservative donors.
Rolling Stones: Inside the Koch Brothers' Toxic Empire Together, Charles and David Koch control one of the world's largest fortunes, which they are using to buy up our political system. But what they don't want you to know is how they made all that money
Will you help Senator Sanders expose the Koch Echo Chamber?- The Koch brothers fund multiple think tanks and academic centers to promote their ideology and grow their profits, a Brave New Foundation investigation reveals. Let's create an echo chamber of truth by using YouTube's SHARE tools above to protect Social Security and counter the Koch billions.
At least 15 Fox News hosts and contributors have recently campaigned with two political organizations created and heavily funded by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. Many of those same Fox News personalities have also defended the Kochs from attacks and praised their political efforts on-air.
The controversial conservative brothers founded the 501(c)(4) group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and its 501(c)(3) sister group the Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) in 2004. David Koch has called AFP the group he feels "most closely attached to and most proud of" and chairs AFPF's board. (The Washington Post notes of the IRS code distinction: "A 501(c)(4) is allowed to do considerably more issue advocacy work than a 501(C)(3), however. Neither group has to disclose the identity of its donors or the amounts of money those contributors have given.")
Politico's Ken Vogel reported that AFP "intends to spend more than $125 million this year on an aggressive ground, air and data operation benefiting conservatives, according to a memo distributed to major donors and sources familiar with the group." The Washington Post wrote that with a paid staff of 240, split between 32 states, AFP "may be America's third-biggest political party." In 2012, "More than $44 million of the $140 million the organization raised in that election cycle came from Koch-linked feeder funds."
AFP and AFPF are part of a massive $400 million network of political groups spearheaded by the Kochs. The Huffington Post's Paul Blumenthal noted, "It is the electoral focus of the Koch nonprofits and their sophisticated efforts to shield donors' identities -- plus the vast sums of money they move -- that has brought them the unwanted attention of both Democratic Senate leadership and reporters. There exists no outside network or organization supporting Democratic Party candidates in elections, while not disclosing its donors, that spends money in comparable amounts."
AFP states that it "mobilizes citizens to effectively make their voices heard in public policy issue campaigns" and "educates citizens about where their elected officials stand on our issues." AFP campaigns have included false attacks about health care reform, clean energy, economic issues, and elected Democrats like President Obama.
Fox News personalities are the public face of many AFP/AFPF events. Promotional materials heavily tout the speakers' affiliation with Fox News to increase attendance. According to a Media Matters review, the following Fox News personalities have participated in AFP and AFPF events since 2012: Guy Benson, Tucker Carlson, Monica Crowley, Jonah Goldberg, Greg Gutfeld, Mary Katharine Ham, Mike Huckabee, Laura Ingraham, Andrew Napolitano, Sarah Palin, Charles Payne, Dana Perino, John Stossel, Cal Thomas, and Juan Williams.
The Koch/Fox News events are aimed at rallying attendees to support conservative causes and fight progressive initiatives. For example, an invitation for a May event featuring Tucker Carlson stated the rally will "send a message to the Left that we know the truth and support free market solutions." Information for a November 2013 rally with Monica Crowley said participants will "learn how you can fight back against government restrictions, taxes, and out-of-control spending." And an October 2012 event with John Stossel was a "Hands Off My Health Care Rally" which sought "to fully repeal Obama's deeply flawed health care bill."
Media Matters previously documented how numerous Fox News personalities campaigned for Republican candidates and organizations during the 2011-2012 election cycle.
Who Are The Fox News/Koch Campaigners?
Tucker Carlson (Fox & Friends host / Fox News contributor). Carlson spoke at a May 27 event in North Carolina. He also spoke at October 2012 events in Montana.
Greg Gutfeld (The Five and Red Eye host). Gutfeld spoke at AFP's 2013 Defending the American Dream Summit in Florida.
Laura Ingraham (Fox News contributor). Ingraham spoke at the Freedom Summit on April 12 in New Hampshire. She also spoke at an October 2012 event in Indiana, an October 2012 event in North Carolina, and an August 2012 event in Washington, DC.
Andrew Napolitano (Fox News senior judicial analyst). Napolitano spoke at October 2012 events in Florida.
Dana Perino (The Five host). Perino spoke at an October 2013 event in Arkansas.
John Stossel (Stossel host). Stossel spoke at an October 2012 event in Florida. AFP sponsored an April 2012 Stossel book event in Texas.
Juan Williams (The Five host / Fox News contributor). Williams spoke at a February 2013 event in Wisconsin and a January 2012 simulcast event on school vouchers.
(Read the whole article at media matters, i.e. click link above)Media Matters Research: New Book Exposes Koch Brothers' Guide To Infiltrating The Media
A key element of the Koch brothers' strategy is influencing the media. Through media, they have advanced their political and ideological goals and attacked those who stand in their way. The Koch brothers and their network have paid conservative media figures to promote their message, bankrolled front groups that run aggressive anti-environmental media campaigns, and even created their own right-wing "news" outlets. Meanwhile, they've garnered some favorable mainstream media coverage by tightly controlling reporter access to their summits and other events, while attacking and otherwise intimidating journalists who dare to shine a light on their activities.
Here is how the Koch brothers and their network have infiltrated the media:
Open Secrets: Koch Industries donations
Open Secrets: Top Recipients
Koch lobbyists and Opus Dei — who’s dropping in on Trump budget czar Mick Mulvaney?The influential OMB director’s door is open to corporate and conservative interests
The Kochs just got their hands on Time. Who’s next?
Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who are major funders of Republican candidates and conservative organizations, now own a stake in Time Inc. On Sunday night, the Meredith Corporation announced that it is purchasing the company with the help of $650 million from a Koch equity fund. A Koch spokesman suggested this is purely a business decision, and Meredith has claimed the right-wing billionaires will not have a seat on its board or influence over the editorial decisions of the newly acquired magazines, which include Time and Fortune. But journalists are rightfully skeptical that the Kochs would enter the embattled magazine publishing business if they didn’t view the investment as a way to advance their conservative principles.
If the Kochs do begin to play a role in the workings of Time, they will join a handful of major conservative donors who have decided in recent years to purchase, fund, or launch media outlets as a way to expand their political influence. The new owners often bring in new leaders who push the newsroom to support their boss’ political interests. With print, digital, and broadcast journalism business models all faltering, right-wing billionaires will have more opportunities to pull off these sorts of takeovers in the future.
Rupert Murdoch, head of the media goliaths 21st Century Fox and News Corp., has been doing this for decades, growing the small Australian newspaper business he inherited from his father into a string of major news outlets in that country, the U.K., and the U.S. Murdoch uses those media assets to shape the public debate and maximize his political impact.
Any Time Inc. staffers breathing sighs of relief over reports that the Kochs will play no direct editorial role should read up on Murdoch’s takeover of The Wall Street Journal in 2007. Early signs that Murdoch would be hands-off with the Journal were dashed the next year when the paper’s top editor was pushed out. The resulting rightward shift in editorial content led to an exodus of reporters. The paper is now helmed by Gerard Baker, once a conservative columnist at The Times, a daily newspaper Murdoch owns in the U.K. While the paper’s journalists still do some great reporting, many have left the paper in part over concerns about its treatment of President Donald Trump, now a Murdoch favorite.
The Koch Brothers are About to Destroy Veterans' Health Care and No One Knows About It
Koch Bros. donate to Heritage Action
The Koch Brothers’ most loyal servants are serving in Donald Trump’s White House One-third of the Trump team has ties to the Koch brothers.
Five Myths About the Koch Brothers — And Why It Matters To Set Them Straight Democratic reformers need to know exactly what they are up against — now and likely for years to come.
Myth # 1: The Koch network is a recent reaction to the Obama presidency.
Myth #2: The Koch network is a personal pet project of the brothers themselves.
Myth #3: The Koch network is little more than a corporate front.
Myth #4: The Koch network scatters big money to hundreds of conservative groups.
Myth #5: The Koch network is virtually a third US political party.
“They see themselves as heroes. Instead people are saying they’re manipulating American politics”: Jane Mayer on the method behind the Koch brothers’ brilliant madness Jane Mayer, author of “Dark Money,” tells Salon how billionaires funded the radical right, remade American politics
Koch brothers summon Bush, Cruz, Walker, Rubio to SoCal confab The crowded field of GOP contenders is competing aggressively for the support of uncommitted mega-donors.
The Koch brothers’ influence empire: A list of right-wing action groups and think tanks - This list of organizations is long but they have one common thread: promoting an antitax, antiregulatory ideology that will ultimately gut government’s ability to ensure markets functioning properly for everyone and protect consumers against abuses in the system. In addition to promoting this right-wing ideology, some of the groups on this list, such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute, seek to undermine the science behind climate change. Indeed, many of the policies these organizations promote not only further a right-wing ideology but they also increase profits for Koch Industries.
Cato Institute—$13,887,640 Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research—$300,000 Citizens for a Sound Economy2 —$12,356,712 Environmental Literacy Council—$287,516 George Mason’s Mercatus Center—$9,674,500 Property and Environment Research Center—$258,144 Americans for Prosperity Foundation—$5,610,781 Center for Equal Opportunity—$240,000 Heritage Foundation—$4,115,571 Institute for Energy Research—$237,000 Institute for Humane Studies—$3,630,091 Atlas Economic Research Foundation—$221,100 Bill of Rights Institute—$3,070,909 Ethics and Public Policy Center—$190,000 Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas—$2,617,842 Citizens for Congressional Reform Foundation—$175,000 Institute for Justice—$2,615,000 Frontiers of Freedom Institute—$175,000 Reason Foundation—$2,516,521 Texas Public Policy Foundation—$174,500 National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship—$2,481,786 The Phillips Foundation—$165,000 Federalist Society—$2,058,999 John Locke Foundation—$134,472 Institute for the Study of Human Origins—$2,035,912 Fund for American Studies—$133,650 American Enterprise Institute & Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies—$1,979,400 James Madison Institute—$121,924 Manhattan Institute—$1,575,000 John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy—$120,086 Washington Legal Foundation—$1,457,500 Young America’s Foundation—$107,500 Foundation for Individual Rights in Education—$1,400,000 Leadership Institute—$101,500 Foundation for Research on Economics & the Environment—$1,385,500 American Council on Science & Health—$101,000 Competitive Enterprise Institute—$700,499 Laffer Center for Global Economic Growth—$100,000 National Center for Policy Analysis—$672,000 Association of Private Enterprise Education—$98,500 American Legislative Exchange Council—$668,858 Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives—$93,903 Capital Research Center—$665,000 Center for Independent Thought—$92,500 Tax Foundation—$637,369 National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Legal Foundation—$88,000 Independent Women’s Forum—$485,000 Carbon Dioxide & Global Change Center—$85,000 International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics—$440,000 Mackinac Center for Public Policy—$84,151 Acton Institute—$416,250 Market Based Management Institute—$82,500 Fraser Institute—$373,721 Media Institute—$80,000 Pacific Research Institute—$370,000 Heartland Institute—$77,578 American Council for Capital Formation—$325,000 Goldwater Institute—$75,000 George C. Marshall Institute—$310,000 Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation—$65,000 10 Center for American Progress Action Fund | The Koch Brothers The Koch brothers’ political-influence empire A list of right-wing action groups and think tanks Libertarian Review Foundation—$60,000 Americans for Tax Reform—$60,000 Students in Free Enterprise—$30,000 Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions—$55,946 Center for Excellence in Education—$27,500 Center for Freedom & Prosperity Foundation—$54,266 Ayn Rand Institute—$25,000 National Tax Limitation Foundation—$50,000 International Policy Network—$25,000 North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law—$50,000 Becket Fund for Religious Liberty—$20,538 Free Enterprise Education Institute—$45,000 Atlantic Legal Foundation—$20,000 South Carolina Policy Council—$45,000 Institute for Political Economy—$20,000 Center for Individual Rights—$40,000 Media Research Center—$15,005 Texas Justice Foundation—$40,000 Future of Freedom Foundation—$10,000 Foundation for Economic Education—$38,267 Pacific Legal Foundation—$10,000 National Taxpayers Union Foundation—$37,500 Foundation for Human Development—$5,000 Institute for Policy Innovation—$35,000 American Spectator—$4,500 Critical Review Foundation—$33,000 Galen Institute—$3,590 Hudson Institute—$32,650 Source: Tax records for the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, available at guidestar.org for 2009 and compiled on Media Matters Action Network website for prior years.
The following article describes the society they want with the descriptions of Kansas showing what America will look like with Koch policies.
This Libertarian Strategy to Make America as Screwed-Up as Texas Before there were the Koch Brothers, there was James McGill Buchanan, the inspiration for their modern right-wing oligarchy.
What would a society based on Buchanan's principles and goals look like?
Tyler Cowen, the economist who co-presides with Charles Koch over the cause's academic base camp (yes, that Tyler Cowen, host of the most visited academic economics blog), has spelled that out. You might want to sit down to hear what he envisions for the rest of us. He has written that with the "rewriting of the social contract" underway, people will be "expected to fend for themselves much more than they do now." While some will flourish, he admits, "others will fall by the wayside." Since "worthy individuals" will manage to climb their way out of poverty, "that will make it easier to ignore those who are left behind." And Cowen didn't stop there. "We will cut Medicaid for the poor," he predicted. Further, "the fiscal shortfall will come out of real wages as various cost burdens are shifted to workers" from employers and a government that does less. To "compensate," this chaired professor in the nation's second-wealthiest county advises, "people who have had their government benefits cut or pared back" should pack up and move to lower-cost, poor public service states like Texas.
Indeed, Cowen forecasts, "the United States as a whole will end up looking more like Texas." His tone is matter-of-fact, as though he is reporting the inevitable. Yet when one reads his remarks with the knowledge that he has been the academic leader of a team working in earnest with Koch for two decades now to bring about the society he is describing, the words sound more like premeditation. For example, Cowen prophesies lower-income parts of America "recreating a Mexico-like or Brazil-like environment" complete with "favelas" like those in Rio de Janeiro. The "quality of water" might not be what US citizens are used to, he admits, but "partial shantytowns" would satisfy the need for cheaper housing as "wage polarization" grows and government shrinks. Cowen says that "some version of Texas -- and then some -- is the future for a lot of us" and advises, "Get ready."
You conclude your book ironically with a Koch maxim: "playing it safe is slow suicide." How does that apply to those who support a robust, non-plutocratic society?
I ended the book that way because I understand the many pressures that lead people not to act on their anxiety over what they are seeing unfold in Washington and so many states. Union leaders have fiduciary responsibilities that make bold action risky. Nonprofits have boards of directors to answer to. Young faculty must earn tenure. People in public institutions worry about their next appropriations. Parents have to budget their time. And so on. We tell ourselves, "Well, if it were that serious, surely others would be doing something about it." So, I wanted to alert people that what is happening now is radically new -- and designed to be permanent. We may not get another chance to stop it.
Having said that, though, I also believe that panic is the last thing we need. There is great strength to be found in the simple truth that Buchanan and Koch came up with the kind of strategy now in play precisely because they knew that the majority, if fully informed, would never support what they seek. So, the best thing that those who support a robust, non-plutocratic society can do is focus on patiently informing and activating that majority. And reminding all Americans that democracy is not something you can just assume will survive: It has to be fought for time and again. This is one of those moments.
Some more important information on how the Kochs are manipulating people from the same article;
Why, until your book, has his importance to the right wing been largely overlooked?
There are a few reasons Buchanan has been overlooked. One is that the Koch cause does not advertise his work, preferring to tout the sunnier primers of Hayek, Friedman and even Ayn Rand when recruiting. Buchanan is the advanced course, as it were, for the already committed. Another is that Buchanan did not seek the limelight like Friedman, so few on the left have even heard of him. I myself learned of him only by serendipity, in a footnote about the Virginia schools fight.
In fact, Buchanan's records provided a kind of birds-eye view into collaboration between the corporate university and right-wing donors that at least I have never seen before, and I've done a lot of research in this area over the last two decades.
How would you draw a line connecting Buchanan to the Koch brothers?
Charles Koch supplied the money, but it was James Buchanan who supplied the ideas that made the money effective. An MIT-trained engineer, Koch in the 1960s began to read political-economic theory based on the notion that free-reign capitalism (what others might call Dickensian capitalism) would justly reward the smart and hardworking and rightly punish those who failed to take responsibility for themselves or had lesser ability. He believed then and believes now that the market is the wisest and fairest form of governance, and one that, after a bitter era of adjustment, will produce untold prosperity, even peace. But after several failures, Koch came to realize that if the majority of Americans ever truly understood the full implications of his vision of the good society and were let in on what was in store for them, they would never support it. Indeed, they would actively oppose it.
So, Koch went in search of an operational strategy -- what he has called a "technology" -- of revolution that could get around this hurdle. He hunted for 30 years until he found that technology in Buchanan's thought. From Buchanan, Koch learned that for the agenda to succeed, it had to be put in place in incremental steps, what Koch calls "interrelated plays": many distinct yet mutually reinforcing changes of the rules that govern our nation. Koch's team used Buchanan's ideas to devise a roadmap for a radical transformation that could be carried out largely below the radar of the people, yet legally. The plan was (and is) to act on so many ostensibly separate fronts at once that those outside the cause would not realize the revolution underway until it was too late to undo it. Examples include laws to destroy unions without saying that is the true purpose, suppressing the votes of those most likely to support active government, using privatization to alter power relations -- and, to lock it all in, Buchanan's ultimate recommendation: a "constitutional revolution."
Today, operatives funded by the Koch donor network operate through dozens upon dozens of organizations (hundreds, if you count the state and international groups), creating the impression that they are unconnected when they are really working together -- the state ones are forced to share materials as a condition of their grants. For example, here are the names of 15 of the most important Koch-funded, Buchanan-savvy organizations each with its own assignment in the division of labor: There's Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Mercatus Center, Americans for Tax Reform, Concerned Veterans of America, the Leadership Institute, Generation Opportunity, the Institute for Justice, the Independent Institute, the Club for Growth, the Donors Trust, Freedom Partners, Judicial Watch -- whoops, that's more than 15, and it's not counting the over 60 other organizations in the State Policy Network. This cause operates through so many ostensibly separate organizations that its architects expect the rest of us will ignore all the small but extremely significant changes that cumulatively add up to revolutionary transformation. Gesturing to this, Tyler Cowen, Buchanan's successor at George Mason University, even titled his blog "Marginal Revolution."
In what way was Buchanan connected to white oligarchical racism?
Buchanan came up with his approach in the crucible of the civil rights era, as the most oligarchic state elite in the South faced the loss of its accustomed power. Interestingly, he almost never wrote explicitly about racial matters, but he did identify as a proud southern "country boy" and his center gave aid to Virginia's reactionaries on both class and race matters. His heirs at George Mason University, his last home, have noted that Buchanan's political economy is quite like that of John C. Calhoun, the antebellum South Carolina US Senator who, until Buchanan, was America's most original theorist of how to constrict democracy so as to safeguard the wealth and power of an elite economic minority (in Calhoun's case, large slaveholders). Buchanan arrived in Virginia just as Calhoun's ideas were being excavated to stop the implementation of Brown, so the kinship was more than a coincidence. His vision of the right economic constitution owes much to Calhoun, whose ideas horrified James Madison, among others.
And from that kind of thought, Buchanan offered strategic advice to corporations on how to fight the kind of reforms and taxation that came with more inclusive democracy. In the 1990s, for example, as Koch was getting more involved at George Mason, Buchanan convened corporate and rightwing leaders to teach them how to use what he called the "spectrum of secession" to undercut hard-won reforms through measures that have now become core to Republican practice: decentralization, devolution, federalism, privatization, and deregulation. We tend to see the race to the bottom as fallout from globalization, but Buchanan's guidance and the Koch team's application of it through the American Legislative Exchange Council and the State Policy Network reveals how it is in fact a highly conscious strategy to free capital of restraint by the people through their governments.
Another way all this connects, indirectly, to oligarchic racism: wanting to keep secessionist thought alive for this practical utility, the billionaire-backed right necessarily gives comfort to white supremacists. A case in point: the Virginia governors who supported the Buchanan-Koch enterprise at George Mason University also promoted a new "Confederate History and Heritage Month." Likewise, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, which honors one of Koch's favorite Austrian philosophers, is located in Alabama and led by Llewellyn Rockwell, Jr., a man who has long promoted racist neo-Confederate thought, yet was still thought fit to run the Koch-funded Center for Libertarian Studies. It's thus a mistake to imagine that the Koch and so-called alt-right causes are wholly separate; there's a kind of mutual reinforcement if you understand what Koch learned from Buchanan and how they operated.
As I conclude in the book, as bright as some of the libertarian economists were, their ideas gained the following they did in the South because, in their essence, their stands were so familiar. White southerners who opposed racial equality and economic justice knew from their own region's long history that the only way they could protect their desired way of life was to keep federal power at bay, so that majoritarian democracy could not reach into the region. The causes of Calhoun, Buchanan and Koch-style economic liberty and white supremacy were historically twined at the roots, which makes them very hard to separate, regardless of the subjective intentions of today's libertarians.
Koch Economics In Action: Kansas
A warning to Washington from Kansas
It is impossible to hide the effect of slashing revenue, and Americans will feel the impact of these cuts. His plan will give tax breaks to the largest corporations and mirrors the agenda that put Kansas in dire fiscal straits. And from a political perspective, it is historic that a Republican controlled legislature is rebuking their Republican governor over tax cuts. Why? Because the rhetoric on tax cuts does not match reality.
Daily Show: SAM BROWNBACK'S CONSERVATIVE KANSAS EXPERIMENT 10/16/2014 Jessica Williams travels to Kansas to investigate the outcome of Governor Sam Brownback's extreme tax-cut experiment.
Sam Brownback declares war on Kansas: This is how extremists gut a state — and democracy The ultraconservatives take control, with an assist to ALEC and no concern for the people
Koch Economics In Action: Kansas
A warning to Washington from Kansas
(CNN)Last week, Republican state legislators in Kansas finally acknowledged what we have known since 2012: Gov. Sam Brownback's "Kansas Experiment" burdened our businesses, wrecked our state's finances, and mortgaged our children's future, all in the name of giving tax breaks to the wealthy.
When pushing their controversial plan, Brownback and his allies claimed his agenda would create 22,000 jobsin the state. Unfortunately for hard-working Kansans, Brownback's trickle-down economics didn't make those jobs appear.
Kansas' job growth actually declined since Brownback's tax giveaway to the most well-off Kansans. We've fallen 47,000 jobs short of the promise made by the governor's revenue secretary; an especially notable trend given that our neighbors in Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, and Oklahoma have all experienced increasing job growth rates during the same period. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Kansans' disposable income declined in the years under Brownback, falling nearly $20 billion short of his promise. Unsurprisingly our neighbors to the North, South, East, and West did not suffer the same drop. They also kept their state's credit rating intact, which was not the case in Kansas.
Ultimately, Brownback delivered on none of his promises. The only accomplishment was stacking the deck even further in favor of the wealthy. For example, Bill Self, the head coach of KU's basketball team, dominated the tax code with the same ease that his Jayhawks dominate Iowa State. Self set himself up as a pass-through business, using Brownback's tax policy to pay $0 in state income taxes on that part of his pay, which was the bulk of his compensation.
While I love KU basketball and our head coach, the fact that he paid no income tax on $2.75 million in compensation shows he is as shrewd with his taxes as he is on the sidelines, but that isn't fair to Kansas families scraping to get by. Putting more money into the pockets of those who need it the least doesn't create jobs. It just weakens the fundamentals that keep our economy and communities strong.
Kansas contains a lesson for Congress. Politicians in Washington, D.C., are set to embark on a similar fiscal path Brownback charted. President Donald Trump's insistence on huge federal tax giveaways to wealthy Americans will not create jobs. Fewer investments will hurt our economic growth rate. There will be a decline in tax revenue. His plan to enable the setup of pass-throughs for business owners will only lead to evasion and dwindling federal dollars. Infrastructure will crumble and critical services will be cut.It is impossible to hide the effect of slashing revenue, and Americans will feel the impact of these cuts. His plan will give tax breaks to the largest corporations and mirrors the agenda that put Kansas in dire fiscal straits. And from a political perspective, it is historic that a Republican controlled legislature is rebuking their Republican governor over tax cuts. Why? Because the rhetoric on tax cuts does not match reality.
Daily Show: SAM BROWNBACK'S CONSERVATIVE KANSAS EXPERIMENT 10/16/2014 Jessica Williams travels to Kansas to investigate the outcome of Governor Sam Brownback's extreme tax-cut experiment.
Sam Brownback declares war on Kansas: This is how extremists gut a state — and democracy The ultraconservatives take control, with an assist to ALEC and no concern for the people
Gov. Sam Brownback’s march to zero income taxes, combined with legislation designed to weaken public services and wrest control away from local government, are hollowing out the very aspects of government these committees focus on. Public education certainly seems targeted to be greatly supplemented by, if not outright replaced by, private education.
We see this in other states as well. For some time now, model legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans For Prosperity (AFP) and other libertarian / ultraconservative organizations has been used as the template for bills in states with varying levels of ultraconservative control. Such templates have been developed on everything from taxation and fiscal policy, to energy and the environment, to health and human services.
Looking just at education, in 2015 there were 172 measures introduced in 42 states based on ALEC model legislation, according to the Center for Media and Democracy. The general goal being to “… transform public education from a public and accountable institution that serves the public into one that serves private, for-profit interests.” With public education commonly comprising a significant portion of state budgets, this dovetails nicely with ultraconservative legislation focused on drastically shrinking government and reducing taxes.
Comparing Kansas and California; What happened after California raised taxes and Kansas cut them
The state of California made some headlines last week when the latest economic data found that the Golden State’s economy is now the sixth largest on the planet, passing France and Brazil. It was a striking milestone just in terms of California’s sheer economic might.
But there was something else about the news with some political salience: when California raised taxes on the wealthy in 2012, creating one of the highest marginal tax rates in the country, conservatives were certain the state’s economy would take a severe hit. How’d that work out? The Washington Post reported the other day:
California grew just fine in the year the tax hikes took effect… California’s economy grew by 4.1 percent in 2015, according to new numbers from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, tying it with Oregon for the fastest state growth of the year. That was up from 3.1 percent growth for the Golden State in 2014, which was near the top of the national pack.
At the same time, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) slashed taxes, leading conservatives to predict great things for the state’s economy. And yet, here we are.
The Kansas economy, on the other hand, grew 0.2 percent in 2015. That’s down from 1.2 percent in 2014, and below neighboring states such as Nebraska (2.1 percent) and Missouri (1.2 percent). Kansas ended the year with two consecutive quarters of negative growth – a shrinking economy. By a common definition of the term, the state entered 2016 in recession. […]Kansas’s gross domestic product is still less than it was at the end of 2011, said Menzie Chinn, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has been following Kansas’s economy. Meanwhile, the economy in the rest of the country continues to expand.
In case it’s not obvious, California and Kansas don’t have much in common, and they have very different populations and industries. It wouldn’t be fair to evaluate the two solely on the basis of size.
But it is fair to note that conservatives’ predictions weren’t even close to being correct about these two states – though it hasn’t caused much in the way of introspection.
What the Koch Brothers Want Students to Learn About Slavery The Koch brothers empire is seeking to promote an alternate narrative to slavery.
Given that the billionaire Charles Koch has poured millions of dollars into eliminating the minimum wage and paid sick leave for workers, and that in 2015 he had the gall to compare his ultra-conservative mission to the anti-slavery movement, he’s probably the last person you’d want educating young people about slavery.
Yet the history-teaching wing of the Koch brothers empire is seeking to promote an alternate narrative to slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. The political goal of these materials is to ensure students see racism and slavery as flaws in an otherwise spotless U.S. record, rather than woven into the fabric of our country from its inception.
The Bill of Rights Institute (BRI) is the education arm of the network of front groups the Koch brothers use to promote their far-right ideology. Maureen Costello, the education director from Teaching Tolerance, has pointed out the many factual inaccuracies in the “Homework Help” video the BRI has recently promoted to teach students about slavery. She concludes that the history presented is “superficial, drained of humanity, and neglects to reckon with the economic and social reality of what opponents called ‘the slave power.’”
A dive into their “Documents of Freedom” readings reveals an even more disturbing agenda. The BRI bills the “Documents of Freedom” as a “modern take on the traditional textbook” — a “completely free digital course on history, government, and economics” authored by unnamed “teachers.” It’s essentially an online textbook that aims to promote a particular version of history, government, and economics that aligns with the interests of the Kochs.
The main “Documents of Freedom” reading on slavery, titled “Slavery and the Constitution,” is essentially a defense of the founding fathers and the Constitution against “some scholars” who “portray the founding fathers as racists.” The reading cherry-picks quotes from “the Founders” to argue that they believed slavery was morally wrong. Although the authors write that “most of the signers of the Declaration and the Constitution own[ed] slaves,” they steer clear of the brutal reality of chattel slavery.
They paint Thomas Jefferson as an anti-slavery crusader who “attacked the slave trade in harsh language” and “included African Americans in the universal understanding of the promise of liberty and equality.” But the Kochs’ curriculum fails to mention that Jefferson wrote Black people were “inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.” Jefferson kept nearly 200 people in bondage, and even in his death emancipated only five. He regularly sold human beings away from their families to raise money to buy wine, art, and luxuries that only wealthy planters could afford. Nothing in the BRI reading acknowledges any contradiction between “the Founders’” awareness of “the immorality of slavery and the need for action” and their actual actions defending and protecting slavery.
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