Yes, the arms of the Kochtopus are reaching out, and gearing up, to spend $400 million on right-thinking guys and gals, first order of business being to maintain Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
“I’m more excited about what we’re doing and about the opportunities than I’ve ever been,” Charles Koch said. “We’ve made more progress in the last 5 years than I had in the previous 50.”
Yeah, yeah, I know, The Kochs are in favor of a lot of things that I’m in favor of, like reducing levels on incarceration (though, unlike the Kochs, I’m mostly interested in reducing the levels of incarceration of the poor1) and pursuing liberal immigration policies. In fact, Charles Koch recently joined with Apple CEO Tim Cook in a Washington Post editorial urging Congress to allow the “Dreamers” to stay in the U.S.—though whether “staying” could ultimately mean “citizenship” was left carefully unsaid.
Yeah, yeah, so where is the cause of criminal justice reform now, other than lying in tatters in the gutter, thanks to the election of Donald “Carnage in the streets” Trump, not to mention the appointment of Jeff “Lock ‘em up and hang ‘em high” Sessions? And, where oh where is the cause of immigration reform with Cap’n Two Scoops in the White House? Is this really more progress in the last 5 years than you had in the previous 50, Charlie? Where exactly has that “progress” occurred?
The only thing that Donald Trump has done in his year in office is the passage of his grotesque tax “reform” package, about which the administration folks have told more lies than there are stars in the Milky Way, but I would like to focus on just one: that it will be revenue neutral, a lie that has been exploded over and over again.
According to what I’ve read, the Koch Bros first got big into political activism when George Bush passed his prescription drug plan, increasing federal spending by $353 billion over the years 2006-2013, or about $45 billion a year,2—about 35% less than the predicted $550 billion. The legislation made no provision for covering this expected cost. “We didn’t worry about paying for things back then,” “explained” Sen. Orin Hatch.
Well, if an expected increase in the federal deficit of about $70 billion a year caused Charlie and Dave to collectively shit a brick—to coin a phrase—why hasn’t the expected cost of tax “reform” of about twice that—$150 billion a year—caused the collective defecation of a larger one? And what about Trump’s advertised intent to boost defense spending by an entirely unnecessary $50 billion—a “baseline” increase in the federal debt of $200 billion a year? Why hasn’t that provoked even a modicum of rumbling in the Kochs’ collective bowels?
Because, of course, the Kochs did not care, and do not care, about the debt. They care about where the damn money is going. And if it’s going into their pockets, they don’t give a damn about anything else. Which is why they are planning on spending $400 million this year to keep their kind of people in Congress: the people that give tax cuts to billionaires, not the kind who give health care to poor people.
Afterwords
If this were the worst—rich people lying in order to increase their wealth—well, it would be gross, but also pretty much par for the course. What is truly horrible is that, in order to push their individual wealth from about $40 billion apiece to—I don’t know, a $100 billion?—Dave and Charlie are fighting—fighting hard!—to entrench in power the very worst administration in American history. It’s almost as if they don’t care about anyone except themselves.
- The Kochs (probably) have a case for increasing the requirement for a showing of “intent” to justify a conviction for some white-collar offenses, but I’m not entirely sold (go here for a liberal—i.e., unfriendly—critique of their position) and I don’t want legalization of marijuana (for example) being held hostage to “reforming” Dodd-Frank. ↩︎
- Competition and Cost of Medicare’s Prescription Drug Program—CBO Report July 2014 ↩︎
