This weekend, billionaire Charles Koch gave a speech in which he decried corporate cronyism and welfare – two things of which he’s been a huge part for a long time. He and his brother, David, have spent enormous amounts of money on elections, and on funding things like anti-climate science, to further their own interests and make themselves even wealthier. They have also benefited greatly from the disastrous Citizens United decision, which basically sold our government to people exactly like them.
Charles Koch got on the cases of both political parties in a rare speech in front of reporters on Saturday. According to Politico, he said that one of the things business leaders ought to reject now is “corporate welfare,” which includes unnecessary tax breaks, bailouts, and other incentives that benefit highly profitable corporations, and the wealthy, at the expense of ordinary taxpayers.
Politico also reports that the Koch brothers, and their network, plan to spend nearly a billion dollars on the 2016 election. They want to get a handle on “irresponsible government spending from both parties,” and deal with how we seem to sacrifice national defense in the name of feeding special interests. These are typical conservative platforms, so it’s not surprising to hear this from someone like Charles Koch.
The Republicans are the ones who keep pushing corporate welfare as a means to bring jobs back here, though. They still hold trickle-down economics up as the economic model of prosperity, despite decades of evidence showing that such policies will never lead to prosperity for the country, but only a select, elite, wealthy few.
Could it be that the Koch brothers are trying to prop up Republicans as the party that cares about the little guy, in order to discredit Democrats? This wouldn’t be surprising. The Koch brothers are known for all sorts of convoluted machinations to bring about the ends they want to see. Remaking their image as caring and altruistic, and by extension, the image of the GOP, could possibly work better than continuing to operate behind closed doors to ensure the government funnels ever more money their way.
The New York Times confirms that the Kochs are trying to remake their image. They’ve actually received praise from President Obama on their calls for criminal justice reform, which is something we desperately need, but is an issue on which the GOP is becoming divided. Perhaps, if the Kochs cry for reform, they’ll get the GOP on board and
To read full article: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/08/02/billionaire-koch-brothers-set-sights-on-very-surprising-issue-ahead-of-2016/
