ALEC Exposed: The Koch Connection

This article is part of a Nation series exposing the American Legislative Exchange Council, in collaboration with the Center For Media and Democracy. John Nichols introduces the series.
 
Hundreds of ALEC’s model bills and resolutions bear traces of Koch DNA: raw ideas that were once at the fringes but that have been carved into “mainstream” policy through the wealth and will of Charles and David Koch. Of all the Kochs’ investments in right-wing organizations, ALEC provides some of the best returns: it gives the Kochs a way to make their brand of free-market fundamentalism legally binding.

No one knows how much the Kochs have given ALEC in total, but the amount likely exceeds $1 million—not including a half-million loaned to ALEC when the group was floundering. ALEC gave the Kochs its Adam Smith Free Enterprise Award, and Koch Industries has been one of the select members of ALEC’s corporate board for almost twenty years. The company’s top lobbyist was once ALEC’s chairman. As a result, the Kochs have shaped legislation touching every state in the country. Like ideological venture capitalists, the Kochs have used ALEC as a way to invest in radical ideas and fertilize them with tons of cash.

Take environmental protections. The Kochs have a penchant for paying their way out of serious violations and coming out ahead. Helped by Koch Industries’ lobbying efforts, one of the first measures George W. Bush signed into law as governor of Texas was an ALEC model bill giving corporations immunity from penalties if they tell regulators about their own violation of environmental rules. Dozens of other ALEC bills would limit environmental regulations or litigation in ways that would benefit Koch.
ALEC’s model legislation reflects parts of the Kochs’ agenda that have little to do with oil profits. Long before ALEC started pushing taxpayer-subsidized school vouchers, for example, the Koch fortune was already underwriting attacks on public education. David Koch helped inject the idea of privatizing public schools into the national debate as a candidate for vice president in 1980. A cornerstone of the Libertarian Party platform, which he bankrolled, was the call for “educational tax credits to encourage alternatives to public education,” a plan to the right of Ronald Reagan. Several pieces of ALEC’s model legislation echo this plan.  READ MORE

Martin Death Spurs Group to Readjust Policy Focus

Could their other policies be any better?

By ERIC LICHTBLAU 

Published: April 17, 2012 

WASHINGTON — An influential conservative policy group that came under attack after the Trayvon Martin shooting for pushing Stand Your Ground gun laws nationwide said Tuesday that it was getting out of the law enforcement and social policy arenas and returning to its economic roots.

The group, the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, had suffered an exodus of big-name corporate supporters like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods after recent attacks by liberal organizations.

While the group had already been discussing a narrowing of its work, the controversy generated by the Martin shooting “may have sped up the process,” Chip Rogers, a Georgia state senator who is the group’s treasurer, said in a telephone interview.   READ MORE

"Billionaire Oil Guys" Lose Bid to Takeover Cato institute

Koch Brothers

 It looks like the Koch Brothers’ efforts to take over the libertarian think-tank the Cato Institute and oust long-time president Ed Crane has been thwarted. According to David Weigel, who is close to these folks, Crane called a meeting of the Cato board and used an obscure bylaw to expand it and then pack it with loyalists.

In a subsequent interview, Crane told Weigel this:

I want to save Cato. I’ll step down if it ends this thing. It can’t be a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries. Who the hell is going to take a think tank seriously that’s controlled by billionaire oil guys? It’s just nuts!   READ MORE

Insist the Koch brothers testify in Congress

Billionaire oil tycoons Charles and David Koch continue shunning transparency. What are they hiding?

The Koch brothers have refused to answer fundamental questions about how they stand to gain financially from the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a 1,700-mile long boondoggle that will make the Kochs richer. 

Rep. Henry Waxman has invited the Koch brothers to testify before Congress, but the Kochs' allies in Congress are dragging out the process.

See our latest video, including the outburst from an acrimonious Congressional hearing, then take action and insist the Koch brothers testify in Congress.

The Koch brothers have entrenched allies on Capitol Hill who're doing everything they can to stonewall oversight. On the key committee with jurisdiction over energy issues, the Kochs and their employees were the largest oil and gas donor, giving a total of $282,700 to committee members.

Join me in fighting back. Take action to insist the Koch brothers testify in Congress.

Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team

P.S. I invite you to join our Koch Brothers Exposed conversation on Facebook and engage with me on Twitter.

Are the Koch brothers teaching you?

Is Your Senator Representing Charles and David Koch?

Koch Brothers

Americans for Prosperity released its rankings this week of senators and congressman who toe the Koch line most, and it gave a total of 44 A+s for the 112th Congress.

January 15, 2012

Billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch look like they're easy graders. Their Tea Party group released its rankings this week of senators and congressman who toe the Koch line most, and it gave a total of 44 A+s for the 112th Congress.

Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party group funded by the Kochs, based its grades on opposition to affordable health care, clean air, alternative energy and net neutrality. Scores were also boosted if the elected official signed the tea party group's anti-revenue pledge. 

In sum, the five senators who scored 100 percent on the Americans for Prosperity how-can-we-make-the-Kochs-richer test received $187,400 in campaign contributions from the Kochs and their allies. 

These senators are Ron Johnson (R-WI), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and potential Republican vice presidential nominee Marco Rubio, a freshman from Florida. Indeed, Rubio, Johnson and Coburn have a lifetime of A+ scores!  READ MORE

Watch the video:

Why Obama May Be About to Give a Giant Handout Out to the Billionaire Koch Brothers

The Koch Brothers

The brothers control nearly 25% of the tar sands crude that is imported into the US and own mining companies, oil terminals, and refineries all along the Keystone XL route.

October 20, 2011

Here's a unique political strategy for you: in the lead up to a crucial election, as anti-corporate sentiment is sweeping the nation, consider giving a huge handout to a major corporation that happens to be your biggest political enemy and is already spending hundreds of millions to defeat you and your agenda.

If that seems too crazy to believe, welcome to the Obama 2012 campaign.

Right now, President Obama is faced with the most crucial environmental decisions he is going to face before the 2012 election: whether or not to approve the permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,700 mile fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the continent, the Canadian tar sands.

The Keystone XL isn't just an XL environmental disaster -- the nation's top climate scientists say that fully exploiting the tar sands could mean "essentially game over" for the climate -- it also happens to be an XL sized handout to Big Oil and, you guessed it, the Brothers Koch. You want fries with that?  READ MORE

So, In Conclusion, The Koch Bros Are Not As Bad As Dick Cancer

Firedoglake / By TBogg The Washington Post's Ombudsman attempts a pull back from WaPo's rerunning of the Bloomberg expose on the Koch Bros. Shorter WaPo OBM: We can't disagree with anything Bloomberg Markets said about the Koch Bros illegal activities, but we should have included his paid PR denial even though it didn't shake the original story, and besides there are lots of other corporate evil doers besides the 4th richest men in America. Click here to read the entire article...

Why Do the Koch Brothers Want to End Public Education?

By Robert Greenwald, Open Mike Blog

16 August 11

Call David Koch and tell him to stop funding school resegregation now! His number is 212-319-1100." -- CW/RSN

he Koch brothers have more than $42 billion to make public policy out of their anti-government ideology, and their assault against public education epitomizes their tactics to remake our nation.

The Koch brothers founded Americans for Prosperity and have contributed more than $5 million to its political coffers. Americans for Prosperity, in turn, contributed to organizations that financially influenced a community school board election.

That's right: the Koch brothers are involving themselves, through their wealth-backed political apparatus, in local schools.

READ MORE

HOMEPAGE VIDEO: The Koch Brothers' Influence

Intro: "A few years back, practically no one in America knew who these guys were, the Koch brothers, much less how to pronounce their name. But now Charles and David Koch have replaced Dick Cheney as the chief villains for many. For years, they have been using their vast fortune, estimated at a combined $44 billion, to help fund conservative think tanks and politicians." WATCH HERE

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NJ Governor Christie's Secret Meeting With Koch Brothers Causes Political Firestorm

The fallout has led the Democratic Speaker of the NJ Assembly to call the governor "disgraceful," and that she is "beginning to wonder if Gov. Christie is mentally deranged." READ MORE
The audio file and transcripts are here