Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 18:40, 2 July 2012

The political activities of the Koch family are the political activities of the family of the late Fred C. Koch, a co-founder of Koch Industries, an oil, gas, and chemical conglomerate which is the second largest privately held company in the United States with annual revenues of $110 billion. Many of the activities are carried out via the Koch Family Foundations, the most prominent of which are the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created by two of Fred C. Koch's sons, Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch. While the majority of the family's charitable donations go toward medical research and the arts, its notable political activities include Charles Koch's co-founding of the Cato Institute in 1977, and David Koch's 1980 candidacy for Vice President of the United States on the Libertarian Party line as well as his participation in the 1984 founding of Citizens for a Sound Economy, and the 2004 founding of its spin-off Americans for Prosperity. In total, the Koch brothers have given more than $196 million to dozens of free-market and advocacy organizations, in addition to over $600 million to arts, science, and educational organizations. Tax records indicate that in 2008 the three main Koch family foundations contributed money to 34 political and policy organizations, three of which they founded, and several of which they direct.

Background

Fred C. Koch, the father of Charles and David, was a member of the John Birch Society. He gave a speech in 1963 warning of “a takeover” of America in which Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the president is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us”.

David H. Koch was a Libertarian Vice-Presidential candidate in 1980. He advocated the abolition of Social Security, the FBI, the CIA, and public schools. Koch put $500,000 of his own money into the race, and he and Ed Clark, his presidential running mate, won 1% of the vote—the best Libertarian showing in a U.S. presidential race to date. But the experience caused David Koch to change course: "I had enough," he said. "We are not a nation that debates issues. We vote on candidates' personalities." By 1984, David had parted company with the Libertarian Party, because, he said, "they nominated a ticket I wasn't happy with" and "so many of the hard-core Libertarian ideas are unrealistic."

Since then, Charles and David Koch have adopted a much less visible strategy toward advancing their libertarian positions. In 1986, David Koch helped found the Citizens for a Sound Economy. He has also given over $21 million to the Cato Institute.

The Koch brothers fund a multitude of groups including Americans for Prosperity, opposed to fiscally left-wing policies.

The Koch brothers have expressed the belief that economic freedom is essential for the well-being of society.

Charles and David have recently been the objects of harassment and threats. In April 2011, a Des Moines, Iowa office supply firm, Koch Brothers, reported receiving dozens of harassing emails and phone calls and even a death threat.

Charles G. Koch

Charles G. Koch funds and supports libertarian and free-market organizations such as the Cato Institute, which he co-founded with Edward H. Crane and Murray Rothbard in 1977, and is a board member at the Mercatus Center, a market-oriented research think tank at George Mason University. Koch supported his brother's candidacy for Vice President on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980. After the bid, Charles told a reporter that conventional politics "tends to be a nasty, corrupting business ... I’m interested in advancing libertarian ideas". In addition to funding think tanks, Charles and David also support libertarian academics; since 1992, Charles has funded the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program through the Institute for Humane Studies. The program recruits and mentors young libertarians. Koch is also chair of the Institute's board of directors. Koch also organizes twice yearly meetings of Republican donors.

Organizations

Family Foundations

The Koch Family Foundations began in 1953 with the establishment of the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation. In 1980 Charles G. Koch established the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation with the stated purpose of advancing social progress and well-being through the development, application and dissemination of "the Science of Liberty." David H. Koch established the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation. Charles' and David's foundations have together provided hundreds of millions of dollars to a variety of organizations, including arts organizations, educational organizations, and libertarian or conservative think tanks.

Political organizations

Citizens for a Sound Economy was co-founded by David Koch in the 1980s. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the Koch Brothers supplied it with a total amount of $7.9 million between 1986 and 1993. In 1990, the brothers created the spinoff group Citizens for the Environment.

In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy was renamed FreedomWorks, while its affiliated Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation became Americans for Prosperity (AFP). Since then the Koch brothers have given more than one million dollars to AFP. At an AFP rally in 2009, David Koch said "Five years ago, my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start the Americans for Prosperity, and it's beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organization." AFP is the political arm of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, for which David Koch serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees. Americans for Prosperity created Patients United Now, which advocated against a single-payer health care system during the 2009-2010 healthcare reform debate. Both FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity have provided support for the Tea Party movement.

Charles and David Koch also have been involved in, and have provided funding to, a number of other think tanks and advocacy organizations: They provided the initial funding for the Cato Institute, they are key donors to the Federalist Society, and they also support, or are members of, the Mercatus Center, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Institute for Justice, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, the Institute for Energy Research, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the George C. Marshall Institute, the Reason Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, ALEC, and the Fraser Institute.

As of 2011, David Koch sits on the board of directors of the Cato institute, the Reason Foundation and the Aspen Institute.

Cato Institute

Following the 2011 death of William Niskanen, the co-founder and chairman of the Cato Institute, Charles and David Koch reportedly made an effort to procure the shares of that institute held by Niskansen’s widow, "arguing that they were not hers to hold.". Their efforts were criticized by some at the institute, including the institute's president Ed Crane, who in an email to staff told them the Koch's were "in the process of trying to take over the Cato Institute and, in my opinion, reduce it to a partisan adjunct to Americans for Prosperity, the activist GOP group they control.” Charles and David deny any wrong doing.

Political activity

Koch Industries describes itself as being committed to free societies and free market principles and as supporting those who champion these things.

Unions

Public records show that the Kochs gave more than $17 million between 1997 and 2008 to various groups including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which lobbies for legislation opposing unions.

According to Mother Jones Magazine, Koch Industries' Political Action Committee contributed the second largest donation to Scott Walker's 2010 campaign for governor of Wisconsin. After Walker took office, he and the Republican representatives in the Wisconsin House enacted legislation that placed limitations on collective bargaining by public employees. Widespread protests ensued. In February 2011, the New York Times reported that Americans for Prosperity had lobbied for Walker's proposed bill. Because of the Koch contribution to Walker's campaign, David Koch became a symbolic target for the protests.

According to the Palm Beach Post, David Koch has been very active in Wisconsin politics with Americans for Prosperity, spending $700,000 on ads supporting Governor Scott Walker's changes to collective bargaining. The Wisconsin Democratic Party announced that they were filing a complaint with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, claiming that based on Koch's statements to the Palm Beach Post, Americans for Prosperity had violated its 501(c)(3) status.

Lobbying for oil, gas, and chemical industries

Koch employees were the largest donors from the oil and gas industry to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is responsible for legislation affecting that industry. Koch employees donated $279,500 to 22 Republicans and $32,000 to five Democrats, including $20,000 to committee chairman Fred Upton (R-Michigan). Americans for Prosperity supported five of the six Republican members who were elected to Congress for the first time in 2010. Of twelve Republicans newly appointed to the Committee, nine signed a pledge distributed by Americans for Prosperity to oppose the regulation of greenhouse gases.

Koch Industries and its subsidiaries spent more than $20 million on lobbying in 2008 and $12.3 million in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group. In an article about the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study (Chair Richard A. Muller), Los Angeles Times reporter Margot Roosevelt called the Koch Brothers "the nation's most prominent funders of efforts to prevent curbs on fossil-fuel burning".

The Claude R. Lambe Foundation, has donated to the American Energy Alliance, an offshoot of the Institute for Energy Research.

Free enterprise seminars

In recent years, Charles and David Koch have organized semiannual seminars to promote their political views. In June 2010, one such event was held in Aspen, Colorado, and titled "Understanding and Addressing Threats to American Free Enterprise and Prosperity". The invitation stated that " prosperity is under attack by the current Administration and many of our elected officials" and "we cannot rely on politicians to , so it is up to us to combat what is now the greatest assault on American freedom and prosperity in our lifetimes". The seminar program indicated that "past meetings have featured such notable leaders as Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas; Governors Bobby Jindal and Haley Barbour; commentators John Stossel, Charles Krauthammer, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh; Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn; and Representatives Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, and Tom Price."

Anthropogenic global warming skepticism

The Koch Foundation (along with the Folger Fund, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research (created by Bill Gates), the Bowes Foundation, and the Getty Foundation) is a major funder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, an effort to address the criticism of records of the earth's surface temperatures. Two of the project's seven scientists are seen as climate skeptics by many in the climate science world.

The Charles G. Koch Foundation gave climate skeptic Willie Soon two grants totaling $175,000 in 2005/6 and again in 2010. Soon has stated that he has "never been motivated by financial reward in any of my scientific research."

Criticism

From Jane Mayer

In an article in the August 30, 2010 issue of the New Yorker, Jane Mayer wrote,

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.

Responses to Mayer's article

Conor Friedersdorf, writing for the Daily Dish at The Atlantic magazine, wrote that while he respected Mayer, "as best I can tell, the Koch brothers are legitimately upset by some aspects of the piece, and anyone who reads it should also look at the rebuttals from libertarians who are persuasively pushing back against some of its conclusions."

Koch Industries posted an extensive reply on its website. It acknowledged funding libertarian and conservative causes, but it said that there were several inaccuracies and distortions in the Mayer article, and that Mayer failed to identify alleged conflicts of interest on the part of several people she quoted. Koch Industries responded to the allegations in Mayer's article by saying that "the story dredges up issues resolved long ago and mischaracterizes our business philosophy and principles, our practices and performance record, and the education efforts and policies we support."

The Weekly Standard also published a critical response to Mayer's article, in the form of an opinion piece by Matthew Continetti. He wrote:

Mayer drew heavily from the writings of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Greenpeace report, and public tax records. For several thousand words, relying on interviews with anonymous sources, Democratic operatives, a disgruntled conservative, a historian of libertarianism, and the author of “A Pagan’s Blog,” Mayer unspooled a fantastic tale of manipulation and malpractice.

Matt Lewis, a columnist for Politics Daily, also posted a critical response to Mayer's article:

To be sure, the Kochs have given "more than a hundred million dollars to right wing causes" (which is their right, by the way). But in the last decade, it's also worth noting the Kochs have given more than $600 million in pledged or donated money to arts, education, and medical research, including (but not limited to):

New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell: $15 million, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: $25 million, The Hospital for Special Surgery: $26 million, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: $30 million, Prostate Cancer Foundation: $41 million, Deerfield Academy: $68 million, Lincoln Center's NY State Theater: $100 million,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $139 million

Defended by Searle Freedom Trust

Kimberly O. Dennis, of the Searle Freedom Trust, a libertarian foundation, suggests that the Kochs are acting against their economic interest in promoting "getting government out of the business of running the economy. If they were truly interested in protecting their profits, they wouldn’t be spending so much to shrink government; they’d be looking for a bigger slice of the pie for themselves. Their funding is devoted to promoting free-market capitalism, not crony capitalism."

Impact

One 1997 study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy identified 12 American foundations that have had a key influence on US public policy since the 1960s, particularly via their support for the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute and Cato Institute. Three of these 12 are Koch Family Foundations (the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation). Charles Koch co-founded the Cato Institute, while David Koch sits on its board.

See also

References

1. ^ Mayer, Jane (2010-08-30). "Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama". The New Yorker. Condé Nast Publications.
2. ^ Zernike, Kate (October 19, 2010). "Secretive Republican Donors Are Planning Ahead". New York Times. Cite error: The named reference "Zernike" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
3. ^ Lewis, Matt (September 2, 2010). "Koch Brothers Donate to Charity as well as 'Right Wing Causes".
4. http://www.kochfacts.com/opposition-to-communism.php
5. ^ Jane Mayer. "Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2010-09-07. Cite error: The named reference "covert" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
6. Kerby, Phil (September 13, 1979). "The Libertarians: Freedom to a Fault?". Los Angeles Times. p. D1. {{cite news}}: |section= ignored (help)
7. ^ Curtis, Charlotte (1984-10-16). "Man Without a Candidate". The New York Times.
8. Doherty, Brian (November 17, 2008). "Where Did the Libertarian Party Go Wrong?". Reason. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
9. "Advocates for Self-Government - Libertarian Education". Advocates for Self Government. 1992-05-16. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
10. Koch, Charles. "U.S. Economic Prosperity Demands More Freedom". The Kansas City Star. Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on ???. Retrieved 22 May 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |archivedate= (help)
11. Hicks, Lynn. "'Koch Brothers' confusion results in death threat for Iowa company". DesMoines Register. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
12. Baier, Bret (2011-04-21). "Obama Faces the Music". Fox News. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
13. "25 Years at Cato" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-07-10.
14. Brian Doherty (2008). Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. PublicAffairs. p. 410. ISBN 1-58648-572-5. One longtime Koch lieutenant characterized the overall strategy of Koch's libertarian funding over the years with both a theatrical metaphor and an Austrian capital theory one: Politicians, ultimately, are just actors playing out a script. The idea is, one gets better and quicker results aiming not at the actors but at the scriptwriters, to help supply the themes and words for the scripts—to try to influence the areas where policy ideas percolate from: academia and think tanks. Ideas, then, are the capital goods that go into building policy as a finished product—and there are insufficient libertarian capital goods at the top of the structure of production to build the policies libertarians demand.
15. "Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program". Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. Retrieved 2010-09-10. The Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program combines a paid public policy internship with two career skills seminars and weekly policy lectures. You'll gain real-world experience, take a crash course in market-based policy analysis, and hone your professional skills. The intensive ten-week program begins in June and includes a $1,500 stipend and a housing allowance.
16. "Frequently Asked Questions | Institute For Humane Studies". Theihs.org. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
17. Stephen Moore (May 6, 2006). "The Weekend Interview with Charles Koch: Private Enterprise". The Wall Street Journal. p. A.8.
18. ^ Hamburger, Tom (2011-02-06). "Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved 2011-02-06. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
19. ^ Peter Overby (2011-02-25). "Billionaire Brothers In Spotlight In Wis. Union Battle". National Public Radio.
20. ^ "Koch Industries, Inc. - Leadership". Koch Industries. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
21. Vogel, Kenneth P. (August 9, 2010), "Tea party's growing money problem", Politico, retrieved 2011-06-14
22. Fenn, Peter (February 2, 2011), "Tea Party Funding Koch Brothers Emerge From Anonymity", U.S. News & World Report, retrieved 2011-06-13
23. The Tea Party movement: deluded and inspired by billionaires, George Monbiot, The Guardian, 25 Oct. 2010.
24. ^ "Lobbying: Koch Industries". Center for Responsive Politics. 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
25. Fitzgerald, Alison. July 21, 2011. Koch, Exxon Mobil Among Corporations Helping Write State Laws Bloomberg. Retrieved: 1 July 2012.
26. Huffingtonpost Canada, 2012-04-26, retrieved 2012-04-26
27. Vancouver Observer, 2012-04-25, retrieved 2012-04-26
28. Cato Institute, Board of Directors, accessed 1 Feb 2011
29. Lichtblau, Eric (March 6, 2012). "Cato Institute Is Caught in a Rift Over Its Direction". The New York Times. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
30. Cato Goes to War The Koch brothers have launched an extraordinary campaign to take control of America’s most respected libertarian think tank. Will they destroy it? slate.com By David Weigel| 5 March 2012
31. "A Consistent, Principled Effort". Koch Industries. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
32. "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Bros". Mother Jones. 2011-02-18. Retrieved 2011-04-15. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
33. ^ Eric Lipton (2011-02-21). "Billionaire Brothers' Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute". The New York Times.
34. ^ Continetti, Matthew (April 4, 2011). "The Paranoid Style in Liberal Politics". The Weekly Standard.
35. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/david-koch-intends-to-cure-cancer-in-his-2185046.html?page=2
36. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://jsonline.com/blogs/news/140208013.HTML
37. Center For Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org
38. Margot Roosevelt, 31 March 2011, Los Angeles Times, Berkeley scientists' climate data review puts them at center of national debate
39. Evans, Will (September 22, 2008). "New Group Tied To Oil Industry Runs Ads Promoting Drilling, Attacking Democrat". NPR. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
40. Charles G. Koch (2010-09-24). "Invitation to Seminar, Understanding and Addressing Threats to American Free Enterprise and Prosperity" (PDF).
41. Berkeley project seeks to resolve climate change debate, California Watch, March 1, 2011.
42. Vidal, John (2011-06-27). "Climate sceptic Willie Soon received $1m from oil companies, papers show". The Guardian.
43. Friedersdorf, Conor (August 30, 2010). "The Koch Brothers Profiled". The Daily Dish. The Atlantic. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
44. Koch Industries webpage, "Koch Facts" section Accessed 2011-01-31.
45. Holden, Mark V. (September 28, 2010). "Letter to Lynn B. Oberlander" (PDF). Retrieved 31 January 2011.
46. "Koch Industries Responds to New Yorker Claims". newsmax. newsmax. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
47. Lewis, Matt. "Koch Brothers Donate to Charity as well as 'Right Wing Causes'". Politics Daily. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
48. Dennis, Kimberly O. (November 15, 2010). "Democrats Can't Blame the Koch Brothers (However Much They Might Want To)". National Review Online. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
49. Sally Covington, Moving A Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations, Washington, DC: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 1997.
50. ^ Behan, Richard W. (2004), "Degenerate Democracy: The Neoliberal and Corporate Capture of America's Agenda", Public Land & Resources Law Review, Vol. 24, pp. 9-24. p19
51. The others are the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, John M. Olin Foundation, Carthage Foundation (controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife), Earhart Foundation, Philip M. McKenna Foundation, JM Foundation, Henry Salvatori Foundation, Sarah Scaife Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation. (Behan 2004:19)

External links

• Koch brothers collected news and commentary at The Guardian

• Politics of the United States
• Koch family
• Conservatism in the United States