Charles and David Koch: The billionaire brothers
‘trying to buy America’
A recent study estimated that
in the 2012 election cycle some 17 different Koch-backed groups spent a
combined $400m (£240m) trying to influence the outcome of the presidential race
and scores of other elections across the US
DAVID USBORNE Author
Biography US EDITOR Friday 31 January 2014 / http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/charles-and-david-koch-the-billionaire-brothers-trying-to-buy-america-9100238.html
Two billionaire brothers who
have poured their fortune into a network of charitable organisations that are
dedicated to supporting Republican causes and candidates have been drawn into
an unusual and very public spat with the Majority Leader of the US Senate,
Harry Reid.
Senator Reid, a Democrat, provoked a new round of
recriminations when, in off-the-cuff remarks on the Senate floor on Thursday,
he openly accused David and Charles Koch of “actually trying to buy the
country” by funding the organisations. He was speaking in support of a White
House-backed plan to place new disclosure rules on the groups and limits on how
far they can involve themselves in politics while retaining tax-free status.
“What they’re doing is spending their … dollars on
governor’s races, and on the state level and, of course, spending huge amounts
of money around the country attempting to defeat Democrats both in the House
and the Senate,” Mr Reid said. “The Koch brothers hide all their campaign
efforts. They disguise themselves with rare exception as social welfare organisations,
with all these fancy names going after people who are trying to improve the
country.”
The comments were sufficiently irksome to the Kansas-based
Koch Industries, which has enormous holdings in mining, energy and chemicals,
that it offered a rare rebuke. Philip Ellender, the president of Koch Companies
Public Sector, said Mr Reid’s “divisive remarks were not only disrespectful and
beneath the office he holds, they were indicative of what lengths he and his
Democratic allies will go to eliminate and silence their political opposition”.
A recent study by the Washington Post and the Centre for Responsive
Politics estimated that in the 2012 election cycle some 17 different
Koch-backed groups, all under charitable social welfare status, spent a
combined $400m (£240m) trying to influence the outcome of the presidential race
and scores of other elections across the US.
In 2012 the Koch network outspent all other groups created
to support Republicans, and in dollar terms matched the money that labour
unions traditionally give to the Democrats, triggering loud complaint from the
left. “It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank account,
that drives our democracy,” President Barack Obama lamented in this week’s
State of the Union address.
Tensions over the issue are expected to worsen as November’s
mid-term congressional elections approach, with the Democrats at some
considerable risk of losing control of the US Senate.
The Koch brothers have made it clear they will continue to
spend to make that happen. “Charles Koch and David Koch will continue to
exercise their First Amendment rights to advocate for their fundamental beliefs
in individual liberty, limited government, and the promotion of policies that
help people improve their lives,” Mr Ellender said.
On the Senate floor Mr Reid was drawn into invoking the Koch
brothers after Mitch McConnell, his Republican opposite number, accused Mr
Obama of trying to crack down on the tax-exempt groups as a means to stifle
Republican opposition.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário