There was bound to be a Koch angle…
Charles and David Koch, the billionaire owners of Koch Industries and the highest profile conservative political money-men around, have a starring role in the political battle that has led to massive protests by public employees in Wisconsin over legislation that would immediately terminate their collective bargaining rights.
Scott Walker, the Republican governor and “Tea Party” agent that first proposed to strike down collective bargaining rights for state workers, received $43,000 from the Kochs’ PAC during his successful campaign last fall, and was additionally helped by another $ 1 million that the Koch brothers gave to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn pumped millions of dollars dollars into Walker’s campaign.
Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions has caused an uproar among state employees, might not be where he is today without the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are conservative titans of industry who have infamously used their vast wealth to undermine President Obama and fight legislation they detest, such as the cap-and-trade climate bill, the health care reform act, and the economic stimulus package. For years, the billionaires have made extensive political donations to Republican candidates across the country and have provided millions of dollars to astroturf right-wing organizations. Koch Industries’ political action committee has doled out more than $2.6 million to candidates. And one prominent beneficiary of the Koch brothers’ largess is Scott Walker.
According to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker’s gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election. That donation was his campaign’s second-highest, behind $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in Wisconsin. The Koch’s PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used politicial maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits. The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker’s opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly.
The Kochs also assisted Walker’s current GOP allies in the fight against the public-sector unions. Last year, Republicans took control of the both houses of the Wisconsin state legislature, which has made Walker’s assault on these unions possible. And according to data from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the Koch Industries PAC spent $6,500 in support of 16 Wisconsin Republican state legislative candidates, who each won his or her election.
The Koch Industries influence on Wisconsin union-busting didn’t stop with the November election.
Their “Tea Party” PAC, “Americans for Prosperity”, has publicly backed Walker and the Republicans attempting to shut down collective bargaining for state workers, has launched a website attacking the protesters, and is planning their own corporate-funded counter-protest to support Gov. Walker.
The Americans for Prosperity group, a Tea Party group that is a Koch Brothers front, has put up a website and petition called www.standwithwalker.com. The website attacks all collective bargaining – not just for public employees’ unions. Americans for Prosperity is also organizing a rally tomorrow in Wisconsin to support Gov. Walker.
The Governor of Wisconsin is taking away an individuals right to collective bargaining. Personally, I have never belonged to or supported a union but that seems to be beside the point. As an individual, I have that right.
The Governor chose to create a deficit by passing tax cuts and spending cuts and then decide that those the least able to benefit, pay the costs. As long as people remain silent, it will be the end of the middle class as we know it.
Scott Walker is on the same payroll as the new Florida governor Rick Scott, who also has killed the rail project using “studies” and stats from Koch Industries ‘think tanks’ including Cato, Reason, and Heritage to name a few. We have to recall Rick Scott as well!
I think judith M hit it right on the head. My sentiments exactly!
On the Fox News site, they published a comment by Governor Walker, in reference to the Democrat legislators who fled the state. Walker said, quote, “Democracy’s not about showing up in another state.” I wonder if this also applies to the Tea Partiers who were bussed into Wisconsin to shore up support for Walker.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Cyn, Jerry Rose. Jerry Rose said: They're baaack… The Koch Brothers used their billions to but the election of Gov. Scott Walker and now are back… http://fb.me/UDHsOYrt [...]
Governor Hosni Mubarak Walker strikes a blow for what The Founding Fathers Intended: Slavery and indentured Servitude.
“It is the aim of good government to stimulate production, of bad government to encourage consumption.” – Jean Baptiste Say
If Retail makes NOTHING….and Government makes only MORE DEBT….the only thing that can have a positive effect on communities is Small Business and companies that make stuff.
The picture of George Washington can float around a town six to eight times before leaving the community but if that dollar is spent inside of a big box store it will leave the same day that it entered.
Big Box stores like Wal*Mart can take in 200,000 George Washington’s a day and that be a lot of “Liberty” “Pride” “Freedom” leaving town each day.
And when one figures into the equation America has a six to one trade deficit with China which means five out of every six George Washington’s that go there will never come back unless the US Government sells bonds(debt) this is what those on Jenkins Hill and Wall Street don’t understand when it comes to local banks not having any George Washington’s to loan out in their communities.
Why is it that people ain’t writing articles about those fifteen cargo ships that pollute as much as 760 million automobiles, T Boone Pickens owning a Texas Water District, Nestle draining the Great Lakes, the disconnect between Coca-Cola and the people of India, Wal*Mart putting less than 5% foreign in their stores in China and Warren Buffett buying a Choo Choo train a few years after Wal*Mart makes a deal on a port in Mexico.
In 1960 U.S. goods manufacturing produced a $5 billion trade surplus – - 2006 merchandise trade had a $836 billion deficit. Today, for some reason, the world thinks the American consumer needs to support what they make….well, it doesn’t work like that even a fifth grader can figure that out.
So-call cheaper items only breed cheaper wages and this will go on until the rich of the world carry out the manufacturing of ignorance through out the 182 or so counties that will have a chance to make something.
I’m just an O’fart with very little book learning but from what I’ve seen over the past sixty five years in this great union of fifty states has shown me that common sense left in the year 63′ and “my sh!! don’t stink” sense as been here every since.
Sad, those few fat farmers with penmanship of poets holding feather quill goose pens and writing the American dream has today become nothing more than a page within a history book that a bunch of asinine dipsticks are to lazy and ignorant to teach.
Over the past 100 years the Federal Debt has gone from $2.6 billion in 1910 to over $14 trillion today….In that time there has only been one 10 year period that the debt has gone down 1920-1930.
All done by a bunch of elephants and jack@sses acting like turnips. People today still think Clinton balance the budget but anyone knows if they think with an open mind that if the budgets of the Clinton years had been balance the debt would had not gone up.
America is over $57 trillion in debt and it didn’t get there by people using common sense. If the American people don’t wake-up to that fact within another twenty years they will witness Lady Liberty kneeling to her knees in the Hudson and someone in Tiananmen Square holding that tablet from under her left arm celebrating what is written upon it.
Why are the Koch brothers so determined to bust public unions? What exactly is in it for them?
Because the Koch Brothers are intelligent, successful people. They understand the folly of Public Sector labor unions.
All Wisconsin government employees are forced to belong to the labor union. Their mandatory union dues are collected by the State of Wisconsin, and then funnelled into labor union coffers. Then a significant portion of those union dues are funnelled into the Democrat Party apparatus, including Democrat political campaigns, where Democrat politicians promise better benefits to Wisconsin government employees.
When government employee labor union “negotiations” take place, on one side of the table sits the labor union. Until now, in Wisconsin, on the other side of the table sat–The Democrat Party! Boy, those must have been some acrimonious negotiations!
Now, of course, thanks to courageous new Governor Scott Walker, the Taxpayer has taken the place of the Democrat Party at the Wisconsin negotiating table. No wonder the Labor Union goons and the Wisconsin and Indiana Democrat Party Fleebaggers are so upset.
Oh, by the way, do you want to know why President SolarShingles has suddenly gone silent on the issue of “Union-busting” in Wisconsin? Because Federal Government employees are forbidden to collectively bargain!
See, intelligent people (such as former Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) understand the fundamental foolishness of Public Sector labor unions. With the advent of the financial crisis and the emergence of strong new Republican Governors (Christie, Daniels, Walker) and maybe some courageous Democrats (Brown, Cuomo) the Public Employee labor union scam might be about to end.
Nope, not getting your response… not understanding why the Koch brothers “being intelligent, successful people” would make them want to get involved in busting public unions, after those unions have already made the concessions necessary to reduce the costs. Even Ronald Reagan in speaking about the anti-solidarity movement talked about employees having a fundamental right to strike, which would indicate (aside from the fact that he was once president of the screen actors guild, a union) that he believed in Unions.
Your example of Ronald Reagan is particularly inane. “Fundamental right to strike?” Why did Reagan fire PATCO (Profession of Air Traffic Controllers) employees when they chose to strike in the early 1980s?
Because they were public sector employees. (By the way, PATCO was one of the few unions to endorse Reagan in 1980, prior to his firing them.)
The Screen Actors Guild was and is a private sector union.
Like I said, intelligent people understand the implications and differences between public and private sector collective bargaining.
[...] supported by federal spending) or, less philanthropically, spending money on buying sports teams or funding political campaigns or buying yachts or private islands or other dumb things people are entitled to do with their [...]
Although I believe unions need to make changes, to take away collective bargaining and break the unions would take away the only recourse workers have to gain fair employment practices. It would take us back to sweat shops and unsafe working conditions of the 1800 to early 1900s. People like the Koch brothers apparently think only of themselves and what they want!