There has been a lot of discussion about the Koch brothers in the press over the past few weeks. I am sure that the two brothers don’t like all of the media attention. The two brothers are used to operating behind closed doors and pulling the strings for a number of different organizations.
Who Are The Koch Brothers?
The Koch Brothers are the founders of the “grass roots” Tea Party and the group Americans For Prosperity. The two brothers are oil billionaires. They have a hand in just about every industry out thee. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products. Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill. The company has over $100 billion dollars in annual revenue.
One of the best sources for information on the clandestine brothers is the Center for Public Integrity. The Center for Public Integrity is a nonpartisan watchdog group that keeps a close eye on both Democratic and Republican candidates. The Koch brothers are pouring a massive sum of money into the political arena to influence public elections and policy.
Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity,, said, “The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.”
The two brothers are libertarians who oppose governmental regulations in every industry that they are involved in. If you want to know why Congress doesn’t regulate big oil companies despite oil spills like the one that BP caused; it’s because of big contributors like the Koch brothers. Koch Industries is one of the largest polluters in the world.
If you want to know the reason for union busting strike activities in Wisconsin; the impetus is the Koch brothers. The two brothers backed Scott Walker and have backed a number of Republican candidates as well.
There is just so much money flowing in politics today that it is virtually impossible to find a major public official that has not been bought and paid for. As long as the Koch brothers keep pouring money into the coffers of Republican candidates, there will be little to no regulation of big business.
This is an Article originally written by Mark Riddix over at Money and Politics.
