Koch Brothers Send Letter On Obamacare To Senate
Koch Brothers Send Letter on Obamacare to Senate
Dear Senator:
A great deal of what you read and hear about Koch Industries is erroneous or misleading. Indeed, there was false information presented about Koch on the Senate floor by Senate Majority Leader Reid, who claimed yesterday that Koch was behind the shutdown of the federal government in an effort to defund the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare.” Because several of you have asked what our position is on this, we want to set the record straight and correct this information.
Koch believes that Obamacare will increase deficits, lead to an overall lowering of the standard of health care in America, and raise taxes. However, Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tactic of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacare nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare.
Instead, Koch has focused on educating the public about reducing our nation’s debt and controlling government spending. We believe that Congress should, at a minimum, keep to sequester-level spending guidelines, and develop a plan for more significant and widespread spending reductions in the future. We believe that Congress should work to rein in government spending so that it becomes no longer necessary to continually raise the debt ceiling.
Congress should focus on these efforts: balancing the budget, tightening and cutting government spending, and eliminating market-distorting subsidies and mandates.
We are hopeful this sets the record straight and that in the future Senator Reid and other politicians will stop misrepresenting and distorting Koch’s positions.
Sincerely,
Philip Ellender
President, Government & Public Affairs
Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC
In the years from 2007-2010, the State of Oklahoma gave Koch $16 million dollars in corporate tax credit. Apparently subsidies are good when they come from the state level.
From the New York Times:
A Federal Budget Crisis Months In The Planning
The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, have been deeply involved with financing the overall effort. A group linked to the Kochs, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, disbursed more than $200 million last year to nonprofit organizations involved in the fight. Included was $5 million to Generation Opportunity, which created a buzz last month with an Internet advertisement showing a menacing Uncle Sam figure popping up between a woman’s legs during a gynecological exam.
Also:
Koch Brothers $1 million campaign to kill Obamacare
Just because you’re not lobbying the government doesn’t mean you’re not lobbying. Producing an ad designed specifically to get people riled up about ACA is exactly the same thing as lobbying.
To misquote Dorothy Parker, everything in this letter is a lie, including “a” and “the.”