Who are the Koch Brothers and why do they matter?

By
Michael M. McGreer
Mesquite Citizen Journal

Billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch are the bankers behind the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement that has divided the Republican party in their attempt to dismantle government and increase their capital investments in many environmental hazardous investments. The brothers own Koch Industries, a Kansas-based conglomerate that operates oil refineries in several states and is the company behind brands including Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Lycra fibers and Stainmaster Carpet. Forbes ranks Koch Industries as the second-largest privately held company in the U.S. The Koch brothers themselves are worth billions. On one side of the Republican party are the old line establishment Republicans who hold with both fiscal and social conservatism. Over the years, their policies have grown increasingly restrictive of personal liberties, and they have contributed to increasing corporate welfare and national debt. In opposition to the old-line are the far right anti-government individuals identified chiefly with the Tea Party movement to which the Koch brothers give money ostensibly to educate, fund and organize Tea Party protesters. This has allowed the Koch brothers to turn their private agenda into a mass movement. Since the 1980s the Koch Foundations have given more than $100 million to such organizations, among these, think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, as well as more recently Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks in order to steer the country in a more libertarian direction. The brothers also have created several neutral-sounding groups like Citizens for a Sound Economy which staged media events to oppose President Clinton's proposed BTU tax on energy and Citizens for the Environment, which called many environmental problems, including acid rain, "myths." Rob Stein, a Democratic political strategist who has studied the conservative movements finances, said that the Kochs are the epicenter of the anti-Obama movement. But it is not just about Obama. They would have done the same to Hillary Clinton. They did the same with Bill Clinton. They are out to destroy the progressive movement. The foundation of the Koch paranoia over government goes back to their father, Fred C. Koch who attended M.I.T., and earned a degree in chemical engineering. In 1927, he invented a more efficient process for converting oil into gasoline but, unable to succeed at home, went to work in the Soviet Union. In the 1930s, his company trained Bolshevik engineers and helped the Stalin regime set up fifteen modern oil refineries until they were purged. Koch returned to the United States where he anguished over his Soviet experience. In 1958, Fred Koch became one of the original members of the John Birch Society, the arch-conservative group known, in part, for a highly skeptical view of governance and for spreading fears of a Communist takeover. Koch claimed that the Communists have infiltrated both the Democrat and Republican Parties. He wrote admiringly of Benito Mussolini's suppression of Communists in Italy, and disparagingly of the American civil-rights movement. He claimed that welfare was a secret plot to attract rural blacks to cities, where they would foment a vicious race war. In a 1963 speech Koch predicted that Communists would infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the President is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us. Friends of Fred Koch report that he was a John Wayne type who emphasized rugged pursuits, taking his sons big-game hunting in Africa, and requiring them to do farm labor at the family ranch. "He was constantly speaking to us children about what was wrong with government," Charles Koch told Brian Doherty, an editor of the libertarian magazine Reason. He said that they grew up with a fundamentalist point of view that big government was bad, and "imposition of government controls on our lives and economic fortunes was not good." David and Charles had absorbed their father's conservative politics and adopted the John Birch Society's interest in a school of Austrian economists who promoted free-market ideals. They were particularly influenced by the work of Friedrich von Hayek, the author of The Road to Serfdom (1944), which argued that centralized government planning led, inexorably, to totalitarianism. Along with Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged, the ultra-conservatives promote The Road to Serfdom, both of which have become best-sellers on Amazon. These two academically discredited books, serve as the intellectual base for the Tea Party's ultra-conservative movement. The Koch brothers are also devotees of a more radical thinker, anarchist Robert LeFevre, who favored the abolition of the state and argued that the New Deal was a horrible mistake. As their fortunes grew, Charles and David Koch became the primary underwriters of hard-line libertarian politics in America. Charles' goal, according to Doherty, is to tear the government apart at the root. Tax records indicate that in 2008 the three main Koch family foundations gave money to 34 political and policy organizations, three of which they founded, and several of which they direct. The Kochs and their company have given additional millions to political campaigns, advocacy groups, and lobbyists. Following an airplane accident that nearly cost David Koch his life, he was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. His reaction to the disease was to donate to several cancer fighting institutes. However, his gratitude poses a conflict of interest since Koch Industries has been lobbying to prevent the E.P.A. from classifying formaldehyde, which the company produces in great quantities, as a known carcinogen in humans. The Kochs have long depended on the public not knowing all the details about them. They have been content to operate what David Koch has called the largest company that you've never heard of. But with the growing prominence of the Tea Party, and with increased awareness of the Koch's ties to the movement, the brothers may find it harder to deflect scrutiny. Michael M. McGreer writes on public policy. His books: No Harm, No Foul, Bioterrorism in the 21st century, and All Rivers Flow West, are both available on Amazon. Click here to see his blog