Koch Brothers

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The Koch Network is launching a television and radio advertising campaign to push back against President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The intent is to refocus Congress and the White House on a long-term solution for DACA.

Didn’t you hear? The libertarian billionaire Charles Koch recently declared his support for the Communist leader of China over the leader of his own country! We learned it from a tweet by Lou Dobbs: “Outrageous Oligarch: Billionaire Charles Koch Admits He’s Working for China instead of America, for…

Eleven months ago—before Donald Trump had to accept any of the disappointments of lawmaking—the new president stood before a joint session of Congress and called for, among other things, the passage of a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Hundreds of wealthy donors and several Republican officials involved with the powerful Koch network gathered at the Renaissance Indian Wells Resort just outside of Palm Springs, California, on Saturday for an annual fundraising conference.

Faculty at Wake Forest University are revolting against a multidisciplinary campus institute because of suspicions it is secretly designed to expose students to conservative and libertarian views.

There hasn't been a Republican praised by both the NRA and a Koch Brothers organization this week. Yet Bernie Sanders has been.

The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer is out with a new book, Dark Money, purporting to unmask those dastardly Koch brothers and their infamous habit of spending money to support libertarian and conservative causes. Her 2010 New Yorker article "Covert Operations" succeeded in vilifying the Kochs among…

In 2011, Jane Mayer of the New Yorker published, "Covert Operations," an article that purported to "expose" the well-known fact the Koch Brothers were financially supporting a lot of libertarian and conservative causes. The trouble is, the article had some pretty serious factual problems and…

Rancho Mirage, California

Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire couldn't hold back at her debate with Republican challenger Scott Brown. While Brown was giving his closing remarks at a forum in Manchester Sunday, Shaheen interrupted him, eliciting boos from GOP partisans in the crowd.

The City University of New York must really be rolling in dough. The school’s administration recently turned down a $10 million grant from the Koch brothers to establish a new financial center at Brooklyn College. The business dean explained that he would have to focus on the school’s accreditation…

Detroit

Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada, released a statement about the formation of a select committee in the House of Representatives to investigate the federal government's response to the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. In his statement, Reid criticized the Republican party…

The Mackinac Center is reporting that the Michigan SEIU has lost more than 80 percent of its members after Michigan passed a right-to-work law. The hemorrhaging membership is the result of the law ending an appalling extortion racket that siphoned taxpayer money to the union and forced thousands of…

West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin broke with his party's leader in the Senate by refusing to attack a pair of wealthy billionaire brothers who donate to free-market causes. Asked about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's frequent attacks on Charles and David Koch, Manchin told Brian Kilmeade of…

For sometime now, even figures that are politically sympathetic to Paul Krugman have been lamenting his abandonment of intellectual rigor and his seeming inability to debate in good faith. At times it seems the only real function Paul Krugman serves any more is, to borrow one of President Obama's…

At Slate, Dave Weigel recently reported that the Democrats have been so successful at demonizing the Koch brothers that party fundraising emails mentioning the Kochs can raise three times as much as the emails that don't. However, attacking the Kochs may not be all that motivating to anyone outside…

Thursday, the Washington Post published a piece titled "The biggest lease holder in Canada’s oil sands isn’t Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It’s the Koch brothers."

The political action committee associated with Arkansas Democratic senator Mark Pryor received a maximum donation from Koch Industries, despite the fact that Pryor, as well as many other Democrats, has frequently criticized the influence of the Koch brothers in an attempt to raise funds.

Things have been a bit of a mess at MSNBC lately. The network’s fortunes are tied to the fate of liberalism, and with Obama’s undeniable incompetence the preeminent political topic for the last few months, this has sent the network off on an increasingly desperate search for right-wing villainy to…

The Scrapbook takes no official position on whether the Koch brothers should buy the newspapers owned by the Tribune Company. It’s an open question whether the Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and a half-dozen other papers are national treasures which must be saved from…

In August 2010, Austan Goolsbee, serving at the time as economic adviser to President Obama, told reporters during an anonymous background briefing that Koch Industries doesn't pay corporate income taxes. That statement was made at the same time that top Democrats, including President…

The Hill: "Paul Ryan: Obama contraception ruling reveals ‘paternalistic, arrogant’ attitude"

Last week, Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., forcefully condemned business that have dealings with Iran. Not surprisingly, Tester used the issue to zero in on Koch Industries. Since the Koch brothers are patrons of many conservative and libertarian causes (at least when the DSCC isn't begging Koch for…

Warren Buffett wrote an op-ed last week making his case for higher taxes on the rich, like himself, who he said shouldn't pay at lower marginal rates than their underlings—and indeed Buffett paid a relatively paltry $6.9 million in taxes last year. It's possible (actually, it's certain) that…

The left has been slamming the Koch brothers’ donations to education after the Charles G. Koch Foundation’s made an agreement with Florida State University to sponsor an academic position in the university’s economics department. The real controversy is not related to the academy at all, of course:…

Mike Murphy says enough with the Iowa caucuses already.

Gallup: "Americans' Economic Concerns Reach Two-Year High"

Have you heard the news? First the nefarious Koch brothers were trying to end education for kids in Wisconsin (well, until they weren’t actually). And, now, if you can believe it, the news is that the Koch brothers are trying to promote education! Some nerve…

A senior official at the United Steeleworkers union defends Koch Industries from the onslaught of attacks from the left. His reasoning? Boycotting Koch, as some on the left have been advocating, would hurt the people who work for Koch.

Wisconsin protests raise questions about medical ethics under Obamacare.

At a rally aimed at the conservative Koch brothers this past weekend in Palm Springs, progressives called for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas to be sent “back to the fields,” and they offered that they  “string him up,” “hang him,” and “torture” him.

In Palm Springs, California, this past weekend, one set of rich folks was the target of another set of rich folks. It is, uniquely, an American story. Here’s how it played out: The Koch brothers, Charles and David, held a closed-door meeting with their political allies at a local hotel. Outside,…

Guess who’s holding a super secret, ill-intentioned meeting this weekend in Palm Springs, California? The nefarious Koch brothers – nefarious because they donate to conservative causes, of course.

Common Cause embarrassed itself by attempting to disqualify Justices Scalia and Thomas from the Supreme Court's review of Citizens United v. FEC, in Common Cause's last-ditch effort to overturn the Court's year-old pro-free speech decision. Ben Smith's report demonstrates precisely how unfounded…

The New York Times runs a story today based on what appears to be an obviously frivolous petition filed at the Justice Department by the partisan left-wing activist group Common Cause. The group alleges that Justices Scalia and Thomas, by virtue of their appearance at a seminar held in Palm Springs…

The Washington Examiner's Timothy Carney, author of The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, spoke at a conclave of right-wingers last year. Carney acknowledges that event, sponsored by the Koch brothers, was so secret that he publicly wrote about it at the time. Now, a…

At a White House press briefing today, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about the Treasury Department's review of Austan Goolsbee's comments on Koch Industries' tax status. Gibbs says Goolsbee's comments were "not in any way based on any review of tax filings," and added: "I don't think he'd…

Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican of the Finance Committee, has requested a formal investigation of the Obama administration over a senior administration official's comments on the tax status of Koch Industries--a private company targeted by Democrats, including President Obama himself,…

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee blasts Carly Fiorina today for taking Koch money (emphasis added): 

Lately, the White House and its allies have been drawing attention to the political activities of libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. In an August 9 speech, President Obama singled out Americans for Prosperity, a free-market political group founded by David Koch in 2004. In the wake of…