Koch Industries and Buying Government

Oil refineries, Brawny paper towels, Mardi-Gras napkins, Angel Soft, Quilted Northern, Stainmaster carpet, Georgia Pacific lumber, formaldehyde manufacturing, Lycra, Dixie cups, Freedom Works, Americans For Prosperity and the GOP.

What do all of these things have in common? They all are owned/heavily funded by the Koch brothers of Koch Industries.

Aside from the fact that I personally believe that corporations are dipping their hands into too many industries, what bothers me the most is that corporations are dipping into our government. “For the People, By the People”, not “For the Corporations, By the Corporations”.

The Koch brothers founded Citizens for a Sound Economy, which has now turned into Americans For Prosperity and Freedom Works. From 2005 to 2008, Koch industries donated $5.7 million on political campaigns and $37 million on direct lobbying to support fossil fuel industries. Between 1997 and 2008, Koch Industries donated a total of nearly $48 million to climate opposition groups. According to Greenpeace, Koch Industries is the major source of funds of what Greenpeace calls "climate denial". Koch Industries and its subsidiaries spent more than $20 million on lobbying in 2008 and $12.3 million in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

Why are we not investigating corporations’ role in our government? Koch Industries is shoving money at lobbyists and backing GOP candidates who will continue to vote for the best interest of the corporation, not the people of the United States.