World News Korner

Hey remember how the Koch brothers denied they had lobbied to defund Obamacare and were behind the government shutdown? Yeah, well they lied.

Do you remember this letter?

“Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tact of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacare nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare,” Philip Ellender, president of government and public affairs at Koch wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to senators. “Instead, Koch has focused on educating the public about reducing our nation’s debt and controlling runaway government spending.”

Well it was all bullshit.

This from Open Secrets:

But new reports show that the company did lobby Congress to tie an increase in the debt ceiling to a 10-year debt reduction plan -- a concept developed and championed earlier this year by libertarian and tea party groups like the Heritage Action, Family Research Council and Club for Growth; those are some of the same groups that pushed the Obamacare-shutdown linkage.

According to its third quarter report, Koch Industries, which spent $2.1 million lobbying from July 1 through Sept. 30, disclosed that it lobbied Congress "to increase the debt ceiling in conjunction with reducing government spending consistent with a 10 year path to a balanced budget."

That's exactly the language used by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) in his budget proposal. And the idea that the debt ceiling should be raised only with the acceptance of a 10-year budget plan, was first floated last winter by several conservative groups, including the libertarian-oriented Heritage Action, which has its own ties to the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who control Koch Industries. The Kochs, through a 501(c)(6) group they spearheaded, Freedom Partners, have given $500,000 to Heritage Action.

The plan is likely what Koch meant when, in its Oct. 9 letter, it said that "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."

So much for the idea that the anti-Obamacare movement was driven by grass roots support.

This thing was thought up by the Heritage Action, paid for by Koch brother money, and implemented by their paid operatives in Washington.

NOTHING about the government shutdown had anything to do with helping the American people or getting spending under control. It was ALL about sabotaging the government and proving that it, and our President, were ineffective.

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