What does Koch bring?
The complete disregard for environment. One of shrub's trademarks.
Koch Family Foundations[1] consist of the David H. Koch Foundation, the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation.
Funding for the foundations comes from the conglomerate Koch Industries, the "nation's largest privately held energy company, with annual revenues of more than $25 billion. ... Koch Industries is now the second largest family-owned business in the U.S., with annual sales of over $20 billion."
"The company is owned by two of the richest men in America," David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch (described as 'reclusive billionaires'), who have a combined personal fortune estimated at more than $3 billion and who have emerged as major Republican contributors in recent years. ... Both David and Charles Koch are ranked among the 50 richest people in the country by 'Forbes'."
The Koch brothers control the three family foundations that have "lavished tens of millions of dollars in the past decade on 'free market' advocacy institutions in and around Washington."[2] --'The Nation', "What Wouldn't Bob Dole Do for Koch Oil?"
The foundations are financed via the oil and gas fortunes of Fred G. Koch, a founding member of the John Birch Society. David is a libertarian who "provides a significant amount of funding for the Cato Institute's $4 million annual budget."
Curtis Moore's "Rethinking the Think Tanks" (subtitled "How industry-funded 'experts' twist the environmental debate') appeared in the September/October 2002 issue of 'Sierra' magazine. Moore states that when "The views will seem to be coming from an independent think tank -- the Cato Institute or Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), for example ... behind these groups stands the [Koch] brother's vast fortune."
In fact, Charles Koch is a co-founder of Cato in 1977 and David helped to launch CSE in 1986. This, says Moore, is the brothers simply following in "dad's footsteps: Fred Koch was a charter member of the ultraconservative John Birch Society in 1958."
Finances
According to their filings with the Internal Revenue Service (available at guidestar.org), the Koch Family Foundations owned combined assets of more than $60 million in 2001 and gave away $9,071,793, almost all of it to conservative causes:
The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation had assets of $31,403,724 and gave away $4,589,825.
The David H. Koch Charitable Foundation had assets of $23,204 and gave away $2,821,022.
The Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation had assets of $29,237,598 and gave away $1,660,946.
External Links
Koch Industries and the Pollution of the Bush White House, Parts I & II; on-line article includes source links.
"Ari & I; White House Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer related by Russell Mokhiber regarding relationship between White House and Koch Industries, May 3, 2001.
mediatransparency.org
Koch Family Foundations, Buying a Movement section of People For the American Way website, accessed April 2004. |
