Not everyone plays the standard games in politics, and not often have I been able to simply applaud certain influences in our country directly.
Some folks go about their lives, pretty much ignoring the world and politics around them as long as it doesn’t affect them negatively. Others use all of their waking hours as activists. And others use considerable resources at their disposal to drive policy that helps their business model succeed; often using taxpayer resources in a form of corporate welfare.
And then there are the Kochs.
A conclusion I have reached was validated in a recent op-ed in the wall street Journal:
Far from trying to rig the system, I have spent decades opposing cronyism and all political favors, including mandates, subsidies and protective tariffs—even when we benefit from them. I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.
Koch Industries was the only major producer in the ethanol industry to argue for the demise of the ethanol tax credit in 2011. That government handout (which cost taxpayers billions) needlessly drove up food and fuel prices as well as other costs for consumers—many of whom were poor or otherwise disadvantaged. Now the mandate needs to go, so that consumers and the marketplace are the ones who decide the future of ethanol.
This comes as no surprise to me.
Some of the political operations that the Kochs have supported have been quite set AGAINST the typical public-private partnership model that rewards electoral patronage. I have often seen them engage for free and open markets without the distortions of pay for play like one might find in Michigan’s MEDC, Detroit payoffs to the Illitches, or Medicaid expansion.
Read his op ed, and thank God that we have the Koch brothers at our back as our constitution is challenged in so many ways.
