AFP: Avarice on Steroids

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The Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity is warning Congress against spending money on Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

Earlier this week, AFP, which is chaired by [David] Koch and believed to be financed by several other plutocrats from the New York City region, released a letter warning members of Congress not to vote for the proposed federal aid package for victims of the storm that swept New Jersey, New York City and much of the surrounding area in October. An announcement on the group’s website says that the vote next week for the Sandy aid package will be a “key vote”—meaning senators who support sending money for reconstruction could face an avalanche of attack ads in their next election. Already, opposition to the bill is growing, although it passed one procedural hurdle last night. …

… Koch’s top deputy in New Jersey, a surly gentleman named Steve Lonegan, who heads the local AFP state chapter, called the aid package a “disgrace.” “This is not a federal government responsibility,” Lonegan told reporters. “We need to suck it up and be responsible for taking care of ourselves.”

As was asked in a famous joke — Who do you mean by “we,” Kemo Sabe? This is especially rich considering all the Koch Brothers/oil industry money that has gone into discrediting climate science. The AFP website, btw, is screaming about the looming “fiscal cliff” tax increase that would, if Dems get their way, only affect the upper 2 percent.

13 thoughts on “AFP: Avarice on Steroids”

  1. Not only are the Koch’s one of the most active people when it comes to disrediting climate science, they are one of the key groups of people contributing to global warming/weirding in the first place, and trying to forestall putting any green solutions into practice.

    And now, they don’t want to help pay for the damage caused by our changing, and ever more violent and extreme environment. One that they have spent their entire lives contributing to.

    And to think, we call the recent child and firefighter killer’s, sociopaths and psychopaths. They’re piker’s compared to the Koch’s, people of their ilk, and their supporters and enablers.

  3. I’m waiting for one of these guys to grow the stones to say the dead firemen died because they were not taking responsibility for themselves. It is what they have even said about the dead schoolchildren in Newtown.

  4. Bill,
    The NEW first rule for Firefighters:
    BEFORE starting to fight the fire, establish a solid perimeter, and set-up pickets in at least 4 directions.

  10. I wonder if the motive behind an active campaign against disaster relief in NY & NJ is simply payback for the electoral votes from those states that will go to Obama.

    Steven – in a large segment of the US, the republican in the general election is assured of victory over the democrat. AFP and Norquest have mastered a technique of forcing all republicans to the fringe under threat of massive funding of a GOP challenger in the PRIMARY!. When this artificial funding by a handful of deranged plutocrats is banned, moderation among republicans can return.

    The author of the article in ‘The Nation’ did a fine job of assembling the facts but the underlying issue is Campaign Finance Reform. (The reverse is true in very blue states but there are no liberal plutocrats blackmailing legislators.) Fix the issue of how elections are funded and you make Koch and Norquest toothless. I’ve been working on this for months with a few friends. The answer we propose on Campaign Finance Reform is here –

    http://thecivilistpapers.org/Just_say__No__.html

  11. Just say I buy into the nonsense that “we” should suck it up and fix the mess , I suggest to koch that he put his money where his big fat flapping mouth is and get out his check book and fix it. He got the easy part out of the way, talking about it: now he should put up or shut up. I also suggest to this family , since they have more money than sense, that had they put the vast resources they spent in the last election towards rebuilding America instead of tearing it down we might be in better shape in this nation and maybe, just maybe our states wouldn’t be broke and wouldn’t need help from the federal government to rebuild.

    I am just burned out with folks like the koch family who believe that they are so self important anyone gives a rats ass what they think, and the right is STUPID to play their game, because no matter what congress and their senate lap dogs do the koch bro’s will come crawling back come election time with their money- who the hell else are they going to support? If I were spray tan boy I would call their bluff and do whatever the hell I wanted.. people like the koch’s can’t go an election season without wanting hand outs and favors – they’ll be back.

    BTW , the NRA will be out next week to suggest that in addition to the 900 lbs of gear a firefighter must wear to do his job , every firefighter must now be armed with a mack ten and he must be prepared to fire while firefighting. Also there will be sub machine guns mounted on top of every fire truck. They will be calling on Congress (YOU) to suck it up and figure out how to pay for it.

  12. DON’t the Koch brothers live in the NY area? At least I think David does.

    So he doesn’t want to help his extended neighbors and fellow citizens? He is willing to contribute to their aid from his private funds? Is he willing to pay more in local taxes so the government can fix things?

  13. erinyes ..I enjoyed the 8:51 link…I agree with Gabor Maté almost entirely except for the third part of the interview. I’ve made the same observations as him in trying to understand my own childhood and adulthood.

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