The Koch brothers pick a lot of public fights with the party they've bankrolled, including most recently pushing the Republicans to finally legislate a solution for Dreamers. But in private, when they're raising money among their wealthy friends, they're taking credit for what they consider accomplishments under Trump. "This year, thanks in part to research and outreach efforts across institutions, we have seen progress on many regulatory priorities this Network has championed for years," they wrote in their "Efforts in Government: Advancing Principled Public Policy" report.
A group of Senate Democrats are demanding the Trump administration explain just how deeply it is being influenced by the Kochs.
The senators sent a letter asking for information this week following the distribution of a report to the Seminar Network, a group of donors that fund Koch brothers political and policy efforts, that takes credit for more than a dozen new policies, including replacing the Clean Power Plan, which cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, revoking monument designations, streamlining permits for infrastructure projects, repealing limits on short-term health insurance plans; and implementing tax cuts.
“Americans have a right to know if special interests are unduly influencing public policy decisions that have profound implications for public health, the environment, and the economy,” the senators write in their letters obtained by McClatchy.
They have to say stuff like that, even though they know damned well—as does the American public—that powerful interests like the Kochs are running the show in the GOP and in the White House. But it would be helpful to see where all their grubby fingerprints show up. And it's smart of the Democrats to raise those questions, particularly right now, when Republicans are having to answer for their tax scam which dramatically cut the taxes of the Kochs and their cohorts. Senate Democrats plan a series of speeches from the House floor hammering on that theme.