Not The Onion: KOCH class pen column telling what they want. Yes, "end special interests" (& more)
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http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/koch-supporting-texas-billionaires-explain-what-richest-americans-are-after
[font size=5]Koch-Supporting Texas Billionaires Explain What Richest Americans Are After[/font]
By Steven Rosenfeld / AlterNet
This is rich. Some of the wealthiest Texans who attended the Koch brothers’ political donor conference last month—where participants set a goal of raising $889 million for the 2016 elections—are saying that all the [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Kochs really want is to end “special interests [/FONT]” influence in Washington.
“We attended that meeting — and we have an answer,” wrote Doug and Holly Deason of Dallas, in a Dallas Morning News column co-signed by eight other wealthy Texans. “We want Washington to do what it hasn’t done for years: work for, not against, the American people.” ....
“We’re in the midst of the slowest economic recovery in over 50 years,” they say, ignoring that the [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]wealthiest Americans are doing amazingly well [/FONT]. The financial markets are surging and there’s more access to investor capital than in years.
“The labor participation rate is at its lowest level since 1978, when Jimmy Carter was president,” they say, not mentioning that American [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]worker productivity has never been higher [/FONT], even as [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]wages have stagnated[/FONT]” for decades as [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]multinational corporations ship jobs overseas [/FONT].
“Families are making less today than they did six years ago,” they say, not mentioning that their friends in [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]the Koch network have fought minimum wage increases, attacked labor unions, opposed expanding government safety nets, cut employee pensions and still want to privatize Social Security [/FONT].
“Washington is doing better than ever, while the rest of America falls further behind,” they conclude, hitting the cresendo of their cascading complaints. “We believe, as do Charles and David Koch, that America deserves better. Together, [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]we want to help the least fortunate, defend individual freedom and create lasting prosperity for more and more hard-working Americans [/FONT]. But that can’t happen until Washington is impartial, accountable, efficient and limited.”
This is where they really go off the rails. Washington isn’t doing better than ever. It’s mired in ridiculous partisan [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]gridlock because right-wingers—funded by the Koch crew—would rather fight and stall than seek compromise and find solutions [/FONT]. Corporate America and big business are doing better than ever, as seen in Wall Street’s record-setting highs in the various capital markets, and high-tech’s latest global boom.
That takes us to the biggest charade of all: [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]the libertarian complaint that American "freedom" is endangered [/FONT]. The wealthest Americans arguably have more freedom, money, power and influence than ever. Most Americans are not living their lives, as displayed in the glossy advertisements in the New York Times Magazine.
[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]What is the freedom these libertarians seek [/FONT]? Is it the freedom to make big money more quickly without having to face the consequences their actions will have on the rest of us? Is it freedom to destroy the possibility of debate in what remains of American democracy so they can buy endless ads or steer the agendas of entire broadcast networks?
[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]It must be rough being so rich, so powerful, so expressed, so unaccountable [/FONT]. Even in a government that serves American aristocracy, our nation's wealthiest claim they can't get everything they want. But take heart, they conclude. They will keep trying.
“That is what we want — and we will pursue it, no matter how long it takes.”
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