US Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, on March 5, 2014
March 12, 2014
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a former boxer, has taken off the
gloves to fight back against the Republican Party’s richest patrons:
the libertarian billionaire oil barons, David and Charles Koch. Speaking
from the U.S. Senate floor and in press conferences, Reid has
forcefully started to do what much of the Democratic Party hasn’t so
far—hit back at multi-million dollar political campaigns filled with
lies about Obamacare, propaganda that climate change is a myth, and
efforts by lobbyists and elected Republicans to gut public health laws
and other safety nets.
What follows are 10 excerpts from Reid’s
speeches in the past two weeks that begin to rebut the Koch’s political
falsehoods and expose their real agenda.
1. Kochs’ Anti-Obamacare Ads Filled With Lies
“I’m confident that most of you, if not all of you have seen this
little piece in
the Detroit News [noting that a women featured in an anti-Obamacare TV
ad will save $1,000 in out-of-pocket healthcare expenses in 2014], where
the secretive Koch brothers are spending untold millions to rig the
system to benefit the top one percent at the expense of the middle
class. So this is further evidence of the shadowy campaign of distortion
and deception. You know, I have no problem with the people appearing in
these ads. Even though it’s interesting, it’s been proven that the—one
of the ads they ran in Alaska was an actor and the same actor is
appearing in the same ad basically around the country. People have a
right to be actors and appear in ads if they are real people, but they
don’t have the right to lie… that’s what they’ve been doing.” (Press
Conference, 3/11/14)
2. Koch Ads Filled With False GOP Fantasies
“Despite
all that good news, there are plenty of horror stories being told. All
of them are untrue, but they are being told all over America. The
leukemia patient whose insurance policy was canceled and would die
without her medication—Mr. [Senate] President, that is an ad being paid
for by two billionaire brothers that is absolutely false; or the woman
whose insurance policy went up $700 a month—ads paid for around America
by the multibillionaire Koch brothers, and the ad is false. We heard
about the evils of ObamaCare, about the lives it is ruining in the
Republican stump speeches and in ads paid for by oil magnets, the Koch
brothers. But those tales turned out to be just that—tales, stories made
up from whole cloth, lies, distorted by the Republicans to grab
headlines or make political advertisements.” (Floor Remarks, 2/26/14)
3. What Is Their Self-Described “Radical Agenda?”
“Remember, “radical agenda” is what they
called themselves.
They said their agenda was radical, and it is. Eliminating Social
Security, going against the minimum wage increase and being against it,
just – these two brothers don’t like government. What they would do if
they had their way is get rid of the EPA [Environmental Protection
Agency], and we know that; they tried to get formaldehyde not to be
restricted. And we all know about formaldehyde or if we don’t, we
should. It causes cancer. What they want is lower taxes for themselves,
while the middle class is left on their own. And it means what is
happening in our country, led by the Koch brothers: the rich are getting
richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the poor middle class is being
squeezed out of existence.” (Press Conference, 3/11/14)
4. Kochs Make Billions From Dirty Industries
“These
are the same brothers whose Koch Industries ranks near the top of the
list of America’s worst toxic air polluters. Those are the same brothers
whose company, according to a Bloomberg investigation, paid bribes and
kickbacks to win contracts in Africa, India, and the Middle East. These
are the same brothers who, according to the same report, used foreign
subsidiaries to sell millions of dollars of equipment to Iran, a state
sponsor of terrorism. Let’s make sure we understand that. I may not have
said it quite right. These are the same brothers who, according to the
same report, used foreign subsidiaries to sell millions of dollars of
equipment to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. We all know that.
(Floor Remarks, 3/4/14)
5. Kochs Don’t Respect Democracy or Government
“The
Koch brothers already believe they can play by a different set of
rules. Think about how an America rigged by the Koch brothers would
look. The Koch brothers do not care about creating a strong public
education system in America. The Koch brothers do not care about
maintaining the strong safety net of Medicare and Social Security. The
Koch brothers do not care about the guarantee of affordable, quality
health insurance for every American… Their extreme vision for America
means abolishing Social Security and Medicare. Their extreme vision for
America means eliminating minimum wage laws. Their extreme vision for
America means putting insurance companies back in charge of your health
care and denying coverage for preexisting conditions. That is the way it
used to be.” (Floor Remarks, 3/4/14)
6. Kochs: Class Warriors With Un-American Tactics
“What
is un-American is when shadowy billionaires pour unlimited money into
our democracy to rig the system, to benefit themselves and the
wealthiest 1 percent… Based on their actions and policies they promote,
the Koch brothers seem to believe in an America where the system is
rigged to benefit the very wealthy. Based on Senate Republicans’ ardent
defense of the Koch brothers and the fact that they advocate for many of
the same policies as the Koch brothers, it seems my Republican
colleagues also believe in a system that benefits billionaires at the
expense of the middle class.” (Floor Remarks, 3/4/14)
7. Koch’s Political Business Model: Money Laundering
“In 2010 the Supreme Court opened the floodgates of corporate money into electoral politics. That was with the
Citizens United decision.
Since mega donors such as Charles and David Koch can launder their huge
contributions using shadowy shell groups and so-called nonprofits, it
is difficult to tell exactly how much they have invested so far.
“Investigative
reporting done by some of the most respected news outlets in the
country has revealed that the Koch brothers funnel money through a web
of investor groups and advocacy organizations that are immune from
disclosure rules, such as the Club for Growth, Heritage Action, the NRA,
and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. We may never know how much money the
Koch brothers are spending to rig the system, to rig the system for
themselves.” (Floor Remarks, 3/4/14)
“They hide behind all kinds
of entities. It is not just their front organization, Americans For
Prosperity. They give money to all kinds of organizations—lots of money.
When you make billions of dollars a year, you can be, I guess, as
immoral and dishonest as your money will allow. It is too bad they are
trying to buy America, and it is time the American people spoke out
against this terrible dishonesty and about these two brothers who are
about as un-American as anyone I can imagine.” (Floor Remarks, 2/26/14)
8. Kochs Bought And Own The GOP
“Their
investments have paid off already. In November 2010, the petroleum
industry walked right through the door the Supreme Court had opened and
spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect a Republican majority to
the House of Representatives. That Republican majority has effectively
shut down any hope of passing legislation to limit the pollution that
has caused climate change. That Republican majority is, in fact, working
to gut the most important safeguards to keep cancer-causing toxins and
pollution that cause sickness and death out of the air we breathe and
the water we drink…
“The Koch brothers are already seeing a
return on their 2010 investment in a Republican House of Representatives
that does what they want done. But they certainly have not stopped
there. The Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity alone spent $400 million
in misleading attack ads last election cycle… Koch-backed groups have
spent a vast sum trying to elect Republican Senate candidates this year,
a sum that dwarfs even the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s
own spending.” (Floor Remarks, 3/4/14)
9. Kochs Falsely Claim This Is Free Speech
“Senate
Republicans call this freewheeling spending by anonymous donors nothing
more than “free speech.” Senate Republicans say that whoever has the
most money gets the most free speech. But that is not what America’s
Founding Fathers said. They did not mean that by free speech. The
Founders believed in a democracy where every American had a voice and a
vote.
“This discussion, this fight, is not just about health care
or even about a few hundred million dollars in disingenuous ads. This is
about two very wealthy brothers who intend to buy their own Congress, a
Congress beholden to the money and bound to enact their radical
philosophy. Witness this: Senators beholden to wealthy special
interests; Republican senators rush to the floor to defend the Kochs
whenever I say something negative about the brothers or their radical
agenda.
“Their extreme vision for America means stripping tens of
millions of people of the benefits in the Affordable Care Act today.
Their extreme vision for America means allowing the gap between the
wages women and men earn for the same work to keep growing. Their
extreme vision for America means giving giant corporations the
unfettered right to dump toxins in our rivers and streams, on our
mountains and our valleys, and to give them even more tax breaks while
they destroy our environment.” (Floor Remarks, 3/4/14)
10. Reid: I Will Keep Exposing The Kochs
“I
am not oblivious that my comments about the Koch brothers have caused
some controversy. Anyone who has turned on FOX News knows that I have
gotten under their skin. But I will continue to shine a light on their
subversion of democracy.
“When I hear my Republican colleagues
defending the Koch brothers as they have, I recall the words of [Former
Sen.] Adlai Stevenson: “I have been thinking that I would make a
proposition to my Republican friends ..... that if they will stop
telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about
them.” As long as the Koch brothers continue to spend hundreds of
millions of dollars buying elections, I will continue to do all I can to
expose their intentions.” (Floor Remarks, 3/4/14]
Steven Rosenfeld covers
democracy issues for AlterNet and is the author of "Count My Vote: A
Citizen's Guide to Voting" (AlterNet Books, 2008).
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