Koch Shill Joins Fox Talkers To Slam Bernie Sanders' VA Bill
If you had any doubt about who is driving the VA scandal, look no further. Concerned Veterans for America is an arm of the Kochtopus, and its director went after Bernie Sanders on Fox Wednesday.
Pete Hegseth, director of Concerned Veterans for America and newly appointed Minnesota GOP finance chair, joined Fox & Friends this morning to engage in Bernie Sanders-bashing over his VA proposal.
Of course, they lied through their tiny little teeth. In particular, the claim that veterans couldn't go to private doctors under Sanders' proposal is an outright lie. If you look at Sanders' official summary on his official Senate site it's there in black and white for all to read. If reading is something Fox talkers bother with, of course. Here are the words for the benefit of those who wish to be informed:
This legislation would also standardize the process VA uses to send patients into private medical care when VA is unable to provide them the care they need in a timely manner.
Seems pretty straightforward to me. You can also catch Bernie's interview on Face the Nation where he specifically said "the short-term needs to make sure that any veteran who is on a long waiting line will be able to get the care that he or she needs either at a private facility or a community health center, or Department of Defense."
Marco Rubio's bill, on the other hand, just gives more power to fire people without dealing with the backlog that will surely increase with less personnel. Hardly what I would call a creative solution to a difficult problem.
They're really interested in slamming Sanders not only because they want the VA privatized, but because he has consistently gone after the Kochs over and over again. In this particular segment, they called it 'bizarre' that Bernie went after the Kochs.
Concerned Veterans for America is a central member of the Kochtopus, so it's unsurprising to see their director go after Sanders and work in a mention of how bizarre it is that anyone would go after the Kochs, right?
Here's what you need to know about Concerned Veterans for America (CVA).
First clue: Concerned Veterans for America is not the official name of the organization. The official name of the organization is Veterans for Economic Liberty.
Second clue: The organization's first year ended in 2012. It received $1,968,500 in its first year of existence. All of those funds came from one source: TOHE Trust.
Third clue:: Trustee of the TOHE Trust is Wayne Gable, longtime Koch lieutenant.
ProPublica explained the structure of Koch entities back in March. TOHE Trust is one of the three main trusts that fan out Billionaire Bucks to Chosen Organizations.
So what’s a TOHE?
You would think you could go to the Internal Revenue Service web site, punch in the magic letters, and get an answer. But that’s not how it works.
Disregarded entities cannot be searched by name because their tax returns are filed as part of their parent nonprofit, which of course is exactly what you don’t know.
To solve the mystery, we searched IRS databases of recognized nonprofits by the names of lawyers known to work for the Koch network. We found one, Vets for Economic Freedom Trust, that seemed like a possible match for TOHE. Then we requested the group’s application from the IRS, which showed a leader, Wayne Gable, who had deep ties to the Koch brothers, earlier serving as a managing director at Koch Industries. But still, the application didn’t mention TOHE.
We had to wait for the group’s tax return, filed in August 2013, to become public, which took a couple of months. The return showed that Vets for Economic Freedom Trust was using a different name: Concerned Veterans for America. And it showed the group’s disregarded entity: TOHE. Concerned Veterans spent most of its money on ads criticizing the government for not doing more to help veterans vote and for the rising national debt.
Clear the fog away, folks. This organization is a Koch entity with Wayne Gable at its helm. Gable is the managing director of Federal Affairs at Koch Industries, and president of the Charles R. Koch Foundation and its affiliate, the Claude R. Lambe Foundation.
Pete Hegseth, as executive director of Concerned Veterans for America, is simply a handmaiden carrying out the orders given him by the Brothers Koch. After all, they don't just buy advertising. They buy "experts" who go on Empty Suit shows like Fox & Friends to misinform Amuricans in 'Murica about how socialists like Sanders are wrecking the country.
More Billionaire Bucks playing Billionaire Games. Tell a friend, just in case they think these Koch shills like Hegseth are actual patriots. Their only allegiance is to their billionaires, not veterans, and certainly not ordinary Americans.
[ad]