Scott Walker and his good buddies will be testifying today before Darryl Issa's Koch Caucus -- er -- Oversight Committee. They've been called to Washington DC to testify about how effective their state budget measures have been and how the federal
April 14, 2011

koch-caucus-final.jpg
Scott Walker and his good buddies will be testifying today before Darryl Issa's Koch Caucus -- er -- Oversight Committee. They've been called to Washington DC to testify about how effective their state budget measures have been and how the federal government should follow in their footsteps.

Press release:

Representative Issa is going to use this hearing to try and sell the House Republican budget to the American people. His “experts” are going to try trot out all sorts of facts and figures to say that jobs will rain from heaven only if billionaires pay fewer taxes, businesses keep their tax subsidies and loopholes and if workers lose their right to a voice on the job.

  • The House Republican budget puts nearly the entire burden of reducing the deficit on senior citizens, students and working families.
  • House Republicans proved in the government shutdown debate that their budget priorities, like Governor Walker’s in Wisconsin, isn’t about creating jobs or fiscal responsibility but about ideological and political crusades.
  • Rep. Issa is not interested in what is ailing the states; he just wants to do what he does best - paying back his corporate CEO friends and punishing his political opponents.

Go ahead and click through on that image at the top. That'll give you a sense of the number of committee members that are recipients of Koch "largesse."

Also, this. One of the witnesses on one panel is from the National Right to Work Committee. The NRWC is, of course, the far-right funded think tank (and I use the term loosely) that works solely to union-bust wherever possible. It was started with Koch funds, but it's funded by lots of donors now, including the Bradley Foundation, the Walton (WalMart) Foundation, and others. Every respectable right-wing foundation sends about $30,000-$50,000 per year over to them. If they want to be sure they're anonymous, they give via the Vanguard Charitable Trust ($175,000 in 2009) or Donors' Trust.

Additional testimony will be heard from the Cato Institute's Andrew Briggs and the Heritage Foundation's Desmond Lachman. What a panel, eh?

If we were to ask these witnesses -- all of them, including Scott Walker -- to wear their team colors, they would all be in blue and black warmup suits with the Koch company name all over them.

As an extra added bonus, here's the story of how Scott Walker and David Prosser quietly reversed water quality regulations in the middle of the budget battle last month in order to allow Koch to dump more phosphorous in Wisconsin's water. Wonder what that does to the taste of beer?

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