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The Koch Brothers Have a Plan to Make the Tax Bill Popular
Unsurprisingly, the billionaire Koch Brothers and their Koch Industries are among the biggest winners in the GOP tax giveaway to the ultra-wealthy and corporations.
This is a major GOP donor family that told the GOP leadership to pass the tax legislation or the Koch family would cease their contributions to GOP election campaigns.
Related: Sanders: Passage of GOP tax bill a 'victory' for Koch brothers, campaign donors, corporations
By Philip Elliott
TIME
December 21, 2017
The billionaire Koch Brothers have bought the Republican Party
Now, comes the sell. Hours after Congress sent a sweeping package of tax cuts to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature, the powerful network of advocacy groups backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch went into high gear to turn around the bill’s dour poll numbers. Planned to last at least six months—heading right into the months when voters will turn their attention to the 2018 midterm elections—the multi-platform Koch-backed campaign will seek to explain the benefits of the tax package. The sales job will be tough. Polls find the proposal incredibly unpopular with voters: a CNN poll released this week found 55% of voters opposed to the bill. And for good reason. The bulk of the benefits will go to those who make more than $300,000 a year, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. And, by 2027, those earning less than $75,000 annual will see a tax hike while the cuts for the ultra-rich remain, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Democrats, who stood unified against the package, now plan to weaponize it against Republicans next year and beyond.
Republicans grumble that they had little choice but to pass this unpopular bill. For years, they’ve promised sweeping tax cuts. Now, given control of the House, the Senate and the White House, they delivered on campaign rhetoric in a big way. Failing to do so would have meant they had control of all levers of official Washington power and still accomplished nothing. They had to show they could, in fact, govern. The Koch-backed network spans interest groups, advocacy organizations, think tanks and P.R. machines. It went in with $20 million to push for these tax cuts and promised lawmakers that their backs would be covered if they supported it. Still, the tax bill is just as unpopular on the day it is becoming law as the Democrats’ health care bill was when it became law in 2010. Republicans used Obamacare as to bludgeon their way into the majority that year. Even so, views of Obamacare have improved in the years since. Republicans are hoping their tax cuts will fare as well.
Unsurprisingly, the billionaire Koch Brothers and their Koch Industries are among the biggest winners in the GOP tax giveaway to the ultra-wealthy and corporations.
This is a major GOP donor family that told the GOP leadership to pass the tax legislation or the Koch family would cease their contributions to GOP election campaigns.
Related: Sanders: Passage of GOP tax bill a 'victory' for Koch brothers, campaign donors, corporations
