Saturday, February 9, 2013

David Koch brings his gospel of selfishness and billionaire empowerment to Arizona

We stole that line from Thom Hartmann, who warns the billionaires
 ...don’t want the 21st Century to be “America’s Century.” They want it to be the “Billionaire’s Century.” And if they succeed, then the middle class in America - and through most of the developed world - will go extinct.
David Koch is the Benedict Arnold Koch brother who funds the phony tea party group Americans for Prosperity. AFP is busy this time of year trying to influence state legislatures, which are now in session. Koch's lobbyists are working hard to impoverish workers, eradicate public education, raise taxes on the poor, destroy unions, cut essential public services, get rid of public parks and pools, kill the clean energy industry (the Kochs are into oil and gas), let corporations harm consumers and loot the middle class and redistribute more money and power to the already rich and powerful. 

Don't believe us? We got our hands on AFP's agenda for Arizona, which we suspect is very similar to their agenda in the other 49 states. Here's what they want to accomplish:

1)     Make sure low-income people don't get health care (Stop Arizona from Expanding Medicaid/AHCCCS under ObamaCare
2)     Cut essential government services (Restrain Arizona State Government Spending)
3)     Tax breaks for big business, higher taxes for the poor (Enact Pro-Growth Tax Reforms, Including 100% Investment Expensing, Killing the Inflation Tax, Conforming the State & Local Sales Tax Bases)
4)     Destroy unions, lower wages (Pass Paycheck Protection)
5)     Destroy unions, lower wages (Reform Abuses in Taxpayer-Funded Union Release Time)
6)     Cut essential government services (Refer "Truth-in-Spending" Budget Transparency Bill to the 2014 Ballot)
7)   Eradicate public education (Expand AZ’s Private School K-12 Tax Credits, Strengthen ESAs)
8)   Eliminate retirement security, allow Wall Street to loot the middle class (Pension Reform, Convert EORP to a Defined Contribution Pension Plan)
9)     Strangle the clean energy industry in its cradle to protect the Kochs' oil and gas business (Prevent Enactment of New Corporate Welfare-Tax Credits / Loan Guarantees)
10)   Destroy unions, lower wages (Mandate Transparency in Collective Bargaining ("Meet and Confer")
11)   Give corporations free rein to harm people without any consequences (Enact Regulatory Reform (AZ/Local/ACC), Licensing Reform & Tort Reform)
12)   Eliminate public lands and facilities such as parks and pools (Restrain the Creation of Special Local Government Taxing/Bonding Districts)
13)   Increase Price Transparency in the Health Care Industry (This one we don't have a problem with!)