FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Kochs Are Libertarians, Would Like Trump Impeached
Aug. 1, 2018 (EIRNS)—Given the Washington Post’s effort this morning to report the fight between the Koch political operation and President Trump as “old guard” Congressional Republicans vs. the President’s disruptive politics, it is useful to keep in mind that the Koch brothers are not Republicans at all but have long been Libertarians, and not of the Ron Paul variety.
David Koch was the Libertarian vice-presidential candidate in the 1980 election in which Lyndon LaRouche first contested the Democratic nomination. The Koch Brothers Foundation created the Libertarian Cato Institute in 1974, and has supported both the American Enterprise Institute and the Von Mises Foundation since. The Cato Institute, as an example, spearheaded the promotion of privatizing Social Security under George W. Bush in 2005-06; it has long taken the point for drug legalization.
The Koch brothers have heavily concentrated in recent years on the austerity promoters, the Club for Growth and the Conservative Senate Fund, as well as supporting Tea Party groups which are anti-government rather than anti-Wall Street.
Among the favorite funding recipients of these groups can be found President Trump’s dedicated “Republican” enemies in the Congress, perhaps best represented by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE). Otherwise a neo-con, Sasse is a regular speaker at Koch-sponsored events, and unabashedly gets most of his campaign funds (which dwarf those of most Senators) from “large individual contributors” and “conservative PACs” particularly the Conservative Senate Fund, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Sasse led the unsuccessful effort in November-December 2016 to get Trump’s pledged delegates to vote against Trump in the Electoral College, and has been his leading Senate GOP enemy since.
