Reid slams Koch brothers

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid slammed the Koch brothers’ political activities Thursday, accusing the influential conservatives of trying to “buy the country.”

Reid was responding to comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who howled over President Barack Obama’s crackdown on politically active tax-exempt organizations as “declaring a war not just on its opponents, but on free speech itself.” McConnell compared the administration’s proposed rules on those groups to the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of outside groups and said Democrats are trying to stifle their election-year critics.


Reid hammered the networks backed by David and Charles Koch as political organizations masquerading as social welfare groups and criticizing McConnell’s efforts to help them.

“Because of a United States Supreme Court decisions called Citizens United, there’s been some really untoward stuff going on in the political world. We have two brothers who are actually trying to buy the country,” Reid said. “The Republican leader has long been an opponent of campaign finance reform. This has been part of his career. So it is no surprise he opposes the administration’s efforts for greater disclosure. The abuse here is not the administration’s enforcing the law, but folks like the Koch brothers pretending to be social welfare organizations.”

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The administration’s proposed rules would limit the ability of nonprofit groups organized around “social welfare” to engage in political activities. McConnell said Democrats are surveying a difficult midterm election cycle and trying to muzzle groups that back Republican candidates.

“Democrats think 2014 is shaping up to be a tough year for them politically. So instead of trying to persuade the public that they’ve got the best answers to the problems we face, they try to shut everybody else out of the political process, they try to shut them up,” McConnell said. Obama “wants to use the IRS to drive conservatives right off the playing field.”

Such groups — also called 501(c)(4) nonprofits after a section of the Tax Code — have become an integral part of the campaign finance landscape in recent years.

Democratic operatives as well as Republicans have used tax-exempt groups to shield donors from public scrutiny — while still participating in elections. Government watchdogs say that such electoral activity might be a violation of tax law.

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The Treasury Department currently is considering new rules that would curtail some 501(c)(4) political activity.

Reid didn’t dispute that the Koch-backed groups’ spending poses a threat to Democrats, who are fighting tooth and nail to keep the Senate and preserve some control of Congress during Obama’s last two years in office.

“What they’re doing is spending their … dollars on governors races, and on the state level and, of course, spending huge amounts of money around the country attempting to defeat Democrats both in the House and the Senate,” Reid said. “The Koch brothers hide all their campaign efforts. They disguise themselves with rare exception as social welfare organizations, with all these fancy names going after people who are trying to improve the country.”

The Koch brothers — though they are major conservative financiers — have actually previously given to Democrats, including Senate Democrats.

In 2010, they gave nearly $200,000 to Democratic candidates — including a $30,000 donation to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Byron Tau contributed to this report.

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