Koch Industries has been 'vilified,' its CEO wrote in the Wall Street Journal. Charles Koch defends role in politics

One of the brothers whose family and company have spent millions of dollars backing Republican and tea party groups in recent years is defending his role in influencing political discourse and plans to keep spending to make sure his voice is heard.

Writing in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, billionaire businessman Charles Koch says that he, his family and his company have been “vilified by various groups” for activism that he describes as aimed at digging federal, state and local governments out of mounting debt.


And “despite … criticism,” Koch writes, his family and Koch Industries, the company of which he is CEO, are “determined to keep contributing and standing up for those politicians, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who are taking these challenges seriously.”

The Kochs directly gave tens of thousands of dollars to Walker's election campaign and donated more than $1 million to the Republican Governors Association in 2010. In all, the RGA spent $5 million to help Walker get elected in November. Last week, a writer from an alternative newspaper in upstate New York called and recorded his conversation with Walker as he pretended to be David Koch, one of Charles’s younger brothers and the co-owner of Koch Industries.

Koch writes that “[b]oth Democrats and Republicans have done a poor job of managing our finances” and have “raised debt ceilings, floated bond issues, and delayed tough decisions.” But, he argues, a true free market can do better for the country.

“The purpose of business is to efficiently convert resources into products and services that make people’s lives better,” he writes. “Businesses that fail to do so should be allowed to go bankrupt rather than be bailed out.”

Koch says that his companies accept government subsidies because it has “had little option but to do so as well to remain competitive and help sustain our 50,000 U.S.-based jobs.” But that, he writes, is “market-distorting” and, ultimately, his family and business “only support the policies that enhance true economic freedom.”

“Even though it affects our business, as a matter of principle our company has been outspoken in defense of economic freedom,” he adds. “This country would be much better off if every company would do the same. Instead, we see far too many businesses that paint their tails white and run with the antelope.”

And, he promises, his company and others like his will “hire more people and invest in more equipment when our country’s financial future looks more promising.” For now, though, he’s focused on “[l]aying the groundwork for smaller, smarter government, especially at the federal level,” however “tough” it may be. “[I]t is essential for getting us back on the path to long-term prosperity,” he writes.