

[The Kochtopus, in all its glory]

Nothing smacks of Scrooge quite like hearing the Kochtopus tell New Jersey to suck it up and deal with the terrible storm damage left behind by Hurricane Sandy. After all, it's not like people lived in those homes or anything like that. Lee Fang has the story over at The Nation:

Earlier this week, AFP, which is chaired by Koch and believed to be financed by several other plutocrats from the New York City region, released a letter warning members of Congress not to vote for the proposed federal aid package for victims of the storm that swept New Jersey, New York City, and much of the surrounding area in October. An announcement on the group’s website says that the vote next week for the Sandy aid package will be a “key vote” -- meaning Senators who support sending money for reconstruction could face an avalanche of attack ads in their next election. Already, opposition to the bill is growing, although it passed one procedural hurdle last night. There is some legitimate criticism with aspects of the legislation, including the fact that some of the money will go to non-Sandy related reconstruction efforts in disaster areas. For AFP, however, the whole bill must die and victims of the storm deserve no help from the government. Koch’s top deputy in New Jersey, a surly gentleman named Steve Lonegan, who heads the local AFP state chapter, called the aid package a “disgrace.” “This is not a federal government responsibility,” Lonegan told reporters. “We need to suck it up and be responsible for taking care of ourselves.”

It boggles my mind that there would be this kind of radical, insane, irrational bias against a government doing what a government is supposed to do. I realize that the Kochs would like to own the entire country so they can tell us all to suck it up, but that hasn't happened. Yet.

Here's what needs to happen, and sooner rather than later. The IRS needs to untangle the hairball at the center of the Kochtopus and the right wing non-profit machine, revoke their tax exemption and shine the sunlight at the center of their corrupt empire. It's not only them, of course, but it's a start. As I'll show in my next post, the Kochs and their cronies have built a labyrinth of non-profits that they use to launder money to buy politicians, policy and good will.

On the day the IRS exposes that mess, I'll be standing by to tell the Koch Brothers to suck it up. Every last damned drop.