From
Wichita’s own Fossil fuel barons and mega-political hacks
Charles and David Koch have gotten national attention through the magazine The New Yorker. The article, “KOCH
PLEDGE TIED TO CONGRESSIONAL CLIMATE INACTION,” explains
how the brothers, through their phony PAC; Americans for Prosperity, have
managed to use congress to kill off any action to stop climate change.
The Koch Brothers and their Americans for Prosperity have a pledge they get Congress members to sign so they will oppose any action to save the environment unless it comes with huge tax breaks. The pledge makes it clear that money and taxes are way more important than protecting people from the disasters of climate change.
According to the pledge, called “No Climate Tax Hike;”
The Koch Brothers and their Americans for Prosperity have a pledge they get Congress members to sign so they will oppose any action to save the environment unless it comes with huge tax breaks. The pledge makes it clear that money and taxes are way more important than protecting people from the disasters of climate change.
According to the pledge, called “No Climate Tax Hike;”
“A climate bill should not be a vehicle for
hiding a tax hike.
Let
your elected officials know that you're watching how they vote on hidden energy
taxes.
Congress is debating the largest tax increase in history, the cap-and-trade energy tax.
Congress is debating the largest tax increase in history, the cap-and-trade energy tax.
Cap-and-trade
is a tax on coal, oil, and natural gas but instead of being a specific tax
rate, the total level of use is capped and companies are forced to pay the
government for emissions permits.”
The
Koch Brothers have proven over and over that persons with lots of money can buy
an entire congress if they want to. The brothers can then push their
right-wing, anti-environmental agenda. There is no doubt that this pledge has
prevented any action, by the US Congress, to slow down global warming and all
the weather changes and tragedies that are connected to it. According to The New Yorker article;
“When President (Barack) Obama unveiled his program to tackle climate change last month, he deliberately sidestepped Congress as a hopeless bastion of obstruction, relying completely on changes that could be imposed by regulatory agencies. A two-year study by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, released today, illustrates what might be one of the reasons why he had to take this circuitous route. Fossil fuel magnates Charles and David Koch have, through Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group they back, succeeded in persuading many members of Congress to sign a little-known pledge in which they have promised to vote against legislation relating to climate change unless it is accompanied by an equivalent amount of tax cuts.”
Climate change comes from global warming, but it does much more than just raise temperatures. It also causes weather patterns to change, increasing storms, such as tornados and hurricanes, as well as forest fires and other natural disasters.
According to Natural Resources Defense Council;
“In addition to impacting our water resources, energy supply, transportation, agriculture, and ecosystems, the United States Global Change Research Program concludes that climate change also poses unique challenges to human health, such as:
*Significant increases in the risk of illness and death related to extreme heat and heat waves are very likely.
*Some diseases transmitted by food, water, and insects are likely to increase.
*Certain groups, including children, the elderly, and the poor, are most vulnerable to a range of climate-related health effects.”
The New Yorker article explains that the Koch Brothers and their PAC spent $1.3 million on congressional campaigns in 2010 mid-term elections. Also that year 156 members of the House of Representatives had signed the “No Climate Tax Pledge.”
The article also explained;
“Of the eighty-five freshmen Republican congressmen elected to the House of Representatives in 2010, seventy-six had signed the No Climate Tax pledge. Fifty-seven of those received campaign contributions from Koch Industries’s political action committee. The study notes that more than half of the House members who signed the pledge in the 112th Congress made statements doubting climate-change science, despite the fact that there is overwhelming scientific consensus on the subject.”
So despite the extreme danger to our environment, the dangers to people and their communities, at a time when the forest fire season has just expanded in the Rocky Mountain states, the Koch Brothers and their money are determined to make sure their tax breaks come first. These brothers may be one of the nation’s most dangerous political machines and they live here in our city of Wichita in our state of Kansas. They are a disgrace to us here in Kansas and we have an obligation to do everything we can to stop them. There is now a facebook page called The kochs are killing us, calling for an information campaign from today through September 11.
“When President (Barack) Obama unveiled his program to tackle climate change last month, he deliberately sidestepped Congress as a hopeless bastion of obstruction, relying completely on changes that could be imposed by regulatory agencies. A two-year study by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, released today, illustrates what might be one of the reasons why he had to take this circuitous route. Fossil fuel magnates Charles and David Koch have, through Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group they back, succeeded in persuading many members of Congress to sign a little-known pledge in which they have promised to vote against legislation relating to climate change unless it is accompanied by an equivalent amount of tax cuts.”
Climate change comes from global warming, but it does much more than just raise temperatures. It also causes weather patterns to change, increasing storms, such as tornados and hurricanes, as well as forest fires and other natural disasters.
According to Natural Resources Defense Council;
“In addition to impacting our water resources, energy supply, transportation, agriculture, and ecosystems, the United States Global Change Research Program concludes that climate change also poses unique challenges to human health, such as:
*Significant increases in the risk of illness and death related to extreme heat and heat waves are very likely.
*Some diseases transmitted by food, water, and insects are likely to increase.
*Certain groups, including children, the elderly, and the poor, are most vulnerable to a range of climate-related health effects.”
The New Yorker article explains that the Koch Brothers and their PAC spent $1.3 million on congressional campaigns in 2010 mid-term elections. Also that year 156 members of the House of Representatives had signed the “No Climate Tax Pledge.”
The article also explained;
“Of the eighty-five freshmen Republican congressmen elected to the House of Representatives in 2010, seventy-six had signed the No Climate Tax pledge. Fifty-seven of those received campaign contributions from Koch Industries’s political action committee. The study notes that more than half of the House members who signed the pledge in the 112th Congress made statements doubting climate-change science, despite the fact that there is overwhelming scientific consensus on the subject.”
So despite the extreme danger to our environment, the dangers to people and their communities, at a time when the forest fire season has just expanded in the Rocky Mountain states, the Koch Brothers and their money are determined to make sure their tax breaks come first. These brothers may be one of the nation’s most dangerous political machines and they live here in our city of Wichita in our state of Kansas. They are a disgrace to us here in Kansas and we have an obligation to do everything we can to stop them. There is now a facebook page called The kochs are killing us, calling for an information campaign from today through September 11.
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