44 the New Yorker, August 30, 2010
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R19927_layout_NEW.indd 8/18/10 9:49 AM PAGE 2-3 RICHARD SCHULMAN/CORBIS 44 THE NEW YORKER, AUGUST 30, 2010 TNY—2010_08_30—PAGE 44—133SC.—LIVE ART R19927—CRITICAL PHOTOGRAPH TO BE WATCHED THROUGHOUT ENTIRE PRESS RUN R19927_layout_NEW.indd 8/18/10 9:49 AM PAGE 2-3 A REPORTER AT LARGE COVERT OPERATIONS The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama. BY JANE MAYER n May 17th, a black-tie audience at office said that a scheduling conflict had the Metropolitan Opera House ap- prevented her from attending. Yet had plaudedO as a tall, jovial-looking billionaire the First Lady shared the stage with Koch took the stage. It was the seventieth an- it might have created an awkward tab- nual spring gala of American Ballet The- leau. In Washington, Koch is best known atre, and David H. Koch was being cele- as part of a family that has repeatedly brated for his generosity as a member of funded stealth attacks on the federal gov- the board of trustees; he had recently do- ernment, and on the Obama Administra- nated $2.5 million toward the company’s tion in particular. upcoming season, and had given many With his brother Charles, who is sev- millions before that. Koch received an enty-four, David Koch owns virtually all award while flanked by two of the gala’s of Koch Industries, a conglomerate, head- co-chairs, Blaine Trump, in a peach- quartered in Wichita, Kansas, whose an- colored gown, and Caroline Kennedy nual revenues are estimated to be a hun- Schlossberg, in emerald green. Kennedy’s dred billion dollars. The company has mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had grown spectacularly since their father, been a patron of the ballet and, coinciden- Fred, died, in 1967, and the brothers took tally, the previous owner of a Fifth Ave- charge. The Kochs operate oil refineries nue apartment that Koch had bought, in in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and 1995, and then sold, eleven years later, for control some four thousand miles of pipe- thirty-two million dollars, having found it line. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper too small. towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lum- The gala marked the social ascent of ber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, Koch, who, at the age of seventy, has be- among other products. Forbes ranks it as come one of the city’s most prominent the second-largest private company in the philanthropists. In 2008, he donated a country, after Cargill, and its consistent hundred million dollars to modernize profitability has made David and Charles Lincoln Center’s New York State Theatre Koch—who, years ago, bought out two building, which now bears his name. He other brothers—among the richest men has given twenty million to the Ameri- in America. Their combined fortune of can Museum of Natural History, whose thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only dinosaur wing is named for him. This by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. spring, after noticing the decrepit state The Kochs are longtime libertarians of the fountains outside the Metropoli- who believe in drastically lower personal tan Museum of Art, Koch pledged at least and corporate taxes, minimal social ser- ten million dollars for their renovation. He vices for the needy, and much less over- is a trustee of the museum, perhaps the sight of industry—especially environmen- most coveted social prize in the city, and tal regulation. These views dovetail with serves on the board of Memorial Sloan- the brothers’ corporate interests. In a Kettering Cancer Center, where, after he study released this spring, the University donated more than forty million dollars, of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political an endowed chair and a research center Economy Research Institute named were named for him. Koch Industries one of the top ten air pol- One dignitary was conspicuously ab- luters in the United States. And Green- sent from the gala: the event’s third hon- peace issued a report identifying the com- orary co-chair, Michelle Obama. Her pany as a “kingpin of climate science David H. Koch in 1996. He and his brother Charles are lifelong libertarians and have quietly given more than a hundred million dollars to right-wing causes. TNY—2010_08_30—PAGE 45—133SC.—LIVE ART R19927—CRITICAL PHOTOGRAPH TO BE WATCHED THROUGHOUT ENTIRE PRESS RUN denial.” The report showed that, from called Texas Defending the American to support the tea parties.” David Koch 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid Dream took place in a chilly hotel ball- told New York, “I’ve never been to a tea- ExxonMobil in giving money to organi- room in Austin. Though Koch freely pro- party event. No one representing the tea zations fighting legislation related to cli- motes his philanthropic ventures, he did party has ever even approached me.” mate change, underwriting a huge net- not attend the summit, and his name was At the lectern in Austin, however, work of foundations, think tanks, and not in evidence. And on this occasion the Venable—a longtime political operative political front groups. Indeed, the broth- audience was roused not by a dance per- who draws a salary from Americans for ers have funded opposition campaigns formance but by a series of speakers de- Prosperity, and who has worked for against so many Obama Administration nouncing President Barack Obama. Peggy Koch-funded political groups since policies—from health-care reform to the Venable, the organizer of the summit, 1994—spoke less warily. “We love what economic-stimulus program—that, in warned that Administration officials “have the Tea Parties are doing, because that’s political circles, their ideological network a socialist vision for this country.” how we’re going to take back America!” is known as the Kochtopus. Five hundred people attended the she declared, as the crowd cheered. In a In a statement, Koch Industries said summit, which served, in part, as a train- subsequent interview, she described her- that the Greenpeace report “distorts the ing session for Tea Party activists in Texas. self as an early member of the movement, environmental record of our companies.” An advertisement cast the event as a pop- joking, “I was part of the Tea Party before And David Koch, in a recent, admiring ar- ulist uprising against vested corporate it was cool!” She explained that the role of ticle about him in New York, protested power. “Today, the voices of average Americans for Prosperity was to help “ed- that the “radical press” had turned his fam- Americans are being drowned out by lob- ucate” Tea Party activists on policy details, ily into “whipping boys,” and had exagger- byists and special interests,” it said. “But and to give them “next-step training” after ated its influence on American politics. you can do something about it.” The pitch their rallies, so that their political energy But Charles Lewis, the founder of the made no mention of its corporate funders. could be channelled “more effectively.” Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan The White House has expressed frustra- And she noted that Americans for Pros- watchdog group, said, “The Kochs are on tion that such sponsors have largely eluded perity had provided Tea Party activists a whole different level. There’s no one else public notice. David Axelrod, Obama’s se- with lists of elected officials to target. She who has spent this much money. The nior adviser, said, “What they don’t say is said of the Kochs, “They’re certainly our sheer dimension of it is what sets them that, in part, this is a grassroots citizens’ people. David’s the chairman of our apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, movement brought to you by a bunch of board. I’ve certainly met with them, and political manipulation, and obfuscation. oil billionaires.” I’m very appreciative of what they do.” I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, In April, 2009, Melissa Cohlmia, a Venable honored several Tea Party and I’ve never seen anything like it. They company spokesperson, denied that the “citizen leaders” at the summit. The Texas are the Standard Oil of our times.” Kochs had direct links to the Tea Party, branch of Americans for Prosperity gave saying that Americans for Prosperity is its Blogger of the Year Award to a young few weeks after the Lincoln Center “an independent organization and Koch woman named Sibyl West. On June 14th, gala, the advocacy wing of the companies do not in any way direct their West, writing on her site, described AmericansA for Prosperity Foundation— activities.” Later, she issued a statement: Obama as the “cokehead in chief.” In an an organization that David Koch started, “No funding has been provided by Koch online thread, West speculated that the in 2004—held a different kind of gather- companies, the Koch foundations, or President was exhibiting symptoms of ing. Over the July 4th weekend, a summit Charles Koch or David Koch specifically “demonic possession (aka schizophrenia, etc.).” The summit featured several paid speakers, including Janine Turner, the ac- tress best known for her role on the tele- vision series “Northern Exposure.” She declared, “They don’t want our children to know about their rights. They don’t want our children to know about a God!” During a catered lunch, Venable intro- duced Ted Cruz, a former solicitor gen- eral of Texas, who told the crowd that Obama was “the most radical President ever to occupy the Oval Office,” and had hidden from voters a secret agenda—“the government taking over our economy and our lives.” Countering Obama, Cruz pro- claimed, was “the epic fight of our gener- ation!” As the crowd rose to its feet and cheered, he quoted the defiant words of a Texan at the Alamo: “Victory, or death!” “You’re depressed? My depression makes your depression look like euphoria.” Americans for Prosperity has worked TNY—2010_08_30—PAGE 46—133SC—LIVE ART A15208 closely with the Tea Party since the move- and the “range of his public interests.” munists have infiltrated both the Demo- ment’s inception.