Many Obamacare Critics, Including Koch Brothers, Accepted Its Subsidies

CHARLES BABINGTON/Talking Point Memo

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several big corporations have reaped millions of dollars from "Obamacare" even as they support GOP candidates who vow to repeal the law. This condemn-while-benefiting strategy angers Democrats, who see some of their top congressional candidates struggling against waves of anti-Obamacare ads partly funded by these companies.

Among the corporations is a familiar Democratic nemesis, Koch Industries, the giant conglomerate headed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. They and some conservative allies are spending millions of dollars to hammer Democratic senators in North Carolina, Alaska, Colorado, Iowa and elsewhere, chiefly for backing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., renewed his criticisms of the Kochs this week. In a Senate chamber speech, Reid noted that Koch Industries benefited from a temporary provision of the health care law.
The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, Reid said, "helped the company pay health insurance costs for its retirees who are not covered by Medicare." Reid asked sarcastically: "So it's OK for Koch Industries to save money through Obamacare" even as Koch-related groups seek the law's repeal.
When Congress enacted the health care law in 2010, it appropriated $5 billion for the temporary reinsurance program. The goal was to subsidize employers' costs for workers who retire before they become eligible for Medicare. Hundreds of employers applied — many were corporations, cities and public universities — and virtually all the money was soon distributed.
"If the Affordable Care Act is so awful," Reid asked, "why did Koch Industries use it to their advantage?"
Federal records show that Koch Industries received $1.4 million in early retiree subsidies. That's considerably less than the sums many other employers received. A Koch Industries spokesman said he had no comment on Reid's latest criticisms.
The Koch consortium may be the loudest "Obamacare" critic among the subsidized employers. But many others accepted the subsidies while heavily backing GOP House and Senate candidates, most of who call for repealing the 2010 health care law.
For instance, United Parcel Service received $37 million from the program's subsidies for early retirees. From 1989 through this year, political action committees affiliated with UPS donated $32 million to federal candidates and political parties. Of that, 64 percent went to Republicans, according to records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Union Pacific Railroad's employee health system received $9.7 million in subsidies. Republicans received more than two-thirds of the nearly $20 million in political donations from the railroad's PACs in the 25-year period tracked by the center.
Altria Client Services Inc. received nearly $11 million in the early retiree subsidies. And Republicans received 71 percent of the nearly $24 million in Altria-related political donations from 1989 to 2014.
One of the biggest subsidy recipients was AT&T, at $213 million. More than half of the $56 million in AT&T-related political donations went to Republicans during the 25-year period.
Spokesmen for AT&T and Altria declined to comment about accepting "Obamacare" subsidies while funding candidates who want to repeal the law.
Other companies that steer most of their political donations to Republicans, and the early-retiree subsidies they received, include: Pfizer Inc., $23 million; GlaxoSmithKline, $14 million; Southern Company Services, $7 million; Lockheed Martin Corp., $4 million; CSX Corp., $2.2 million; KPMG LLP, $1.4 million; and Deloitte LLP, $1.2 million.
The data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics omits much of this year's heavy political spending, because many major players are not required to report donations. The Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity is among those "super PACs" that can keep their finance details private, even as it dominates the airwaves in some states, like North Carolina, with competitive Senate races.
The Kochs and their allies show little sheepishness about denouncing a federal health law that benefited them. In fact, the Koch-related group FreedomPartners is spending more than $1 million on ads criticizing Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado and Rep. Bruce Braley of Iowa, Democrats running in tight Senate races.
Their alleged wrongdoing? Accepting campaign donations from health companies that benefit from "Obamacare."

MSNBC host Martin Bashir debates Koch Industries general counsel

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

MSNBC host Martin Bashir grilled Koch Industries general counsel Mark Holden on Thursday over the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Bashir noted that Koch Industries was a member of ALEC, a controversial organization that drafts model legislation for state lawmakers. The organization has supported so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws, which have been tied to the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

But Holden quickly turned the tables, stating that MSNBC’s parent companies, General Electric and Comcast, were members of ALEC as well. Holden claimed that Koch Industries was only a member of ALEC because they advanced their economic interests.

“I can tell you our involvement in ALEC is limited to economic freedom,” he said.

Later in the tense nearly 15-minute long interview, Holden implied he was the victim of an ambush interview.

“This wasn’t going to be the topic today, we are supposed to be talking about the attacks launched on us concerning the Trayvon Martin tragedy” he complained.

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

During Secret Retreat With Billionaires, Koch Lobbyist Admits Tea Party Group ‘Designed’ To Elect Republicans In 2010

By Lee Fang/Think Progress




This morning, blogger Brad Friedman, writing in Mother Jones and BradBlog, revealed a set of audio tapes from the last major donor meeting convened by the billionaire Koch brothers. There are a number of startling revelations from the scoop — but the opening remarks from Kevin Gentry, a Koch Industries executive at the firm’s DC lobbying office, blow the cover off the many Tea Party efforts underwritten by the billionaires in the Koch network of donors.

Gentry, who doubles as the official responsible for doling out Koch charitable grants, admits privately what ThinkProgress and others have noted for years: Americans for Prosperity, the front group founded by David Koch, orchestrates Tea Party events simply to elect more Republicans. Gentry said he met with Fred Young, a Wisconsin owner of engine manufacturing plants, at an Americans for Prosperity (AFP) event “designed to help in the Congressional races” during one of their “get out the vote tours”:

KEVIN GENTRY: I’m going to turn it over to a dear friend, Fred Young, for the purposes of an introduction. Fred is a long-time fighter, freedom fighter, in this movement, from Racine, Wisconsin. Former owner of Young Radiator. As part of our efforts last year, in 2010, I was on the road for [TN?] in Wisconsin, here at one of Americans for Prosperity’s last minute kind of get out the vote tours. And I went to an event in Racine, Wisconsin, and met up with Fred. It was sort of a Tea Party AFP event designed to help in the Congressional races. And Fred was kind enough to lend me a sweatshirt because I wasn’t actually prepared for Racine, Wisconsin in November. So Fred, let’s take it away, please.

Too many in the media ignored the Koch network’s transparently partisan agenda last year. A few outlets, like the Washington Post, took the group to task for spending $45 million in attack ads against Democrats using an unaccountable, secret money wing of Americans for Prosperity. However, most failed to report on the millions more spent on four different bus tours designed to promote Republicans. These rallies, which required great resources in terms of staff and logistics, were never reported to the Federal Elections Committee as campaign spending, thus evading the few watchdog groups and reporters interested in serious election coverage.

As ThinkProgress revealed last year, in documents outlining the June, 2010 donor meeting, billionaires like Paul Singer, Ken Griffin, Rich DeVos, and John Childs are regular attendees of these events, which solicit multi-million donations for an elaborate array of right-wing front groups, from Tea Party organizers like Americans for Prosperity to stealth advertising campaigns like “Public Notice.” Unfortunately, many still report on Tea Party groups like Americans for Prosperity as bonafide grassroots organizations.

Koch Industries Employs PR Firm To Airbush Wikipedia, Gets Banned For Unethical ‘Sock Puppets’

By Lee Fang

Last year, Koch Industries began employing New Media Strategies (NMS), an Internet PR firm that specializes in “word-of-mouth marketing” for major corporations including Coca-Cola, Burger King, AT&T, Dodge and Ford. It appears that, ever since the NMS contract was inked with Koch, an NMS employee began editing the Wikipedia page for “Charles Koch,” “David Koch,” “Political activities of the Koch family,” and “The Science of Success” (a book written by Charles). Under the moniker of “MBMAdmirer,” NMS employees edited Wikipedia articles to distance the Koch family from the Tea Party movement, to provide baseless comparisons between Koch and conspiracy theories surrounding George Soros, and to generally delete citations to liberal news outlets. After administrators flagged the MBMAdmirer account as a “sock puppet” — one of many fake accounts used to manipulate new media sites — a subsequent sock puppetinvestigation found that MBMAdmirer is connected to a number of dummy accounts and ones owned by NMS employees like Jeff Taylor.

Soren Dayton, a GOP operative and executive at New Media Strategies, is reported to be the contact for Koch Industries at NMS. Reached by phone yesterday by ThinkProgress, Dayton exclaimed, “I’m not going to talk about this, thanks,” before hanging up. Lyndsey Medsker, a senior account director for NMS, spoke to ThinkProgress today. She explained that NMS also maintains the Koch Industries Twitter page, Facebook page, and has an active team working on promoting Koch Industries in the comment section of blogs and news websites.

As ThinkProgress has reported, the billionaire Koch brothers maintain contracts with over a dozen public relation firms and lobbying firms. Pushing back again recent scrutiny, the brothers have also relied on a conservative media infrastructure owned by the Koch brothers or closely linked to them by way of their donor conferences. We have documented how the Koch message machine has targeted ThinkProgress and even placed hit-pieces against a New Yorker journalist investigated the Kochs. But now it seems the Koch brothers are at work manipulating Wikipedia to polish their image.

Full disclosure: The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson has been active user of Wikipedia for almost ten years now. He contributes to a variety of Wikipedia articles that interest him.

UPDATEUpdate: The PR firm working for Koch Industries contacted us and noted that "MBMAdmirer" disclosed that it was editing on behalf of Koch Industries.

MEMO: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met With Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck To Plot 2010 Election

By Lee Fang

In 2006, Koch Industries owner Charles Koch revealed to the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore that he coordinates the funding of the conservative infrastructure of front groups, political campaigns, think tanks, media outlets and other anti-government efforts through a twice annual meeting of wealthy right-wing donors. He also confided to Moore, who is funded through several of Koch’s ventures, that his true goal is to strengthen the “culture of prosperity” by eliminating “90%” of all laws and government regulations. Although it is difficult to quantify the exact amount Koch alone has funneled to right-wing fronts, some studies have pointed toward $50 million he has given alone to anti-environmental groups. Recently, fronts funded by Charles and his brother David have received scrutiny because they have played a pivotal role in the organizing of the anti-Obama Tea Parties and the promotion of virulent far right lawmakers like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). (David Koch praised DeMint and gave him a “Washington Award” shortly after the senator promised to “break” Obama by making health reform his “Waterloo.”)

While the Koch brothers — each worth over $21.5 billion — have certainly underwritten much of the right, their hidden coordination with other big business money has gone largely unnoticed. ThinkProgress has obtained a memo outlining the details of the last Koch gathering held in June of this year. The memo, along with an attendee list of about 210 people, shows the titans of industry — from health insurance companies, oil executives, Wall Street investors, and real estate tycoons — working together with conservative journalists and Republican operatives to plan the 2010 election, as well as ongoing conservative efforts through 2012. According to the memo, David Chavern, the number two at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Fox News hate-talker Glenn Beck also met with these representatives of the corporate elite. In an election season with the most undisclosed secret corporate giving since the Watergate-era, the memo sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between extremely profitable, multi-billion dollar corporations and much of the conservative infrastructure. The memo describes the prospective corporate donors as “investors,” and it makes clear that many of the Republican operatives managing shadowy, undisclosed fronts running attack ads against Democrats were involved in the Koch’s election-planning event:

– Corporate “investors” at the Koch meeting included businesses with a strong profit motive in rolling back President Obama’s enacted reforms. Several companies impacted by health reform, including Allan Hubbard of A & E Industries, a manufacturer of medical devices and Judson Green, a board member of health insurance conglomerate Aon, were present at the meeting. Other businessmen at the meeting, like Omaha Burger King franchiser Mike Simmonds, are owners of fast food stores which have fought efforts to provide health insurance to their employees. Many corporate attendees of the meeting represent the financial industry impacted by Wall Street reform. For instance, attendee Bill Cooper is the CEO of TCF Financial, a corporation involved in the mortgage banking industry. Cooper recently filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Wall Street reform. Other financial industry players in the meeting hail from firms ranging from Bank of America, JLM Investment, Allied Capital Corp, AMG National Trust, the Blackstone Group and Citadel Investment. Annie Dickerson, a representative of Paul Singer, a powerful hedge fund manager who also gives tens of millions to Republican causes, was present. In addition, Koch Industries itself has a hedge fund and other financial derivative products in its portfolio of interests, which include oil pipelines, coal shipping, asphalt, refineries, consumer goods, timber, ranching, and chemicals.

– Corporate “investors” at the Koch meeting included businesses with a strong profit motive in preventing progressive reforms promised by President Obama. Several executives at the meeting have an incentive to stop Democrats and President Obama from addressing climate change and enacting clean energy reform. The meeting included oil executives from Aspect Energy, Murfin Drilling, Anschutz Company, GeoPark Holdings, Smoky Oil, and several members of Koch’s various subsidiaries. The meeting documents explicitly state that funding efforts to curb “climate change alarmism” were discussed.

– Fred Malek, Karl Rove’s top fundraiser for his $56 million attack ad campaign against Democrats, attended the meeting, along with leaders of other secret attack groups. Heather Higgins, who leads the Independent Women’s Forum, a shadowy group that has spent millions of dollars in attack ads on health reform, attended the meeting. So did Gretchen Hamel, a former Bush flak who now runs an attack ad group called “Public Notice,” which denounces spending programs.

– Participants collaborated with infamous consultants who specialize in generating fake grassroots movements, as well as experts on how corporations should take advantage of Citizens United. One session, about how to “mobilize citizens for November,” involved a discussion with Republican strategists Tim Phillips and Sean Noble, anti-union leader Mark Mix, and longtime Koch operative Karl Crow. Phillips — a veteran astroturf lobbyist who previously managed a deceptive grassroots lobbying campaign to help the Hong Kong-based Tan family maintain their forced abortion sweatshops in the Mariana Islands — now leads the day-to-day operations of Americans for Prosperity, the group ThinkProgress first reported to have helped organize many of the initial Tea Party rallies against Obama. Americans for Prosperity, founded and financed by David Koch, has a field team of over 80 campaign staffers spread out around the country, and additionally plans to spend $45 million dollars worth of attack ads against Democrats. Shortly before the planning meeting, Crow authored a campaign finance memo explaining that because of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, he advised specifically that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 501(c)(6) and Americans for Prosperity’s 501(c)(4) can “now use general treasury funds to produce communications materials opposing or supporting specific candidates” and corporations can aggressively pressure their employees to vote a certain way.

The memo notes that participants in the 2010 election planning meeting “committed to an unprecedented level of support.”

Interestingly, the Koch meetings are managed by Kevin Gentry, an executive who doubles as a staffer in the Koch Industries lobbying office in Washington and as the key point person who helps deliver Koch charitable foundation grants. As ThinkProgress has documented, Koch Industries has dramatically boosted its own profits by using conservative front groups to manipulate public policy. The fusion between the “intellectual” conservative movement and big businesses opposed to regulations and accountability has a history in America dating back to the New Deal. During the thirties, the Du Pont family and other wealthy interests organized an assortment of “Liberty League” front groups to try to defeat New Deal agenda items and repeal President Roosevelt’s Social Security program. Now, corporations fund groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute — both had representatives at the Koch meeting — to further their lobbying agenda. The American Enterprise Institute even changed its name from the New Deal-era American Enterprise Association to try to dispel the notion that they were nothing more than a glorified business trade association.

As the memo states, Beck has addressed this regular gathering of conservative corporate executives in previous years. Past Koch meetings have included various Republican lawmakers, including DeMint, and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as speakers.

After ThinkProgess published its exclusive investigation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce revealing that the Chamber has been actively fundraising from foreign corporations for its 501(c)(6) account used to run a $75 million attack ad campaign, Chamber lobbyists found common cause with Beck and many of the conservative talking heads. Shortly after our investigation, Beck hosted an on-air fundraiser, asking his audience to give to the Chamber. Casual observers might have been surprised by the Chamber’s swift alliance with Beck (Chamber executives appeared on the Beck radio program and sung Beck’s praises on the Chamber blog), who has compared Obama to Adolf Hitler and called the President a “racist” who has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” By telling his listeners to give money to the Chamber, Beck, who owns a media company worth more than $32 million dollars and an experimental Mercedes Benz, essentially told his working class viewers to give their wages back to their employers. However, Beck never disclosed his long working history of discussing political strategy with America’s largest corporations. The Koch memo clearly shows that Beck has been collaborating with the Chamber, as well as other titans of industry, for years. In his latest appeal for support to the Chamber’s foreign-funded trade association, which already counts JP Morgan and ExxonMobil as dues-paying members, Beck yesterday told his audience that the Chamber simply “defends the little guy.”

Click below to view a letter inviting corporate executives to attend the next Koch meeting in January, along with a list of the sessions held by Koch for the last meeting in June of 2010. An attendee list of the June, 2010 meeting is attached at the bottom of the document:

CAPAF interns Salvatore Colleluori, Riley Waggaman, and Ben Kaldunski contributed to this post.

Some of the donors at the Koch meeting were longtime Bush fundraisers, like Cintas Corporation CEO Dick Farmer and wholesale executive Art Pope. However, many names appear to be relatively new to conservative movement “investment.” Click below for a listing of the attendees

Name(s)	Industry	Notes
Jack and Rose Marie Anderson	Finance	Culver Corp, Rose Marie and Jack R. Anderson Foundation- Financial Advisor
Neil Anderson and Amy Fisher-Smith		Runs Rose Marie and Jack R. Anderson Foundation
Phil and Nancy Anschutz	Investment	Industrialist, Owner, Weekly Standard, Examiner newspapers
Cliff Asness	Investment	AQR Capital Management
Nate and Lynda Bachman	Finance	The Bachman Group-Financial Advisor
Whitney Ball	Think Tank	Owner of a firm that helps corporations give anonymous gifts to front groups
Michael Barone	Media	Fox News
Frank and Kathy Baxter	Banking	Ambassador Frank E. Baxter is Chairman Emeritus of Jefferies and Company, Inc., a global investment bank focusing on mid-cap companies.
Steve and Betty Bechtel	Engineering	Owns the Bechtel Group (Corporation), Largest engineering company in United States
Glenn Beck	Media	Fox News
Bernard and Margaret Blasingame	Manufacturing	President and owner of Aqua Dynamics Systems, Inc
Alan and Lisa Boeckmann	Oil	CEO Fluor Corporation
Boysie Bollinger	Shipping/Commerce	Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Bollinger Shipyards
Patrick and Paula Broe	Real Estate	Founder and CEO of Denver-based real estate asset management firm, The Broe Group
Arthur Brooks	Think Tank	President, American Enterprise Institute
David and Ann Brown	Think Tank	Heritage Foundation
John Bryan
Bob and Martha Buford	Oil	C. Robert Buford has been President and owner of Zenith Drilling Corporation
Tim Busch
Shelby and Nell Bush	Energy	Vice President, Legal and Administration – Hillwood Energy
Tim Carney	Media	Political Columnist, Washington Examiner
Charlies and Marla Chandler
David Chavern	Lobbyist	Executive Vice President and COO at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
John Childs	Insurance	Chairman and CEO of J.W. Childs and Associates
Paul and Lea Clifton		Runs Robert and Marie Hansen Family Foundation
Susie Coelhoe	Media	founder and CEO of Susie Coelho Enterprises Inc.
Bill Cooper and Kristin Tollefson	Finance/Banking	CEO of TCF Financial
Dino and Joan Cortopassi
Joe Craft	Coal	Joseph W. Craft III is president, chief executive officer and director of Alliance Resource Partners LP
Alex Cranberg	Energy	Aspect Holdings, LLC – Chairman
Jeff Crank	Americans For Prosperity / Radio Pundit	AFP State Director
Karl Crow	Policy Analyst	Capital Research Center
Eric Crown and Isabella King	Technology Sales	Sell Technology Equipment
Kevin Crutchfield	Coal	Kevin S. Crutchfield serves as Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Coal Sales Co., LLC.
Ravenell and Beth Curry
Jim and Shirley Dannenbaum	Engineering	Mr. Dannenbaum, Chairman of Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation
Veronique de Rugy	Think Tank	Senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center
Rich and Helen DeVos	Business	Founder and CEO of Amway
Annie Dickerson	Business	CBRE analyst
Ned and Nancy Diefenthal
Jim and Dorothy Patterson	Oil	Gulf Stream Petroleum
Dan and Kellie Peters	Non-for Profit	Daniel S. Peters is president of the Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio
Tom Petrie	Banking	Co-founder of BofA Merrill Lynch Petrie Divestiture Advisors
Dixon and Carol Doll	Technology	Co-Founder and General Partner of DCM
Karl and Stevie Eller	Advertising
Ron and Kris Erickson	Retail	Ronald A. Erickson is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Holiday Companies
Melvyn and Suellen Estrin	Natural Gas	Director of WGL Holdings INC
Dick Farmer
Peter Farrell	Biomed	Founder of Resmed
Bob Kohlhepp	Manufacturing/Services	Vice Chairman, Cintas Corp.
Charles Krauthammer	Media	Washington Post
Jim and Zibbie Ferrell	Fuel Oil	Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. engages in the distribution and sale of propane and related equipment primarily in the United States.
Dave Fettig	Natural Gas	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Bob Fettig	Natural Gas	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Steve Fettig	Natural Gas	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Jerry and Nanette Finger	Banking	Managing Partner, Finger Interests LTD
Richard Fink	Koch Industries	Director of Georgia-Pacific, EVP of Koch Industries
Budd and Lauri Florkiewicz	Manufacturing	Foam Fabricators
Charlie and Kaye Lynn Fote	Finance	Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fotec Group LLC
Randy and Jean Foutch	Oil	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Laredo Petroleum, Inc.
Foster Friess	Investment	Mr. Foster Stephen Friess is the Founder and Chairman of Friess Associates, LLC
Steve and Polly Friess
Jerry and Leah Fullinwider	Energy/Petroleum	Vice Chairman, Hillwood International Energy, L.P.
Richard and Leslie Gilliam	Coal	Richard Gilliam has been President of Cumberland Resources Corporation since 1993.
Susan Gore	Think Tank	Founder, Wyoming Liberty Group
Oliver and Carolyn Grace Jr.	Med and Telecom	President and chief executive officer of Anderson Group, Inc.,
Judson and Joyce Green	Energy and Med	Mr. Judson C. Green is the President and Chief Executive Officer of NAVTEQ Corp.
Ken and Anne Griffin	Investment Banking	Founder and CEO of Citadel Investment Group
Gretchen Hamel
Fred and Jane Hamilton	Oil	Mr. Frederic C. Hamilton served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of BHP Petroleum, Hamilton Oil Company and various Hamilton Oil Corporation subsidiaries and affiliates
Bob and Mary Sue Hawk	Communications	President of Hawk Communications
Dick and Ethie Haworth	Retail	Head of Haworth Furniture, Multi-national corporation, 3rd largest corporate furniture company in US
Robin and Barbara Hayes	Government	Former NC Congressman
Dan and Carolyn Heard	Manufacturing	Executive Officer of John H. Carter Co.,
Diane Hendricks	Manufacturing	Husband of Ken Hendricks
Steve and Regina Hennessy	Auto Sales	Auto Sales
James and Heather Higgins	Think Tank	Independent Women’s Forum
Paul Hill	Oil	Paul J. Hill serves as the Chief Executive Officer and has been President of Harvard Developments Inc. since 1978. Mr. Hill serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of The Hill Companies.
John and Joan Hotchkis	Education	Board of Directors for Teach for America UC Berkley
Allan and Kathy Hubbard	Chemicals and Manufacturing	Founder and Chief Executive Officer, E & A Industries, Inc.
Stan and Karen Hubbard	Communications	Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.
Ethelmae Humphreys	Think Tank	Cato Institute
Manley and Mary Johnson	Political Consultant
Merritt Johnson
Gerry and Priscilla O’Shaughnessy	Oil	Gerald Eugene O’Shaughnessy Co-founded Geopark Holding Limited in 2002.
Michael O’Shaunessy	Technology	Petters Consumer Brands, LLC develops consumer electronics and appliances.
Tim O’Shaughnessy	Media	Hungry Machine, Inc., doing business as LivingSocial.com, is a social discovery and cataloging network.
Marshall Johnson
Kyle and Kirsten Johnstone
Mike and Beth Kasser	Real Estate	President, Holualoa Inc
Ken and Randy Kendrick	Education/Technology	Chairman, Datatel
Phil and Joanna Kerpen	Advocacy Group/Think Tank	VP of Policy, Americans for Prosperity
Gerry and Kathryn Kingen	Restauranteur	Red Robin, Happy Guests Int’ll
Scott Kirkpatrick	Investor	Teton Capital
Charles and Liz Koch	Koch Industries
Chase and Annie Koch	Koch Industries
David and Julia Koch	Koch Industries
Elizabeth Koch	Koch Industries
Bob and Cindy Koch	Koch Industries
Bob Kohlhepp	Manufacturing/Services	Vice Chairman, Cintas Corp.
Dennis Kuester	Banking	Retired CEO of M&I Bank
Andrew Kupersmith	Consultant	MD, Cardiology Consultants
Andre Lacy	Investment	Chairman, Lacy Diversified Industries
Ken and Elaine Langone	Retail	Invemed, Home Depot
Jay and Sally Lapeyre	Services	Laitram Corp
Ken and Frayda Levy	Investment	JLM Investment Mgmt
Tom Love	Retail	CEO, President, Love’s Country Stores
Bob Luddy	Manufacturing	President, Captive Aire Systems
Fred and Marlene Malek	Investment Management	Thayer Capital Partners
Elaine Marshall		Homemaker
Pierce Marshall	Administrative Management	MAROPCO
Preston Marshall
Bill Mayer	Health Care	MD, Mayer & Cope Family Practice
Glen and Diane Meakem	Business Solutions	CEO, Freemarkets Inc.
Ed Meese	Think Tank	Heritage Foundation
Lew and Suzy Meibergen	Goods/Services	President, Johnston Enterprises/WG Johnston Grain Co
Don and Deede Meyers	Attorney	Self Employed
Jerry and Caroline Milbank	Investment Management	CEO/Principal, Milbank Winthrop & Co.
Jack and Goldie Miller	Retail	CEO/President, Quill Corp.
Mark Mix	Advocacy Group	President, National Right to Work Committee
Joe and Mary Moeller	Koch Industries	Vice Chairman
Steve Moore	Media	member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board
David Murfin	Energy	President, Murfin Drilling Co.
Walter and Suzette Negley
Mina Nguyen
Larry and Polly Nichols	Energy	Executive Chairman, Devon Energy Corp
Sean Noble	Front Group	Americans for Prosperity
Tim and Teresa Oelke	Advocacy Group/Construction	Teresa – State Director of Americans for Prosperity, Tim – Crossland Construction Corp
Eric O’Keefe	Front Group	Sam Adams Alliance
Kurt and Nancy Pfotenhauer	Media	President of MediaSpeak Strategies/former political commentator on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC and former Senior Policy Advisor and National Spokesperson with the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign
Tim Phillips	Advocacy Group	president, Americans for Prosperity
Ramesh Ponnuru	Media	National Review magazine
Art and Kathy Pope	Goods/Services	Senior Exec, Variety Wholesaler
Russ Roberts	Attorney	Roberts, Ashby & Parrish
Corbin and Barbara Robertson	Energy	President, Quintana Minerals Corp
Richard Roder and Karin Hsu	Construction Management	CEO, Cmt-Construction Management
Gary and Kathleen Rogers	Goods	Former CEO, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream
Durk Rorie	Manufacturing	United Air Specialists
Chris Rufer	Goods/Manufacturing	Morningstar Company
Peter Schiff and Martha O’Brien	Investor	Schiff: Euro Pacific Capital Inc.,
Steve and Christine Schwarzman	Financial Services	CEO/founder, Blackstone Group
Rick and Sherry Sharp	Retail	Former CEO, Circuit City
Mike and Lin Simmonds	Services	CEO, Simmonds Restaurant Mgmt
Peter Smith	Services	CEO, Service Group of America
Dick Strong	Investment Services	Strong/Corneliuson Capital Mgmt
Michael Sullivan	Investment Services	CR Intrinsic Investors
Ray and Ladeline Thompson	Manufacturing	President/CEO, Semitool
Lynn Tilton	Investment Management	CEO, Patriarch Partners LLC
Dave and Melanie True	Oil	Partner
Steve Twist	Consultant	Rose & Allyn PR Consultants
Jim and Gayla Von Ehr	Research/Development	CEO, Zyvex Corp
Rick and Debra Waller	Manufacturing	Owner, Rollmeister Inc
Peter Wallison	Think Tank	Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Bill and Sarah Walton	Real Estate	Allied Capital Corp
Lew and Myra Ward	Oil	Ward Petroleum Corporation owns and operates wells. It engages in oil and gas exploration and production. The company was founded in 1963 and is based in Enid, Oklahoma.
Dick Weekley	Real Estate	Weekley Properties
Fred and Susie Wehba	Real Estate	Bentley Forbes Real Estate
Nestor Weigand and Darcy Buehler	Real Estate	JP Weigand & Sons Real Estate
Dick and Mary Beth Weiss	Life Insurance	Wells Fargo, Hawthorne Rances
Howard and Rhonda Wilkins	Insurance	Diversified Insurance
Don and Sue Wills	Oil
Bob Kohlhepp	Manufacturing/Services	Vice Chairman, Cintas Corp.
Bob Kohlhepp	Manufacturing/Services	Vice Chairman, Cintas Corp.
Larry and Lorraine Winnerman	Real Estate	Win Win Enterprises
Joe Woodford
Earl Wright	Finance	AMG Natinal Trust
Karen Wright and Tom Rastin	Energy/Manufacturing	Tom Rastin, vice president of marketing and engineering, Ariel Corp – Karen Wright, Ariel CEO
Cliff and Susan Yonce	Investment Banking	Goldman Sachs
Fred and Sandra Young	Services	Diversified Search, LLC provides senior-level executive and corporate board search services in the United States and internationally. It provides recruitment services for various organizations in consumer and industrial, education, not-for-profit, arts and culture, financial and professional services, business, healthcare and human services, life sciences, media and entertainment, sports and leisure, energy and utilities, private equity, retail, and technology and communications industries.

Koch Industries Applies For Federal Funds From Health Care Law It Opposes

By Igor Volsky Today, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the “first round of applicants accepted into the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program,” a $5 billion program established by the new health care law to help employers and states “maintain coverage for early retirees age 55 and older who are not yet eligible for

Medicare.” According to the agency, “nearly 2,000 employers, representing large and small businesses, State and local governments, educational institutions, non-profits, and unions” applied and have been accepted into the program and “will begin to receive reimbursements for employee claims this fall.” Ironically, one of those employers is the oil, chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries, which as Lee Fang has reported, has also spent millions of dollars opposing reform:

The contradictory practice of opposing the health care law while applying for its funding has been common among states. As the Wonk Room points out, 19 of the 22 states that are suing the federal government over health care reform have applied for the law’s rate review grants and at least 7 of those states also applied for the reinsurance dollars.