Koch Brothers sue Cato Institute President 03/1/2012

[vechorik]

h ttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/think-tanked/post/koch-brothers-sue-cato-institute-president/2012/03/01/gIQAUoHMkR_blog.html

 

[ZanZibar]

Aren't they the bulk of Cato's funding?!

 

[Aratus]

ZZ!

 

[PatriotOne]

The billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch filed a lawsuit Wednesday for control of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington.

The lawsuit exposes a power struggle for one of Washington’s premiere policy centers, which has been funded by millions in contributions from the Koch brothers’ foundations since its founding in 1974.

 

[DerailingDaTrain]

Since when are the Koch Brothers considered Libertarians?

 

[angelatc]

Aren't they the bulk of Cato's funding?!

Obviously you're too busy to actually read the article, so let me paraphrase it for you. Be right back.....wait here.

 

[ZanZibar]

Since when are the Koch Brothers considered Libertarians?

They were the most successful LP Presidential candidate. EVER.

 

[DerailingDaTrain]

Then why was Herman Cain and every other candidate but Ron all over them recently? It says they helped start the TP on Wikipedia so why don't they donate some money to a former Libertarian candidate?

 

[y0kkles]

I really enjoy the content over at Cato. It's a great asset. I hope this doesn't change that.

 

[ZanZibar]

I had no idea they had such a big budget!

 

[joshnorris14]

I really enjoy the content over at Cato. It's a great asset. I hope this doesn't change that.

One of the Koch brothers founded CATO with Murray Rothbard.

 

[kylejack]

Here's a Weigel piece on the takeover. It's already had damaging effects, but they'll need 2 more board members to completely control it.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_..._the_libertarian_think_tank_cato_.single.html

 

[Lucille]

Check out who the Kochs wanted on the frickin' board:

But what really struck me was that among the people the Kochs have tried to place on the board is John Hinderaker of Powerline. Hinderaker is best known for this:

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

But what I remember best is his sneering dismissal of any suggestion that there might be a housing bubble, or that falling home prices would do any economic damage.

So now we know what it takes to get big support from the Kochs.

YHGTBFKM.

I pray Lew recovers Rothbard's shares. It can only help Cato.

 

[AlexG]

If it werent for Koch bros, the libertarian movement wouldnt be as big as it is today. They fund ALOT of projects that help the liberty movement

 

[Xenophage]

I think the Kochs are unduly vilified. They are as much to blame for any problems within the libertarian movement as Rothbard is, who was a polarizing figure himself. Overwhelmingly they are to be commended for their advocacy of libertarianism.

From the wiki article about Charles Koch (notice his appreciation for Mises and Hayek and his deep understanding of the philosophy of libertarianism):

Koch's views are described as libertarian. He disliked George W. Bush's presidency. His favorite presidents are George Washington, Grover Cleveland, and Calvin Coolidge.[16]
He told the National Journal that his "overall concept is to minimize the role of government and to maximize the role of private economy and to maximize personal freedoms."[17] Today, he worries about too much governmental regulation, writing, "We could be facing the greatest loss of liberty and prosperity since the 1930s.".[18]
In an interview with the American Journal of Business,[10] Koch said he owes "a huge debt of gratitude to the giants who created the Austrian School [of economics]. They developed principles that enabled me to gain an understanding of how the world works, and these ideas were a catalyst in the development of Market-Based Management." In particular, he expresses admiration for Ludwig von Mises’ book Human Action, as well as the writings of Friedrich von Hayek.
Other influences on Koch include Alexis de Tocqueville,[19] Adam Smith, Michael Polanyi,[10] Joseph Schumpeter, Julian Simon, Paul Johnson, Thomas Sowell, Charles Murray, Leonard Read, and F.A. Harper.[11]
To Koch, "the short-term infatuation with quarterly earnings on Wall Street restricts the earnings potential of Fortune 500 publicly traded firms".[11] Koch also considers public firms to be "feeding grounds for lawyers and lawsuits", with regulations like Sarbanes–Oxley only increasing the earnings potential of privately-held companies.[11]
In an interview article for the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore writes "Charles Koch—no surprise—disdains government and the political class."[11] Koch thinks the billionaires Warren Buffett and George Soros, who fund organizations with different ideologies, "simply haven't been sufficiently exposed to the ideas of liberty".[11] Koch thinks "prosperity is under attack" by the Obama administration and "warns of policies that 'threaten to erode our economic freedom and transfer vast sums of money to the state'".[20]
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal Koch said: “Government spending on business only aggravates the problem. Too many business have successfully lobbied for special favors and treatment by seeking mandates for their products, subsidies (in the form of cash payments from the government), and regulations and tariffs to keep more efficient competitors at bay. Crony capitalism is much easier than competing in an open market. But it erodes our overall standard of living and stifles entrepreneurs by rewarding the politically favored rather than those who provide what consumers want.”[21]

 

[Xenophage]

David Koch was the LP vice presidential candidate in 1980 running with Ed Clark. He did so to get around the election finance laws so they could fund their campaign, and they ended up getting the largest share of the vote in a presidential contest in LP history. David Koch, however, does not seem AS libertarian as his brother, and this may be a source of some of the schizophrenic funding we see coming from the "Koch brothers."

 

[tsetsefly]

The Koch brothers recently seemed to have turned more into regular republicans than libertarians... Though they have supported gay marriage and marijuana legalization bills so who knows... Imo, certianly not the allies they once where

edit: Read the article, it seems the Koch brothers are hell bent on getting obama out and getting rid of Obamacare, i think they see obamacare as the line in the sand. Unfortunately they fail to realize that none of the republicans running will get rid of Obamacare as much as they say it, if any of them would get elected what we would get is a different form of Obamacare where insurance companies still win and we all lose... Silly them for not seeing this and not throwing millions at trying to get RP nominated... so fuck them

 

[unknown]

Guess CATO was showing Ron Paul too much love.

 

[GeorgiaAvenger]

The Koch brothers do a lot of good, like funding the Cato Institute, Americans for Prosperity and Heritage Foundation, important think tanks in Washington.

 

[kylejack]

The Koch brothers do a lot of good, like funding the Cato Institute, Americans for Prosperity and Heritage Foundation, important think tanks in Washington.

Thanks for the Iraq War, Koch Brothers. I'm sure all the dead soldiers and civilians thank you too.