The Kochs Take Millions in Subsidies in Montana, Then Try to Block Medicaid Expansion
Wednesday, 25 March 2015 13:50
Stern writes: "Even GOP legislators are pissed at AFP's campaign to deprive the poor and uninsured of healthcare in this red state."
David Koch. (photo: Wichita Eagle)
The Kochs Take Millions in Subsidies in Montana, Then Try to Block Medicaid Expansion
By Eric Stern, Salon
25 March 15
Even GOP legislators are pissed at AFP's campaign to deprive the poor and uninsured of healthcare in this red state
n every red state where they’ve spent big, the Koch brothers have defeated Medicaid expansion, the piece of the Affordable Care Act that is optional for states and gives relief to the working poor. But in Montana — by some measurements the reddest state in the country — the Kochs are hitting the skids. Their monster political group, Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, has laid an egg. And Medicaid expansion now has a real chance of happening.
What’s gone wrong?
A few things. First, the Kochs underestimated the local population and made a fundamental misreading of the terrain, as have many outside groups that have botched Montana campaigns (starting with Custer and his troops). They sent in a crew of young D.C. hotshots with little understanding of the state’s politics, to run a negative campaign against moderate Republican legislators who support expanding Medicaid. This campaign did nothing but piss off the legislators and their constituents.
Part of this campaign involved organizing a disastrous series of “town meetings” in the legislators’ districts, at which AFP staffers lectured the locals about the dangers of “Obamacare expansion.” Please take a moment to savor the image of a young man from D.C., showing up in a small Montana town, wearing a tailored suit and dress shirt but no tie, and pointy shoes, looking like he’s expecting bottle service at a nightclub, to address an audience of burly men wearing flannel shirts and overalls and likely carrying concealed weapons.
Worse yet, the GOP legislators being targeted by these meetings began crashing them. The AFP organizers would refuse to recognize them or even let them speak. The audiences didn’t like this (everyone gets to speak at public meetings in Montana — it’s in our Constitution). At one meeting, someone in the audience asked the AFP organizer, “How can we possibly have a town meeting on this issue but not hear from our legislator?” There was no answer. Many in the crowd walked out. Several of these fiascoes were caught on video. The town hall debacles were front-page news across the state.
Next, it was revealed that the Kochs own a 200,000 acre cattle ranch in Montana that has received more than $12 million of state and federal subsidies since it was founded. Two-thirds of the cattle operation is on public land, which means the Kochs pay grazing fees that are far below market rates while taxpayers make up the difference. (In 2011, the state of Montana proposed raising these fees to get them closer to market, and a guy from the Kochs’ ranch showed up to the hearing to protest this increase.)
This grotesque set of facts — two billionaires taking subsidies while trying to block our poorest citizens from getting assistance for medical care — was not well received by the press or public when it was brought to light.
And then, two weeks ago, another spectacle: the long-awaited hearing on the governor’s Medicaid expansion bill took place. Hundreds of poor uninsured people, some of them with life-ending conditions, drove in from across state (driving nine hours in some cases) to testify for the bill as did many doctors and hospital executives. Their testimony went six hours. In contrast, only 12 people showed up to testify against it, and these were mostly AFP staffers or friends of AFP staffers, ranting about Obamacare. When testimony was over, the committee, which is controlled by Tea Partyers, voted instantly to kill the bill without any debate at all. It was unprecedented. There was an audible gasp from the crowd. Scathing editorials ran across the state in the following days.
Whether the Kochs will win or lose this battle depends on what happens in the next several weeks. We have a progressive governor, Steve Bullock, fighting hard to get Medicaid expansion through. Unfortunately the Legislature in Montana meets January through April every odd year, so the stakes are high — the federal funds will no longer be available if we have to wait until 2017 to expand Medicaid. But I’d say the odds on expanding Medicaid have gone in the last few months from 30 percent to 70 percent, a change of circumstance due in large part to the ineffectual AFP campaign, which merely angered the moderate Republicans it was designed to intimidate.
This past week, one of those GOP legislators defied the AFP bullies a step further, putting forth his own Medicaid expansion bill. Democrats, including the governor, are supporting it. At the hearing, the sponsor asked: “Why would we refuse to accept federal funds we have given the federal government in the form of taxes? It’s our money.” Nobody had an answer.
And there was a notable absence in the hearing: Nobody from AFP showed up.
FOCUS | Donald Trump Claims Authorship of Legendary Reagan Slogan
Wednesday, 25 March 2015 12:23
Taibbi writes: "We should get the wire services and pollsters to create a consensus 'Dumbest Americans' list, the way BCS football teams or boxing contenders are rated."
Donald Trump. (photo: NBC Newswire/Getty Images)
Donald Trump Claims Authorship of Legendary Reagan Slogan
By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
25 March 15
Latest anti-Cruz broadside is dumbest yet
e should get the wire services and pollsters to create a consensus "Dumbest Americans" list, the way BCS football teams or boxing contenders are rated. Not only would it be fun, but it would be a way for Donald Trump to stay in the news without having to say dumb things all the time.
Trump's latest attempt to sell himself to Republican voters came in the form of a birther attack against Ted Cruz, the recently-announced presidential candidate who humorously launched his campaign in front of a bunch of Liberty University students who didn't want to be there.
"The line of 'Make America great again,' the phrase, that was mine, I came up with it about a year ago, and I kept using it, and everybody's now using it, they are all loving it," Trump said.
"I don’t know I guess I should copyright it, maybe I have copyrighted it."
Donald Trump must never have heard of Google. Every campaign trail reporter has heard that line at least ten million times, in years prior to last year, from a depressingly large number of other politicians.
But let's just start with the obvious: Ronald Reagan made "Make America Great Again" a backbone of his campaign. He and Bush even used it on a button:
And that's just the beginning. I seem to remember Rick Perry using it as well, and I'd love it if readers could dig up the full record, because it would be amusing background for Trump's copyright application.
Maybe if he straps on his Flux Capacitor and goes back in time, to the pre-Spy days when he wasn't reduced to doing reality shows or running for president to make a living, Trump can find a time when he could plausibly claim to have invented that line. But in 2015, in the world of Al Gore's Internet? Hilarious.
FOCUS | President Signs Order Making Ted Cruz Ineligible for Obamacare
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=9160"><span class="small">Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker</span></a>
Wednesday, 25 March 2015 11:45
Borowitz writes: "Just hours after Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told CNN that he had no choice but to sign up for Obamacare, President Barack Obama signed an executive order making Cruz ineligible for coverage under the Affordable Care Act."
Ted Cruz (photo: AP)
President Signs Order Making Ted Cruz Ineligible for Obamacare
By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
25 March 15
The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes the news for his column, "The Borowitz Report."
ust hours after Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told CNN that he had no choice but to sign up for Obamacare, President Barack Obama signed an executive order making Cruz ineligible for coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
“Clearly, the hardship of receiving Obamacare was causing Ted a great deal of pain,” the President said. “This should take care of that.”
Obama acknowledged that the executive order, which makes Cruz the only American expressly forbidden from signing up for Obamacare, was an extraordinary measure, but added, “I felt it was a necessary humanitarian gesture to protect Ted from the law he hates.”
Even as he signed the order, the President said that he was “torn” about barring Cruz from coverage, stating,”He’s definitely someone who would benefit from seeing a doctor.”
In an official statement released later in the day, Cruz blasted the executive order and accused Obama of distorting his position on Obamacare: “I never said I didn’t want to have it. I said I didn’t want everyone else in the country to have it.”
Parry writes: "Ukraine's post-coup regime is facing what looks like a falling-out among thieves as oligarch-warlord Igor Kolomoisky, who was given his own province to rule, brought his armed men to Kiev to fight for control of the state-owned energy company, further complicating the State Department's propaganda efforts."
Igor Kolomoisky, billionaire and governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region. (photo: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)
Ukraine’s post-coup regime is facing what looks like a falling-out among thieves as oligarch-warlord Igor Kolomoisky, who was given his own province to rule, brought his armed men to Kiev to fight for control of the state-owned energy company, further complicating the State Department’s propaganda efforts, reports Robert Parry.
n the never-never land of how the mainstream U.S. press covers the Ukraine crisis, the appointment last year of thuggish oligarch Igor Kolomoisky to govern one of the country’s eastern provinces was pitched as a democratic “reform” because he was supposedly too rich to bribe, without noting that his wealth had come from plundering the country’s economy.
In other words, the new U.S.-backed “democratic” regime, after overthrowing democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych because he was “corrupt,” was rewarding one of Ukraine’s top thieves by letting him lord over his own province, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, with the help of his personal army.
Last year, Kolomoisky’s brutal militias, which include neo-Nazi brigades, were praised for their fierce fighting against ethnic Russians from the east who were resisting the removal of their president. But now Kolomoisky, whose financial empire is crumbling as Ukraine’s economy founders, has turned his hired guns against the Ukrainian government led by another oligarch, President Petro Poroshenko.
On Thursday night, Kolomoisky and his armed men went to Kiev after the government tried to wrest control of the state-owned energy company UkrTransNafta from one of his associates. Kolomoisky and his men raided the company offices to seize and apparently destroy records. As he left the building, he cursed out journalists who had arrived to ask what was going on. He ranted about “Russian saboteurs.”
It was a revealing display of how the corrupt Ukrainian political-economic system works and the nature of the “reformers” whom the U.S. State Department has pushed into positions of power. According to BusinessInsider, the Kiev government tried to smooth Kolomoisky’s ruffled feathers by announcing “that the new company chairman [at UkrTransNafta] would not be carrying out any investigations of its finances.”
Yet, it remained unclear whether Kolomoisky would be satisfied with what amounts to an offer to let any past thievery go unpunished. But if this promised amnesty wasn’t enough, Kolomoisky appeared ready to use his private army to discourage any accountability.
On Monday, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, chief of the State Security Service, accused Dnipropetrovsk officials of financing armed gangs and threatening investigators, Bloomberg News reported, while noting that Ukraine has sunk to 142nd place out of 175 countries in Transparency International’s Corruptions Perception Index, the worst in Europe.
The see-no-evil approach to how the current Ukrainian authorities do business relates as well to Ukraine’s new Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, who appears to have enriched herself at the expense of a $150 million U.S.-taxpayer-financed investment fund for Ukraine.
Jaresko, a former U.S. diplomat who received overnight Ukrainian citizenship in December to become Finance Minister, had been in charge of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), which became the center of insider-dealing and conflicts of interest, although the U.S. Agency for International Development showed little desire to examine the ethical problems – even after Jaresko’s ex-husband tried to blow the whistle. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Ukraine Finance Minister’s American ‘Values.’”]
Passing Out the Billions
Jaresko will be in charge of dispensing the $17.5 billion that the International Monetary Fund is allocating to Ukraine, along with billions of dollars more expected from U.S. and European governments.
Regarding Kolomoisky’s claim about “Russian saboteurs,” the government said that was not the case, explaining that the clash resulted from the parliament’s vote last week to reduce Kolomoisky’s authority to run the company from his position as a minority owner. As part of the shakeup, Kolomoisky’s protégé Oleksandr Lazorko was fired as chairman, but he refused to leave and barricaded himself in his office, setting the stage for Kolomoisky’s arrival with armed men.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported on the dispute but also flashed back to its earlier propagandistic praise of the 52-year-old oligarch, recalling that “Mr. Kolomoisky was one of several oligarchs, considered too rich to bribe, who were appointed to leadership positions in a bid to stabilize Ukraine.”
Kolomoisky also is believed to have purchased influence inside the U.S. government through his behind-the-scenes manipulation of Ukraine’s largest private gas firm, Burisma Holdings. Last year, the shadowy Cyprus-based company appointed Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, to its board of directors. Burisma also lined up well-connected lobbyists, some with ties to Secretary of State John Kerry, including Kerry’s former Senate chief of staff David Leiter, according to lobbying disclosures.
As Time magazine reported, “Leiter’s involvement in the firm rounds out a power-packed team of politically-connected Americans that also includes a second new board member, Devon Archer, a Democratic bundler and former adviser to John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. Both Archer and Hunter Biden have worked as business partners with Kerry’s son-in-law, Christopher Heinz, the founding partner of Rosemont Capital, a private-equity company.”
According to investigative journalism in Ukraine, the ownership of Burisma has been traced to Privat Bank, which is controlled by Kolomoisky.
So, it appears that Ukraine’s oligarchs who continue to wield enormous power inside the corrupt country are now circling each other over what’s left of the economic spoils and positioning themselves for a share of the international bailouts to come.
As for “democratic reform,” only in the upside-down world of the State Department’s Orwellian “information war” against Russia over Ukraine would imposing a corrupt and brutal oligarch like Kolomoisky as the unelected governor of a defenseless population be considered a positive.
(Early Wednesday morning, President Poroshenko dismissed Kolomoisky from his post as Dnipropetrovsk regional governor.)
_________
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
Galindez writes: "Martin O' Malley, the former Governor of Maryland and likely candidate for President in 2016 arrived in Iowa on Friday with both guns blazing. In an OP/ED he penned for the Des Moines Register. O' Malley wrote: 'The largest banks should be broken up into more manageable institutions...'"
Likely presidential candidate Martin O'Malley listens to the concerns of Scott County Democrats in Davenport, Iowa. (photo: Scott Galindez/RSN)
Martin O'Malley: "Break Up the Big Banks"
By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
24 March 15
artin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland and a likely candidate for president in 2016, arrived in Iowa on Friday with both guns blazing. In an opinion piece he penned for the Des Moines Register, O’Malley wrote: “The largest banks should be broken up into more manageable institutions. Today, five banks control half of the financial industry’s $15 trillion in assets. Even members of Congress, several Federal Reserve Board governors, and major players in the financial industry are recognizing that institutions that are too big to fail are too big to succeed.” The column took a shot at Democrats who want to water down Dodd/Frank, which he said didn’t go far enough. “The most serious structural reform we can make is reinstating the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that kept commercial banks separate from investment banks.”
“Structural reforms aren’t enough,” O’Malley went on to say. “We must bring fundamental change to the culture of Wall Street, beginning with real accountability. To this day, the Justice Department and financial regulators have done virtually nothing to bring criminal charges or hold leadership accountable. Legal deterrents are critical for improving the culture of Wall Street and showing that fraudulent behavior will be punished.”
Later in the day, O’Malley delivered a rousing keynote address at the Scott County Democratic Party’s annual Red, White & Blue dinner. He brought the crowd to its feet several times in a speech that many called inspirational. “The American Dream will never die on our watch, because we choose to fight, and we intend to win,” said O’Malley. “That means raising the minimum wage, expanding eligibility for overtime pay and respecting the rights of all workers to organize. To make the dream true again, we must expand – and not reduce – Social Security benefits.”
O’Malley talked about his past record as mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, along with his vision for the future.
He reminded me a lot of old-school Democrats who represented workers, women, the poor, and people of color. He spoke of the Democratic Party being the party of compassion that has championed a path to the middle class. He spoke of providing opportunity for immigrants, saying “the symbol of America is not barbed wire, it’s the Statue of Liberty.” He stood up for equal pay for women, bringing the crowd to its feet as he shouted, “Sing it with me – when women succeed, America succeeds!”
O’Malley blasted Republicans for making it harder for people to vote. He touted his record in Maryland, where they made it easier to vote. He blasted the Republicans for being a party focused on keeping wages down, telling the crowd that he had raised the minimum wage in Maryland to $10.10 an hour.
While mayor of Baltimore, O’Malley took on crime in the city. He used a modern computer system to track crime trends and develop a systematic response. He brought the system with him to the Governor’s Mansion in Maryland. He claimed that crime in Baltimore had dropped by a higher rate than in any other city in America.
When O’Malley was governor of Maryland, he was always seen as effective, but he never stood out as a progressive. However, there were signs that he might be a very progressive candidate: Maryland was one of the first states to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay was a strong priority for O’Malley. He signed gay marriage into law, and allowed children of undocumented immigrants (“dreamers”) to receive financial aid for college.
Martin O’Malley, who opposed the Iraq War, sent a letter to President Barack Obama thanking him for pulling troops out of Iraq. O’Malley wrote: “Thank you for doing what you said you would do in bringing our troops home from Iraq. Thank you for valuing the lives of our brave young men and women over the politically expedient course. Thank you for standing your ground against those who criticized and mocked you. Thank you for doing what only a few presidents have had the courage to do – end war.”
O’Malley opposes the Keystone XL pipeline. He posted the following comments on his Facebook page: “It’s time to reject the either/or and small ball choices facing us on energy. I hope the Senate rejects #_KeystoneXL – it’s too much carbon dioxide, and not nearly enough jobs (only about 50 jobs permanent once construction is finished).”
O’Malley knows Iowa. He got his start in politics as a Gary Hart volunteer. He volunteered to come to Iowa, where he helped with the traditional campaign tasks while also performing with his guitar at pubs and campaign events. He still plays in an Irish rock band.
Last year he visited Iowa often, and his PAC sent $40,000 and 14 staffers to help with the 2014 elections.
As the attendees of the dinner enjoyed their meal, O’Malley visited every table and spoke with everyone in attendance. Following the event, the governor visited Kelley’s Irish Pub, where he talked one-on-one with everyone who had followed him there.
I spoke to many of the Scott County Democrats at the pub, and none of them think Hillary Clinton has Davenport or Iowa in the bag. They think Martin O’Malley has as good a chance as anyone to win Iowa.
Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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n every red state where they’ve spent big, the Koch brothers have defeated Medicaid expansion, the piece of the Affordable Care Act that is optional for states and gives relief to the working poor. But in Montana — by some measurements the reddest state in the country — the Kochs are hitting the skids. Their monster political group, Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, has laid an egg. And Medicaid expansion now has a real chance of happening.
e should get the wire services and pollsters to create a consensus "Dumbest Americans" list, the way BCS football teams or boxing contenders are rated. Not only would it be fun, but it would be a way for Donald Trump to stay in the news without having to say dumb things all the time.
ust hours after Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told CNN that he had no choice but to sign up for Obamacare, President Barack Obama signed an executive order making Cruz ineligible for coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
artin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland and a likely candidate for president in 2016, arrived in Iowa on Friday with both guns blazing. In an opinion piece he penned for the 
