The Koch Brothers, Charles and David, have an
influential pro-freedom, pro-liberty agenda working in state houses and
influencing federal legislators.
Targeted by left-wing Congressmen (like
the now-retired Henry Waxman (D-CA) among others) and progressive interest groups,
the Koch Brothers have sparked serious fights in otherwise blue states, and
have thwarted the aggressive Big Government agenda of President Barack Obama.
Former US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blamed
them for many of the ills afflicting the country, and called their ads against
Obamacare victims “untrue”.
Yet recently, President Obama, a lame duck executive
making the most of his final years in the Oval Office, has praised the efforts
of the libertarian oil magnates.
Last month, when Obama granted clemency to 46
inmates and just before he became the first sitting president to visit a
federal prison, he gave a shout-out to the Koch brothers in a speech during an
NAACP conference.
“This is a cause that’s bringing people in
both houses of Congress together,” Obama said. “It’s created some unlikely
bedfellows. You’ve got Van Jones and Newt Gingrich. You’ve got Americans for
Tax Reform and the ACLU. You’ve got the NAACP — and the Koch brothers.”
The audience started laughing.
These, after all, were the brothers that
Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) called “un-American” and spoke of
their role in political life as “the shadowy influence of two power-drunk
billionaires.”
But Koch Industries is urging support of
the same legislation in Congress that is backed by Obama as his administration
tries to reduce the burgeoning prison population, cut the billions spent on
inmates and reverse severe drug-sentencing policies that began with the crack
cocaine epidemic.
The WaPo
article highlighted the purposes behind their efforts for sentencing reform, including
ongoing criticism of a slow-acting executive:
He describes his focus on sentencing
reform as part of his libertarian philosophy of limited government and his
commitment to removing barriers of opportunity for the poor. He said Obama
should do more and do it faster to rectify the effects of mandatory minimum
sentences, especially for the disadvantaged and men and women of color.
No comments:
Post a Comment