Voice For Liberty

Tag: Americans For Prosperity

  • Socialism embraced in Washington today

    I’m not one to throw around charges of socialism lightly. For one thing, the term has devolved to have several meanings, and it’s not always clear which of the several meanings the speaker or writer intends.

    It’s also a highly charged term that usually overstates the case when it is used. Cathy Young explained in Reason Magazine: “To those who remember the murderous horror that was the USSR, this flippant use of Communist and Soviet analogies should be deeply offensive, indeed obscene — the right-wing equivalent of the leftist habit of flinging Nazi metaphors at conservatives.”

    But at today’s rally in Washington, Americans for Prosperity found many examples of people reveling in socialism.

  • Who is Americans For Prosperity?

    By Derrick Sontag, Kansas State Director, Americans for Prosperity. Kansas was one of the first states to have an AFP chapter.

    In recent weeks members of the press and even President Barack Obama have asked, “Who is Americans for Prosperity?” In asking this, many have implied AFP is just a front group for large corporations or as President Obama speculated, perhaps it’s even a “foreign controlled entity.”

    The answer is simple. Americans For Prosperity is a non-partisan, grassroots-driven organization that advocates for limited government and free market principles, principles under constant attack at every level of government today.

    AFP provides a voice for its more than 1.5 million activist members, including 40,000 in Kansas, to counter the powerful big government lobby that hovers on Capitol Hill and in state capitols like ours in Topeka. Being a part of an organization like AFP provides concerned citizens the tools to directly challenge the progressive agenda being advocated for by the multitude of special interest groups that try to influence elected officials on a daily basis.

    Since its inception in 2004, AFP has advocated for personal property rights, lower taxes and fewer government regulations, and to slow down the growth in government spending. Recently, we’ve voiced loud opposition to the numerous bailouts in which the government is picking the winners and losers in the marketplace, an act that threatens the viability of the free market itself. We have been vocal in opposing job-destroying legislation like cap and trade that would dramatically increase consumer prices and drive American businesses to countries with fewer regulations or force them to close up shop altogether. Perhaps most of all, the liberal elite dislikes us because of our opposition to the government takeover of our health care system.

    With a simple yet vitally important agenda like that, it’s no wonder we’re being targeted by members of the liberal elite. President Obama recently said that the “biggest problem we all have across the country right now … is groups like Americans For Prosperity.” Not the near ten percent unemployment rate but rather, the biggest problem according to the president is groups like AFP daring to challenge the progressive policies being put forth across the country.

    With this apparent coordinated attack on AFP and its limited government and free market oriented platform, one could easily conclude there are some in this country who fear that our message is resonating with the American people.

  • Does the White House have Koch Industries tax information?

    In an episode that may be reminiscent of Richard Nixon and his use of government agencies to harass his opponents, the Obama administration has singled out a major American company and its tax returns for criticism. In the process, the Obama administration may have crossed a line, as did Nixon and his disgraced administration.

    Here’s what The Weekly Standard is reporting today:

    … a lawyer for Koch Industries now tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the administration may have crossed a line by revealing tax information about Koch Industries. According to Mark Holden, senior vice president and general counsel of Koch Industries, a senior Obama administration official told reporters at an August 27 on-the-record background briefing on corporate taxes:

    So in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax. Some of which are really giant firms, you know Koch Industries is a multibillion dollar businesses.

    The full article is at Koch Industries Lawyer to White House: How Did You Get Our Tax Information?

    So far it’s not known whether this revelation about Koch Industries and its taxes is accurate, or whether the information was obtained improperly. John McCormack, the author of the article, raises these two questions: “Why won’t White House officials say if the quotation about Koch Industries is accurate — or even if a transcript of the briefing exists? And, if the quotation is accurate, why won’t they say how the White House obtained tax information on Koch Industries?”

    Recently President Barack Obama criticized Americans for Prosperity. (AFP was founded by David H. Koch, who is executive vice president and a board member of Koch Industries. He is chairman of the board of directors of Americans for Prosperity Foundation.)

    Criticism of AFP is fair — even if the president’s criticisms are baseless and unfounded — as AFP operates in the political arena. AFP is critical of President Obama’s policies, and it’s only natural that he would strike back.

    But tax returns — both personal and corporate — are supposed to be confidential and not used for political purposes.

    Update: The Weekly Standard reports that it was Austan Goolsbee who named Koch Industries. Goolsbee was just named Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

  • Wichita economic development incentives to be topic of meeting

    This Thursday (September 9) Americans for Prosperity is holding a meeting to discuss a series of economic development incentives that will be considered in an upcoming meeting of the Wichita city council.

    John Todd of AFP says:

    “On Tuesday, September 14, 2010 the Wichita City Council will be considering the approval of several public economic development incentive programs for private development projects. The City Council meeting starts at 9:00 a.m. Copies of the council agenda detailing these projects is usually available online at Wichita.gov on the Friday prior to the Tuesday city council meeting.

    “The purpose of tonight’s meeting is to provide you with the opportunity to discuss and learn more about the incentives used by local government officials in economic development projects so that if you wish, you can get involved in the project vetting process as a more informed citizen.

    The meeting, which is open to the public, is from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm on Thursday, September 9, 2010, at the Wichita Public Library Central Branch (Patio Meeting Room), at 223 S. Main, Wichita, Kansas 67202

    For more information on this event contact John Todd at john@johntodd.net or 316-312-7335, or Susan Estes, AFP Field Director at sestes@afphq.org or 316-681-4415.

  • Kochs and Soros, contrasted and compared

    Daniel Fisher of Forbes Magazine weighs in again on mainstream media demonetization of Charles and David Koch for their support of organizations committed to economic freedom and liberty.

    Here, Fisher compares and contrasts the Kochs to George Soros, the celebrated financier of many left-wing causes, and to a much greater extent than the Kochs:

    “According to the most recent reports available, Soros has donated some $2 billion to his Open Society Institute, which pursues a wide variety of political initiatives around the world. Much of the money went to support pro-democracy activists and the like battling corrupt and oppressive regimes.” That sounds like a noble cause. Perhaps someday some might be used to combat the oppressive Obama regime here in America.

    Here in the United States, however, Soros money flows to the same types of organizations and the same types of uses for which the political Left is vigorously attacking Charles and David Koch:

    Here in the U.S., the institution has backed a profusion of community organization, “education” and get-out-the-vote groups that seem to have concentrated their activities in important swing states like Michigan and Ohio in the 2008 election year. No reports are available for 2010 but it’s a safe bet a similar amount flowed to organizations which, while not explicitly in favor of a specific candidate, support cherished causes of the Democratic Party and its financial supporters: non-judicial elections, municipal employee unions, universal healthcare.

    One of the outfits that’s received a lot of Soros money over the years is the Center for American Progress, recipient of $1 million from Soros in 2008. CAP, a left-wing think tank that supports increasing government intervention and opposes economic freedom, may be of interest to those in the south-central Kansas fourth Congressional district as the former workplace of Democratic Party candidate Raj Goyle.

    While Soros has made his contribution to CAP a matter of public knowledge, CAP does not disclose all its donors. CAP takes advantage of the same confidentiality provisions in the law that the political Left criticizes groups like Americans for Prosperity for using. But for some reason, we don’t see mainstream media references to this, and liberals seem blind to the parallels.

    We also don’t see much reference to the way Soros earned his fortune. A hedge fund operator and speculator, Soros was actually convicted of insider trading. Yet the Left hammers on Koch Industries for providing energy that America has used to power its economic growth, and energy we will continue to need.

    Soros Makes The Kochs Look Like Political Skinflints

    By Daniel Fisher

    Jane Mayer’s New Yorker profile of the Koch brothers paints a picture of a Wichita-based empire that stealthily reinvests its profits from oil refining and manufacturing into a constellation of vaguely menacing right-wing organizations. Leave aside the valid criticism that the Kochs have been anything but stealthy in their funding, which tends to undermine the title of the article, “Covert Operations.” Writers can always blame an editor for the headline.

    What about the idea there’s something aberrational about the amount of money the Kochs are pouring into politics? According to Mayer, Charles and David Koch, personally and through foundations and political action committees, poured $250 million or so into charities, think-tanks and political campaigns between 1998 and 2008. Much of that went to groups like Lincoln Center that the average New Yorker reader could hardly consider a hotbed of constitution-in-exile, would-be McVeighs frothing at the idea of the Obama presidency.

    Continue reading at Forbes

  • In Left’s attack on Koch Industries, facts sometimes don’t matter

    Sometimes in politics hatred runs so deep that facts simply don’t matter.

    We saw an example of this Wednesday in Overland Park, Kansas as a group of two “theatrical protesters” sought to inform attendees at an Americans for Prosperity rally about what they thought was the true nature of that organization.

    Their argument, presented in a handout paid for by the Kansas Democratic Party and given to attendees, went like this:

    First: “My friends at Americans for Prosperity can be a little shy — which is why they’ve outsourced the job of letting you know who they really are to me.”

    This charge of outsourcing — made by two women theatrically dressed in sorcerer’s outfits: “out sourcerers,” get it? — is a common criticism of big business. Democrats often campaign on a pledge of eliminating tax breaks for American companies that outsource jobs overseas. Whether these jobs are created at the expense of American jobs is a matter of contention.

    Then, the handout notes a fact that I think just about everyone knows by now and has never been hidden: “Americans for Prosperity was founded by billionaire CEO David Koch. [New York Times, 7/10/08]”

    (Not to quibble too much here, but the New York Times article referenced describes David Koch’s position as “executive vice president and a board member of Koch Industries,” not CEO.)

    Then comes the heart of the charge: that Koch Industries outsources American jobs to China: “One of Koch Industries’ key subsidiaries actually won an award for Outsourcing Excellence” after they shipped American jobs to China. [Freeborders Press Release, 6/1/06; http://www.invista.com/page_whois_shareholder_en.shtml]”

    Earl Glynn of Kansas Watchdog looked into this matter and found out that the outsourcing took place before Koch Industries owned INVISTA, the company that did the outsourcing — and a small job it was at that. Below I quote at length from the article AFP Bus Stop in Overland Park Greeted by “Out-Sourcerers”. There’s video of the theatrical protestors in the Kansas Watchdiogarticle:

    The “Out Sourcerers” also complained about the out sourcing of jobs by Koch Industries in their handout:

    One of Koch Industries’ key subsidiaries actually won an award for “Outsourcing Excellence”; after they shipped American jobs to China. [Freeborders Press Release, 6/1/06; http://www.invista.com/page_whois_shareholder_en.shtml]

    Google cache shows this online article from June 2006 about this “Outsourcing Excellence Award.” The description of the project for this award was “an interactive online sales platform for textile mills to market fabrics directly to garment vendors, brands and retailers anywhere in the world.”

    Freeborders used its strategy of onshore project management in both Europe and the US, coupled with offshore development at its Shenzhen, China facilities to complete the project three weeks ahead of schedule. The new platform was launched in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific and over 700 brand and retail companies, registered in the first five weeks. The platform ultimately connected 600 textile manufacturers in 40 countries to over 1,000 brands and retailers worldwide.

    An online article Lessons Learned From This Year’s Awards from Aug. 2006 describes the “outsourcing” that was used to “meet impossible deadlines” over an 8 week period to win the award:

    INVISTA then hired Freeborders, a supplier that agreed to meet the demanding deadline by putting together teams in the US, Europe, and China who literally worked around the clock. With eight weeks left, the buyer asked Freeborders if it could deliver the library three weeks early so it could demonstrate the program at a trade show in Miami. And Freeborders did.

    How many permanent jobs could have been involved in meeting “impossible deadlines” over an 8 week period?

    But that’s not the whole story either:

    • In 2001, three years before INVISTA was acquired by Koch Industries, INVISTA’s former owner outsourced an IT project to a global consulting firm. Fewer than 20 of the consulting firm’s employees worked on the project. It was completed in 2001.
    • Five years later, that 2001 IT project was given an “outsourcing award” (in an award category titled “Best European collaboration” given that the project was initiated out of a European office of INVISTA’s former owner).

    A DuPont press release from Nov. 2003 explained the sale of INVISTA by DuPont to subsidiaries of Koch. At that time INVISTA had 18,000 employees at 50 global manufacturing sites. The press release does not mention if any of the DuPont resources were in Wichita or Kansas.

    The Out Sourcerers’ claims about Koch Industries outsourcing jobs from Wichita or Kansas is about politics, not jobs in Wichita or Kansas.

    Koch Industries has 70,000 employees in 60 countries. The majority of the employees — more than 50,000 — are employed in North America with about 2,200 employees in Wichita.

  • At Americans for Prosperity, George Will is optimistic

    Friday night’s dinner at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation fourth annual Defending the American Dream summit featured Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Will as keynote speaker.

    Will’s message was that while progress in limiting the growth of government has been reversed, this can be overcome, and he believes that a restoration of liberty and economic freedom will happen.

    As the dinner was a tribute to former President Ronald Reagan, Will told the audience one of his favorite lines from Reagan during the 1980 campaign: “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job.”

    Continuing, he said that “Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter 2.0 and it is time to hit the delete button.”

    Will told the audience that the “retreat of the state” that started with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and the election of Ronald Reagan has been reversed. This should be reversed again, he said.

    On the federal stimulus, Will said that the downward revision of GDP from a bad number to an even worse number is evidence that the stimulus is not working.

    There are two things that the administration is saying that are “funny,” Will said. One is that our current crisis was brought on because there was too little government regulation and administration. The second is that the problem with the stimulus is that Republicans made it too small. “The government is dangerously frugal at the moment,” he said to laughter from the audience.

    But Will said that the government controls the money supply and interest rates, leading to control of home mortgages. He traced the edicts of government that increasing percentages of mortgages must be given to those with poor credit. These expansions of the federal government, along with the No Child Left Behind education law, happened under Republican administrations, evidence that not only Democrats are too blame.

    Government is dominating the energy sector too. He said that matters because “no less of an authority of energy” than Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that “America should use more natural gas rather than fossil fuels.”

    In health care, half of spending is already government money, and that will increase, as will the 138,000 pages of health care regulations.

    As to the alleged dangerous frugality of the government, Will said we are “marching into the most predictable financial crisis the world has ever seen.” This crisis is self-inflicted, he said.

    Illustrating the size of government, he said that at the time of the first world war, when federal government spending exploded, the richest man in American could have personally retired the federal debt. But today’s richest man could pay for only two month’s interest on the deficit.

    The administration’s planned spending program will result in a situation ten years from now when federal entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) plus the interest on the federal debt will consume 93 percent of federal revenue. The debt will be one hundred percent of GDP. This will crowd out private borrowing and investment. As a nation, he said we don’t save enough to fund both government and the investment needs of the private sector economy.

    Will noted the remarkable progress of American medicine during his lifetime. But both presidential candidates campaigned against the pharmaceutical industry in 2008, which Will said was “shocking.” “It is time to quit stigmatizing those who create wealth, those who extend life, those who reduce pain. Get the government out of the way, and let them get on.”

    The economy is fragile, Will said, and we need not burden it more with taxes. He referred to Congressman Paul Ryan, who said we have a nation with “too many takers and not enough makers.”

    On education, he said we need an education system that “equips people to compete in a free society.” He criticized the short school year in the U.S., as compared to other countries. He told the audience that a major problem with schools is the teachers unions. The increased spending on schools has not worked. 90 percent of the difference between schools can be explained by characteristics of the students’ families, he said. “Don’t tell me the pupil-teacher ratio, tell me the parent-pupil ratio.”

    Even with as many problems as there are, he said that an “aroused citizenry” like that in the room tonight can fix the problems. He’s not pessimistic, he said, because Obama has stimulated a “new clarity” from the American people.

    There is a tension today between freedom and equality, two polar values. Liberals today stress equality of outcomes, and believe that the multiplication of entitlement programs to produce this equality serves the public good. But conservatives stress freedom, and that multiplication of entitlement programs is “subversive of the attitudes and aptitudes essential for a free society of self-reliant, far-sighted, thrifty and industrious people.”

    The Obama presidency has passed its apogee, Will told the audience. Quoting Winston Churchill, he said that “The American people invariably do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the alternatives.” Will said he believes that Americans believe that “a benevolent government is not always a benefactor, capitalism doesn’t just make us better off, it makes us better.”

    Will told the audience that “Americans for Prosperity exists on the principle that when you change the nation’s economy, you change the national character in the process.” Urging the citizen activists to get involved, he echoed a remark made by Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who had spoken earlier: “You are the point of the lance. Go to work.”

    Before his speech, Americans for Prosperity Foundation Chairman David H. Koch awarded Will the George Washington award. This is AFP’s highest award, given to Will for his work in defending and advancing economic freedom.

    Koch also spoke about the goals of Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which he said are to advance economic freedom and prosperity by limiting government growth, spending, and taxation. It is a grassroots movement that holds political leaders of every party accountable. AFP advocates for the free market economy, which he said improves lives and created the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.

  • Dick Morris at Americans for Prosperity summit

    Addressing the general session of Americans for Prosperity Foundation‘s fourth annual Defending the American Dream summit, author and Fox New contributor Dick Morris told an audience of 2,300 that “The recession is over. It is the cure to the recession that we’re experiencing.”

    Morris said that when he worked with President Bill Clinton on cutting and balancing the budget, the spending cuts weren’t to balance budget. The budget was balanced by cutting taxes, which caused increased revenue to flow to the federal treasury. He said Clinton cut the capital gains tax, but Obama wants to increase it. He told the audience that when you raise taxes, you depress the economy.

    Obama and the big spenders use the economic crisis as an excuse to increase government spending. Other “problems” are used as additional excuses to increase government control.

    Morris said that he believes that Republicans will take control of both houses of Congress this year.

    After, there will be two fundamental challenges that remain. First, we have to make sure the people we elect based on pledges to reduce spending keep their word.

    Then, the states will come begging to Washington for a bailout. We need to say no, Morris told the audience. States should have a way to declare bankruptcy and get out from under public sector union contracts.

    At this time next year, Morris said we’ll be here again keeping those we elected accountable to their promises.

  • Americans for Prosperity summit starts today

    Today in Washington, Americans for Prosperity Foundation starts its fourth annual Defending the American Dream summit. The event is expected to be attended by 2,300 citizen grassroots activists from around the country.

    AFP has recently been criticized by President Barack Obama, which many interpret as evidence of AFP’s growing influence and effectiveness.

    AFP Foundation president Tim Phillips said “never before have grassroots Americans been so interested in the challenges facing our nation. We have a sharp lineup of speakers on the most pressing issues — energy, spending,net neutrality, to name a few — and we’re excited to give people information they can share with friends and neighbors as they examine these important policies being discussed in Congress right now.”

    Speakers at this year’s event include Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Will, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, author and Fox New contributor Dick Morris, Herman Cain, and AFP President Tim Phillips. Breakout sessions throughout the day will provide a variety of learning opportunities for citizens.