The Koch Brothers Have Gotten Much, Much Richer Under Obama

[draa]

Their net worth has more than doubled since the president was elected.

Sam Levine
Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post

Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars building a conservative network to oppose Democrats, have actually done very well for themselves since President Barack Obama took office.

The Koch brothers, who believe strongly in a market-based libertarian philosophy, each had a net worth of $19 billion in 2008, the year Obama was elected to office, according to Forbes. The fortune dipped slightly in 2009 to $16 billion amid a financial crisis that was caused, in part, by the kind of limited government oversight they believe in.

But the Kochs have rebounded nicely. According to Forbes, the brothers are now worth $41 billion each, meaning their fortune has more than doubled under Obama.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/koch-brothers-net-worth_us_56a3ac86e4b076aadcc6d1f4

For a little contrast on this story I'll add this as well.

More children are in poverty today than before the Great Recession

BY Laura Santhanam and Megan Hickey July 21, 2015 at

One out of five American children live in poverty, and we have the Great Recession to blame.

That’s according to a new report out today from the Annie E. Casey Foundation that tracks the overall well-being of children in the United States.

Today, 22 percent of children live in poverty, up from 18 percent in 2008.

Despite policies and programs designed to help families recover, the economic slowdown left many families behind, said Laura Speer. She is the foundation’s associate director for policy reform and advocacy and oversees the national KIDS COUNT project.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/childhood-well-study/

This is what "Status Quo" does for our children. It's immoral and obscene that our children go hungry while the 1% get the protection of our politicians. We can change this but there's only ONE way.

[LiberalElite]

1. K&R nt

[Fumesucker]

2. See, a rising tide really does raise all yachts

The Kochs are so overjoyed they are going to make an extra special donation to the DLC for their help in bringing about this felicitous turn of events.

[PatrickforO]

3. These two sets of quotes tell quite a story don't they.

The Koch brothers and all the other billionaires have become parasites. They take more and more and we have less and less.

It's time for some BERNIE.

[draa]

5. And this is what Clinton wants to continue.

We have more proof that nothing will improve than they do that it will.

[libdem4life]

4. The ultimate obscenity. Bernie has just reorganized the information and publicized it to

make the pieces fit. We are not always a compassionate nation...especially when it comes to money and power.

[Triana]

6. . . . and yet they hate him. n/t

[Kalidurga]

11. Can't blame them can you.

A Republican president may have let them amass a few million more dollars. Now they might not be able to afford another mansion in the Cayman Islands where they visit their money.

[Autumn Colors]

7. K&R (nt)

[Kalidurga]

8. I didn't even have to look at the map knowing it was about childhood poverty

to know which states were the worst.



With a few notable exceptions, children in blue states are much better off.

[draa]

9. Thank you very much Kalidurga.

The more information the better.

[Kalidurga]

10. No problem

well except for the fact the map is a very sad thing to look at.

[Dems to Win]

12. Obama, at the time he came into office, could have tried to be a new FDR

The financial system in ruins could have been that dramatic moment to allow for real change.

But that's not who Obama is.

Bernie 2016

[draa]

13. I think he was naive and thought he could get help from across the isle.

As bad as it sounds the racists in the GOP were never going to work with him. Not gonna' happen.

Before the Clinton camp shows up and blasts me as an Obama hater I voted for the man twice. I would support a third run if it was Obama versus Clinton and Bernie wasn't in the mix. Not saying I'd vote for him but he's still a better choice than Clinton any day.

I just don't think he focused in the right direction. He focused on the top 1% and we needed focus on the bottom 99% instead. I trust Bernie to do that and I know he will.

[SoapBox]

23. Agreed.

[roguevalley]

32. I think his first mistake was not tackling unemployment first. 900K lost their jobs the month he

took office. Instead of that he started with health care. He didn't solidify the people by tackling their poverty and unemployment. How can you buy health care without a job? I always felt that was a huge mistake.

[chervilant]

34. So very true.

I spent almost six years un- or under-employed, and used up all but one of my meager retirement accounts to survive.

I STILL cannot afford the health insurance offered through the ACA.

[jeff47]

35. Actually, the stimulus bill passed long before the ACA

Unfortunately, he compromised with Republicans so the stimulus was 50% tax cuts, which are not very effective at fighting an economic downturn. FAR better to do something like infrastructure spending that 1) gives people a job directly and 2) produces something that will provide value for decades.

The administration was also terrified of the price being "too high", so the bill was only about 50% what should have been spent. So another compromise was to make the bill "round 1".

When Republicans refused to consider a second round, the administration banked heavily on a recovery as if they had spent all the money, and as if it was targeted well. When that didn't pan out, it destroyed any further stimulus efforts.

[CharlotteVale]

14. K&R

[Uncle Joe]

15. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, draa.

[draa]

16. Any time Joe. Thanks for the Rec.

It's something very dear to my heart.

[Dont call me Shirley]

17. 93% of all economic gains have gone to the .01%, there's a serious problem with that!

[snagglepuss]

18. Wow that is jawdropping.

Great post.

[draa]

19. Thank you snagglepuss.

These bastards must be exposed.

[forest444]

20. The solution (eventually): Nationalization

And in their case without compensation, because the Corpus Christi spill alone (for which they almost went to prison, but for Dubya's intervention) would warrant it.

[TipTok]

21. Jury Results

On Sat Jan 23, 2016, 10:36 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

The Koch Brothers Have Gotten Much, Much Richer Under Obama
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511054538

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

This is grossly offensive and inappropriate - linking President Obama to the Koch Brothers' wealth, insinuating that Obama had something to do with that. This has nothing to do with the primaries, so that cannot be used as an excuse. PLEASE hide this offensive anti-Democratic post. Thanks.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sat Jan 23, 2016, 10:44 PM, and the Jury voted 0-7 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Nothing untrue in the post. No violation in my view.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given

[SoapBox]

22. Outrageous.

[m-lekktor]

24. pffft. People don't want to hear the truth about their heroes. nt

[Skittles]

25. nice smackdown

what is it with DUers who just cannot HANDLE THE TRUTH?

[draa]

27. I wear that attempt as a Badge of Honor.

Just for the Children.

[byronius]

26. So now you wish to pit Bernie against Obama.

Great strategy. You should go after FDR and Kennedy, too, those puppets of oblivion.

Only Bernie will do. Everyone else who has ever lived is shit compared to Bernie. Like midnight to midday, no shades of gray.

Great job. You're so -- brilliant! So smart. Smarter than anyone.

Better than anyone.

[draa]

28. Thank you for your reply.

Peace.

[byronius]

29. That is the smug and self-satisfied response I would expect.

I object to the damage you do -- to Bernie, and to the cause.

You're helping no one with such puerile and specious causal gamesmanship. No one.

Not even yourself.

PS: Bernie's been a senator longer than Obama's been president. Let's project those same stats through Bernie's tenure. He's got to be at least somewhat guilty if your reasoning holds. Complicit. A tool of the 1%, clearly.

[chervilant]

36. I see this quite often.

I see defensive and condescending rebuttals of most OPs herein that contain criticisms of our Democratic leaders.

I remind you of the Johnson quote, the one that Bob Dylan rendered a populist meme:

"Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings."

Now, please note that I am not calling you a scoundrel. In my interpretation of this famous quote, Johnson and Dylan have warned that those who refuse to employ their critical thinking skills when assessing the relative merits and/or successes of their elected officials are likely to become like those "scoundrels" (think teabaggers) who cling obsessively (and wrongly) to their ostentatious and obsequious displays of patriotism. I tend to hope (wrongly sometimes) that we Democrats are not like this.

So, I tend to welcome criticisms, so that I can think critically about our Democratic leaders. In fact, I happen to agree with this OP's originator, who observed that Obama "made a mistake" when he tackled health care before he helped the hundreds of thousands of us who lost their jobs during the reign of the Bush cabal. Being chronically un- or under-employed since the Crash of '08, I couldn't then and I STILL cannot afford the health insurance that my state has made available via the ACA.

BTW, I happen to agree with the late, great Bill Hicks. I think that, after they are sworn in, our presidents are escorted to a windowless room and shown a clip of the JFK assassination from a vastly different perspective--a clip that has never been seen before. From somewhere behind the POTUS--in this darkened, smoky room lit only by the flickering screen--a voice says, "Any questions?"

Now, I hope you can see that scenario as a simile, suggesting how very difficult it is to be POTUS, particularly with the uber wealthy corporate megalomaniacs (and, in particular, the MIC) controlling our media, our politics AND our global economy. And, this, byronius, is where we diverge, because I don't think we can say enough how vital it is that We the People, the Great Hoi Polloi, must partner with the politician who is unafraid to shine the spotlight on these vile cretins I call the corporate megalomaniacs. That politician is Bernie Sanders, and I--like millions of other concerned members of the Hoi Polloi--stand with him. We MUST stop the usurpation of our democracy.

I find it astonishing that Senator Sanders has the courage to stand against the corporate oligarchs. More importantly, I find it COURAGEOUS!

Go, BERNIE!!!

[byronius]

37. Oh, I support Bernie.

I do not, however, condone Hillary-hatred or poorly-reasoned causal links purporting to show that Barack Obama is a Traitor. I'm no glassy-eyed ideological zombie; I just know that it's a logical fallacy to argue that Obama serves as a willing lackey for the Koch brothers because their wealth increased during his presidency. Such bullshit. It divides and weakens, and is akin to the purity tests I see being imposed by the less-rational Bernie supporters, i.e., 'no one is as as liberal as I am because I ruthlessly judge everyone and everything who is not me as being devoted to evil.' Y'know, those people. Often, in actual reality far from the electronic world, I have found the most judgmental Hyper-Liberals to be clueless sociopaths with destructive personal lives.

As a vegan, I see it all the time in fellow vegans. Absolute purism, sneering judgment, bitter accusations of bad intent directed at other vegans who do not, as a rule, hate everyone who is not a vegan. And I find all of that to be bullshit as well. Self-defeating bullshit.

It's weak-minded. We're supposed to be smarter than that. It does not make Bernie sound more viable to 'prove' that every other Democrat in the history of time has betrayed their cause. In fact, it hurts him. Specious absolutism is supposed to be a right-wing phenomenon; clearly it is a standard-issue primate trait.

[chervilant]

38. OMG!

I'm a Vegan, too! I mark three years as a Vegan next month.

I agree with what you're saying, but I don't think that this OP purports to show that Barack Obama is a "traitor." I get that this OP highlights the damages done by the status quo.

(I don't sneer at or judge my fellow Vegans, either.)

[byronius]

39. Well, chervilant, thanks for your reasoned response.

But the OP doesn't say 'Status Quo', it says 'Obama'.

And I'm curious as to exactly what Bernie's going to do without a House or Senate. This is not a dictatorship, after all; I'm quite certain that many of his most fervent supporters will be calling him a traitor soon enough, because he didn't immediately solve income inequality on day one.

Citizens United is a knife in the national back. We're bleeding to death from it. No one man can save us, and attacking people who are trying to help hurts.

[Tanuki]

40. Outstanding set of posts, byronius.

It amazed me to see the handiwork of the past several years of GOP congressional dominance blamed on Obama, and so many here falling for an absolutely glaring example of a "post hoc ergo proper hoc" logical fallacy. I am pretty sure they aren't that naive. I can't fathom why people on an ostensibly Democratic forum are so willing to let the Republicans off the hook on this. I can only guess that it is intended as an assault on one of Clinton's stated goals, i.e. continuing the progress made during Obama's presidency.

[draa]

30. Man I love the ignore button.

Possibly the greatest thing ever invented. Peace (and quite).

[840high]

31. k/r good post

[AwakeAtLast]

33. I think they mean

Under a REPUBLICAN controlled Congress......