Waxman: 'All That Seems To Matter Is What Koch Industries Think'

[highplainsdem]

Run time: 01:42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLjOPpgo8oI   Posted on YouTube: March 07, 2011 By YouTube Member: climatebrad Views on YouTube: 307   Posted on DU: March 08, 2011 By DU Member: highplainsdem Views on DU: 2979

 
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/07/henry-waxman-koch/

Speaking at the Center for American Progress Action Fund today, House energy committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-CA) railed against the toxic influence of Koch Industries on efforts to fight global warming. Waxman, who fought polluters to pass the Clean Air Act of 1990, is dismayed by the level of outright science denial among the Republican Party today, exemplified by their votes to slash and burn environmental protection, and the Upton-Inhofe bill to reverse the scientific finding that carbon pollution threatens public health:

It apparently no longer matters in Congress what health experts and scientists think. All that seems to matter is what Koch Industries thinks.

Watch a compilation of Waxman’s remarks:

[democracy1st]

1. K & R

[drokhole]

2. It really is unbelievable...

...an entire country beholden to a few greedy assholes, practically dictating legislation - including the air we breath, the water we drink, and the overall access to pollute the land we live on - as they see fit. Not only that, their actions affect the entire planet. Two people, out of 7 billion. Un-fraking-real.

(note: the Kochs are by no means the only ones, there are plenty more in boardrooms and on Wall Street, they just happen to be two of the most major)

[iwishiwas]

3. Walker in WI is very anti-science and antienviroment. His new budget

eliminates or dramatically cuts decades of environmental initiatives in place in WI. Most media has focused on union budget but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

[glinda]

25. Walker was put in there to work for them. Same in MI. and they thought they had MN.

[upi402]

4. We let it happen

Well some of us have fought our asses off for decades. But I blame the media in the end. People have always been easy to fool when kept uninformed, misinformed, and distracted.

[Lorien]

23. THEY made it happen. Reagan knew what he was doing when he abolished the Fairness

Doctrine. If only one side is allowed to hold the megaphone, then this is the inevitable outcome.

[meegbear]

5. "What's good for GM is good for America" of the 21st century ...

:grr:

[vicarofrevelwood]

6. No Man should,

Be Permitted to become so extremely wealthy that the only thing left for him to purchase is a government. -The Vicar

[ElsewheresDaughter]

7. knowledge is power....here Koch Industries History

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Koch-Industries-Inc-Company-History.html

okay, I'm off now to learn more about the blacksheep (not a nice gut either), Davids twin brother William who worked in his family's company, but eventually sold his share to his brothers, Charles and David, after a long legal battle.<3>Various legal disputes between the brothers lasted some two decades. Bill and another brother, Frederick, sided with J. Howard Marshall III, J. Howard Marshall II's eldest son, against Charles and David at one point, in order to take over the company. In 2001, Bill Koch reached a settlement in a case where he had charged the company was taking oil from federal and Indian land. This settlement ended all litigation between the brothers.<4> CBS News reported that Koch Industries settled for $25 million.


An engineer by training, Koch graduated from MIT. After leaving Koch Industries, he became the founder and president of the Oxbow Group, an energy development holding company based in West Palm Beach, Florida.<6> Koch was also an investor in the ill-fated Kendall Square Research.

Koch also co-chairs the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a group formed to fight the Cape Wind project to build an offshore wind farm of 130 turbines. He became involved due to his ownership of a home in Osterville, Massachusetts. In 2005, Koch contributed $500,000 in donations to the Alliance directly and more than $1 million toward lobbyist efforts to defeat the project.<7><8>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Koch_(businessman)


http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Koch-Industries-Inc-Company-History.html

[Stevepol]

8. Boy, how right he is! K&R!

[himynameiss3an]

9. Brilliant.

[Enthusiast]

10. I watched the whole thing yesterday.

Waxman was excellent.

[rtassi]

11. Yes, and he articulately identified the targets ... two men with

radical ideologies and money serving only their interests and visions. But sadly, they can't and won't be stopped by government ... Last I checked they were still mortal.

[texshelters]

21. Most politicians I turn off when they come on the news

Waxman I turn up!

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[Stuart G]

12. K and R

[Blue Owl]

13. Precisely the problem

:kick:

[PA Democrat]

14. Good. Get the word out that the Koch Brothers are

greedy, vile and anti-democratic. I want their name to be universally reviled.

[pam4water]

15. K&R

[2banon]

16. Did he call for an all out boycott of Koch Industry products? n/t

:shrug:

[glinda]

26. Here is a big list:

http://inspirationgreen.com/koch-brothers-products.html

[2banon]

28. excellent link!! Thank you! Is this your website?

Just wish I could link to my fb.. drat..

[AlbertCat]

17. TESTIFY BROTHER!

We need "too big to fail" laws. I believe in the '20s they had laws about how big a corporation could get.... before, by law, they had to break up. There were also laws (if I'm remembering correctly) about what the top CEO pay could be, and the amount the company had to "give back" to the local community.


Can you imagine?



None of these restrictions would hinder people from getting rich as hell. They just might actually have to work a little harder and not run their companies into the ground and still get paid. Besides, after a certain amount of wealth, the rest is just superfluous. A billion here or a billion there makes no difference to an individual after a certain level.

[Evoman]

18. Wrong. The Government doesn't care what Koch Industries thinks. IT IS KOCH INDUSTRIES.

It is the banks. It is the corporations.

They are all that matters, and all that has mattered for at least the last 20 years.

[KoKo]

19. Just a caution about Waxman...his hearing on most issues for Dems during Bush...went NOWHERE..

So read everything he says with many grains of "bitter salt." We, who have been here on DU since 2000 STOLEN ELECTION...have gotten nothing from Waxman.

Sibol Edmunds ring a bell. But beyond Sibol...about her pleas...(He let her down, badly)Waxman has let us Democrats down big time by not doing the investigations he promised about Iraq War, Gitmo Tortute, and even the most basic issues of the Global Financial Meltdown. Waxman is POWERFUL...his influence ranged all over the Senate when we Dems FINALLY GOT POWER... He failed us.

I have little use for his bloviating. Sorry, but following him all these years as he let us all down ...time after time. I came to this conclusion about the man. :-(

[texshelters]

22. I seem to remember him having hearings and

getting zero support from his fellow Democrats. So while he perhaps could have worked harder, I don't think he is the main problem with the Democratic party.

Really, it's the two party monopoly that needs to be taken out, thrown out, and a new system started.

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[2banon]

29. Yes.. Right there Until the Dems FINALLY GOT POWER.. then *poof*

he disappeared.. wouldn't answer his door, wouldn't answer his phones.. just hid under a rock until, wow..anyone paying attention these past several years have had to endure many very painful lessons with these pols.

[KoKo]

20. Bloviation.....

[blackspade]

24. Well said.

[glinda]

27. This is the TARGET:

p://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x591230