From this weekend’s Times fluff piece on David Koch:
In his speech at the opening ceremony, Mr. Koch warned that government spending cuts could impede cancer research. And he urged donors to fill the gap.
“The National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute in particular, are facing serious cutbacks in their funding due to the massive deficits the federal government is incurring,” he said in his speech, in a tent outside the seven-story building. “If the cutbacks happen, it will significantly diminish the level of research that can be carried on at the Koch Institute. I earnestly ask you to do all you can to help maintain the superb research at the Koch Institute at its maximum level.”
The Republicans Koch helped put into power have proposed $4.4 billion in cuts for federally-funded science. That’s for a single year. Koch’s $200 million — over his lifetime — for cancer research doesn’t mean shit. Koch’s entire career of health-related philanthropy comes to less than 5 percent of the cuts to science funding he will have helped cause if the Republicans get their way with the budget.
It’s the same with many other issues Koch’s lackeys claim to hold dear. Libertarians may favor drug legalization and gay rights, but their paymasters elected Republican politicians with the opposite agenda.
soonergrunt
So, super-rich people spend tons of money getting people to vote against their own interests in order to support the narrowly defined interests of the super-rich themselves?
No, that’s unpossible!
piratedan
still waiting on that sequel to Atlas Shrugged, think its called Walker Blinked
Shalimar
I’m confused. Why would he donate $200 million for cancer research when he knows he can give $100k to the Republican National Committee and get Republican congresspersons to increase funding by the same amount?
geg6
Reason #1,258,329 to never, ever, ever take a libertarian seriously. One should never do anything other than point and laugh when confronted by one.
cathyx
Quickly now. Throw money at cancer research because Koch has prostate cancer and he wants a cure before it kills him.
azlib
Remember, taxation is immoral. If we eliminated taxation, the super rich will step up and create a stronger voluntary system of donations which will insure vital research and social programs will go forward with even more financial support. It is just the evils of taxation which make rich people hoard their money and not spend freely to create the perfect libertarian utopia.
Phil Perspective
@Shalimar: Because he doesn’t want to pay a dime in taxes. He wants to have all the money, and spend it how he sees fit. He doesn’t give a damn about you or me.
A Farmer
This just shows two things.
1. To a lot of people, $200 million sounds bigger than $4.4 billion.
2. This is just another instance where these guys will claim they would give much more to charity when their taxes get cut, even though high tax rates with deductible charitable contributions will increase chairtable giving, albeit with a governmental subsidy.
MattF
Koch happens to be aware of government-sponsored research in biology and medicine because it’s near and dear to him, but the list of stuff that’s the result of federal spending goes on and on. And, somehow, it’s news to most people. Not sure how to explain this.
Alex S.
These $200 million are well-spent. They sustain the faction of republican voters among the well-educated and gives the media an excuse to portray the Kochs in a better light.
Roger Moore
If the superrich can’t give more money than the government, this is obviously proof that the government has too much money and the superrich have too little.[/libertarian]
'Niques
Maybe I read this wrong, but it seems to me to be a simple case of Koch wanting the comfortably wealthy to give all their money to him, as well.
gnomedad
OT: What’s the assignment for Nixonland today?
Cacti
Data from 2005 listed the total number of US cancer patients at 11.7 million, and projected it to grow to around 18.2 million by 2020.
Using the 2005 numbers, Koch sucker’s 200 million dollars of lifetime “generosity” works out to a whopping…
$17.09 per cancer patient.
Resident Firebagger
Asshole still loves money more than not having cancer…
Joel
Well, it’s plus-plus in the Koch world, given that the EPA is taking one on the chin this year. Fuck the republicans.
brian gister
@Shalimar:
Seems like this: if I’m funding the research, I have some leverage over what’s done with it. If the government funds the research, I only control the disposition of the results if my cronies are in power (ala the Bush administration.)
Matt
The Kochs just need to figure out a way to use federal health dollars to only help *white* patients and they’ll be in favor of it…
Jamey
Hypothetical question: Would it be wrong to wish an incurable cancer on David Koch? Even one of the cancers linked to the by-products of natural gas extraction?
liberal
@cathyx:
haven’t read about his case, but often it’s one of the most slowly growing cancers.
Hazel Stone
The chemical/petroleum industry funds the cancer non profits so they’ll focus on curing/treating cancer rather than eradicating the cancer causing chemicals they make.
Caz
Libertarians, like everyone else, have to choose between two viable candidates every election cycle: republican and democrat. The fact that most libertarians voted for the republican doesn’t mean they support the republicans, it just means that the republicans currently have more in common with them than the democrats. The tired “lesser of two evils.”
But trust me, libertarians are far from happy with how the republicans approach government.
Steve LaBonne
@Jamey: If that’s wrong I don’t want to be right.