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.