Jeff Nesbit describes a pivotal moment in the rise of the Koch brothers as masters of the Republican world—a 1993 partnership with Big Tobacco to create a "grassroots" rebellion against the very notion of taxation. Fifteen years later it would coalesce into what would then be called the Tea Party movement.
We were met by several of Philip Morris’s state-based government affairs experts, all of whom had significant experience in building coalitions with an eye toward blocking regulations they didn’t like at the state level. The concept that [Citizens for a Sound Economy] put on the conference table, which was quickly taken up by the Philip Morris staff, was a bit shocking to me. They proposed an unholy alliance—Philip Morris money commingled with Koch money to create anti-tax front groups in a handful of states that would battle any tax that moved. It would make no difference what kind of tax—the front groups could battle cigarette excise taxes in the Northeast and refined-oil fees at the coasts. Any tax, for any purpose, was bad—and these front groups would tackle them all, with Philip Morris and the Kochs behind them.
It made good business sense—and good political sense as well. You could relabel just about anything as a tax, and heaven knows the American public hates taxes. This, at its core, was the beginning of the American Tea Party revolt against the power of the government to pay for its programs. They could recruit average citizens from a variety of ideological groups to their cause. They would work side by side with corporate-directed workers and employees, providing real boots on the ground when enough activists weren’t readily available. And no one would be the wiser—or even care— that these “grassroots” anti-tax groups would be jointly created and funded by the largest private oil company and the largest cigarette company in the world.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—Boehner's prebuttal: Raising taxes 'unacceptable and a nonstarter':
Boehner's statement (which I guess technically was just an announcement he plans to issue another statement) is a complete reversal of his position from last week, when he said that despite opposing tax increases, he was willing to leave them "on the table" to facilitate a discussion about long-term deficits.
His statement comes even though it's not clear what President Obama will actually propose tomorrow. Despite the Washington Post's report that Obama would endorse the Simpson-Bowles plan, both Greg Sargent and Ezra Klein are hearing otherwise. The White House is staying mum, at least publicly, saying only that Obama's plan will "be his own."
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On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: FEC paralysis likely means they’ll do as little about delegate “bribery” as they have about Newt, Inc. Hastert’s hypocritical history. The many different kinds of delegates, and how to fight about them.
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