As the 1% Dine on the Kochs' Dime, the 99% Protest Billionaire Brothers' Assault on the American Dream

Original Link: http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2011/11/04/as-the-1-dine-on-the-kochs-dime-the-99-protest-billionaire-brothers-assault-on-the-american-dream/

By Melinda Gibson

Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the advocacy group The Other 98% and numerous progressive organizations (see list below) teamed up today to protest the billionaire Koch Brothers' corruption of the American political system at an unusual outdoor film festival in the nation's capital. The "Occupy the Kochs Guerrilla Drive-In" runs tonight at the Washington Convention Center, where the Kochs' front group, Americans for Prosperity, is hosting a gala dinner as part of a two-day conference featuring speeches by GOP presidential candidates Herman Cain and Mitt Romney.

Americans for Prosperity, which spends millions advancing its right-wing political agenda with the financial support of billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch and their companies, is holding the "Defend the American Dream" event to celebrate efforts to protect the richest people and corporations from paying their fair share in taxes and to eliminate important programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Protesters will gather at the Guerrilla Drive-In to enjoy popcorn, good food and political satire videos highlighting the Kochs' efforts to destroy the American Dream, shrink the middle class, increase America's growing income inequality, preserve tax breaks for special interests like Big Oil and strip workers of their rights. Several co-sponsors of Occupy the Kochs said the protest tonight shows that Americans are not going to accept a corporate takeover of our country.

"The Kochs and their front groups are trying to steal our democracy to make the 1% even richer," said HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome. "They and their cronies have purchased the Republican Party to destroy America's middle class, including taking away health care and stripping workers of the right to bargain for a better life. Across the country people are raising their voices in protest because they're fed up with a system stacked in favor of the richest 1%."

"The Koch brothers are not just the 1% — they are the .00001%," said John Sellers, co-founder of The Other 98%. "They are the poster children for the hostile corporate takeover of our democracy, and it's about time they heard from the rest of us."

"The Koch brothers are trying to create an America that works better for millionaires and billionaires and worse for the rest of us," said Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future. "Their American Dream is an American nightmare of continued income inequality with little or no government to protect the people."

"The Koch brothers' idea of a working democracy is one that works for them and their bottom line, not for everyday Americans," said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign. "They should have no more say over what Congress does than any of the rest of us."

"We're Occupying the Kochs tonight because Americans are angry about the corporate takeover of our democracy," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "Democracy is rule by the people, not rule by corporations. There's no role for the global warming-denying Koch Brothers in our electoral politics, or for other giant corporations. We need major campaign finance reforms, including a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United v. FEC, to reclaim our democracy."

Occupy the Kochs comes as progressives across the country have been speaking out to put Americans back to work, tax the 1% and pressure the Super Committee not to make a bad deal for the 99%. For more than a month, Americans of all ages and backgrounds have been on the streets expressing their rejection of corporate money in politics at Occupy events and other movement protests across the U.S., and Occupy the Kochs demonstrates that the momentum for change is building.

WHAT: Occupy the Kochs Guerrilla Drive-In at the gala dinner of the Koch Brothers' front group, Americans for Prosperity
WHERE: 1025 Seventh Street NW (corner of L Street), 1 block south of Mt. Vernon/Convention Center Metro station
WHEN: Friday, November 4, from 6:00 to 8:15 p.m. (Media should arrive by 6:45 p.m.)
SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS: Campaign for America's Future, Campaign for Community Change, Common Cause, Health Care for America Now, Justice Through Music, Oil Change International, The Other 98%, Public Campaign, Public Citizen, Rebuild the Dream, Tar Sands Action, True Majority, USAction, and Velvet Revolution. They will be joined by hundreds of people opposed to health insurers, Big Oil and Wall Street taking over our political process and destroying the middle class.

For more information, click here.