Mitt Romney's Koch Problem

Original Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justin-ruben/mitt-romneys-koch-problem_b_1654775.html

By Justin Ruben

Mitt Romney has a Koch problem. And it's about to get worse, after oil magnate and 1% icon David Koch throws a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser for Romney this Sunday at his posh Hamptons seaside estate.

Clearly, its not a problem for Romney that the Koch brothers and their ultra-rich friends have pledged to exploit Citizens United by spending more than $1 billion to buy the election. That's not Romney's problem, that's a problem for the rest of us.

No, Mitt Romney's Koch problem isn't what the Koch brothers are doing for him -- it's what he'll do for them, and the possibility that voters will find out.

Romney's approach to the economy boils down to this: the ultra rich deserve even more advantages, and the poor and middle class should foot the bill. It's how he approached his job as a vulture capitalist at Bain Capital, buying up companies, laying off their workers, outsourcing their jobs, and saddling them with debt, all so he could extract wealth for his rich investors.

Now he wants to do the same thing to our country. Romney would lay off teachers and firefighters and expand the deficit in order to fund more tax privileges for the richest 1%. Romney would gut safeguards that protect consumers from reckless Wall Street traders. And he'd end Medicare, throwing countless seniors into poverty to pay for more tax loopholes for Big Oil (which not-so-coincidentally happens to be where the Kochs got their money).

No wonder the Koch brothers are bankrolling Romney's bid.

Unfortunately for Romney, voters are starting to wise up to what his presidency would mean for the middle class. Recent polls in presidential swing states show that the more voters learn about Romney's dealings at Bain Capital -- and how he'd bring the same approach to governing the country -- the more they turn away from him. In swing states where the race was tied just a month ago, President Obama has opened a modest but significant lead.

Now here come the Kochs, with their oil fortune and their naked attempt to buy the election for Romney -- living proof for voters that Romney has an agenda, and the middle class doesn't figure into it, except as the easy mark.

Mitt Romney may want to hide his Koch problem with the help of his super PACs, but all the cash in the world won't be enough to stop our people power from exposing the truth. More than 7 million MoveOn members will be working hard every day between now and November to pull back the curtain and expose Romney's 1% habit.

This Sunday, we're staging our latest intervention. As Romney's limo pulls up in front of David Koch's Hamptons estate -- where each $50,000 ticket will cost more than most people make in a year -- our members will be there to greet him. We'll band together with organizers and allies from a diverse array of groups united by our concern about the pernicious effects Koch cash is inflicting on our democracy.

No intervention is complete without a banner, and MoveOn's 99airlines plane will be at the Hamptons fundraiser too, flying a banner overhead that points out the simple truth: "Mitt Romney has a Koch problem." As more Americans find out, Romney's Koch problem will just get worse.