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Paul Ryan Receives Half a Million in Koch Contributions Just Days After Passing Tax Law

Paul Ryan Receives Half a Million in Koch Contributions Just Days After Passing Tax Law
Wed, 1/24/2018 - by Alexandra Jacobo
This article originally appeared on Nation of Change

Mere days after helping pass a massively unpopular tax reform law, House Speaker Paul Ryan received nearly $500,000 in campaign contributions from Charles Koch and his wife.

Both Charles Koch and his wife, Elizabeth, donated $247,700 to Ryan’s joint fundraising committee, according to a campaign finance report.

House Speaker Ryan also received large donations from several other donors, including billionaire businessmen Jeffrey Hildebrand and William Parfet, who each gave $100,000.

The joint fundraising committee, or Team Ryan, raises money for the congressmen, the National Republican Congressional Committee and a political action committee run by Ryan.

But the Kochs didn’t stop there. Charles and Elizabeth also donated $237,000 to the NRCC.

“It looks like House Speaker Ryan is quickly being rewarded for passing this legislation that overwhelmingly benefits the Kochs and billionaires like them,” Adam Smith, spokesman for campaign finance reform nonprofit Every Voice, told the International Business Times.

These newest donations are just a fraction of the money that the conservative billionaires have invested on new tax overhaul. Koch-led groups along spent more than $20 million promoting the tax legislation. Other conservative groups like the Koch’s have invested tens of millions of dollars promoting it as well, despite its shrinking popularity. Charles and David Koch even invested in a multi-million-dollar public relations campaign to push the “benefits” of the passed tax bill.

The groups describe their efforts as “a full-scale nationwide education campaign that will demonstrate the tremendous benefits of pro-growth tax reform, and show how this plan is directly helping Americans improve their lives.”

The legislation greatly helps corporate businessmen like the Koch brothers, cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, equaling $1.4 trillion for corporations. 83% of the tax cuts will go to the richest 1% by 2027, while raising taxes on the 92 million middle=class families by the same year. The GOP tax plan will also make cuts to Medicare, increase health premiums, and add $1.5 trillion to the national debt.

The Koch brothers are currently worth an estimated $100 billion and are heavily entrenched in dark money contributions. The Kochs’ network spent just under $400 million on the 2012 election, and more than doubled that for the 2016 election.

Originally published by Nation of Change

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