Industrial titan and limited-government advocate Charles Koch says his work to help
elect like-minded Republicans isn't about amassing riches — it's a quest to "increase
well-being in society."
"We are doing all of this to make more money? I mean, that is so ludicrous,"
he tells USA Today in an interview posted Thursday.
"I don't know how they can say that with a straight face."
Koch, 79, the world's sixth-richest person, according to Forbes, insists, "We oppose as many or more things that would benefit us than would hurt us," including the Export-Import Bank, whose subsidies aiding U.S. companies he's described as corporate welfare.
And, he notes, he stands to lose money at his Minnesota oil refinery if the Keystone XL pipeline — which he supports — is built.
These days, USA Today reports, the publicity-shy mogul is opening up as Koch Industries launches a new ad campaign, titled "We are Koch," showing off heartening stories from its employees and the beneficiaries of Koch philanthropy.
The company also is advertising in professional sports arenas and earlier this year inked a multiyear sponsorship deal to promote Koch Industries during college basketball and football games at 15 universities, the newspaper notes.
And there's even a book launch in October for Koch's second work, "Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World's Most Successful Companies."
Koch says all the publicity will help "defend ourselves from attacks and make our employees feel better about the company" — and also impress customers and suppliers "we're not this evil ogre trying to make your lives worse."
Koch's communications and marketing executive, Steve Lombardo, tells USA Today the drive is also part of a 10-year marketing plan. He wouldn't quantify how much the company is pumping into the campaign, which includes digital ads on news and information sites, but called it a "significant spend."
But while the marketing may be aimed at showing off the many sides of the Koch industrial complex, Koch has already gotten Washington's attention with his support of think tanks, policy and political groups that line up with his limited-government agenda, USA Today reports.
For example, in the 2014 election, Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners poured more than $90 million in advertising to help flip control of the Senate to the GOP, triggering one high-profile hissy fit from
then-Senate majority leader Harry Reid,
who slammed Charles Koch and younger brother and company co-owner David as "un-American" and the leaders of a secret money "cult."
"I didn't expect it to be as dishonest and as vicious as it was," Koch tells USA Today, adding he and his family got a flood of death threats.
The Koch brothers also are planning a massive $900 million strategy to put a Republican in the White House in 2016 — including a $125 million budget next year for its flagship Americans for Prosperity for an effort described as "beyond the biggest, boldest, broadest effort AFP has ever undertaken."
They're even considering wading into the Republican presidential primary for the first time and providing financial support to as many as five candidates who have a "positive message" and the ability to prevail in the 2016 general election.
"This is called the 'Koch primary,'" Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign watchdog group Democracy 21, complains to USA Today. "Never mind those caucuses and primaries where millions of Americans choose their candidates. The Kochs will do it for all of us."
But in Koch's view, less government intervention means more opportunities for individuals to thrive, USA Today reports. And he sees government's primary role as "coercion" and says it should apply that force to things like national defense, public safety, enforcing settlements and preventing the spread of communicable disease.
Government's role in most everything else — from licensing cab drivers to regulating banks — ought to be up for debate, he believes, USA Today reports.
"If somebody smokes a joint, we're gonna go in and bust them? We're gonna raid houses in case somebody has a banned substance? Confiscate their houses?" he asks.
"My God, if people don't see that as an abuse of force, of too much government, then we're just not communicating."