How The Koch Brothers Broke Democracy & Stuck Taxpayers With The Bill the Kochs were making little headway with their ultra right wing ideas until they figured out how to turn the tax code to their advantage. https://cleantechnica.com/2018/12/11/how-the-koch-brothers-broke-democracy-stuck-taxpayers-with-the-bill/

For generations, wealthy people were encouraged to donate to charities like hospitals, the Red Cross, and humanitarian causes because they could deduct their contributions from their taxable income.

What the Kochs did was take the charitable deduction process and stand it on its head. They created their own “charities,” then funded them lavishly with money that qualified for tax deductions.

Non-profits with patriotic sounding names like the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Americans For Prosperity, and the Cato Institute have become powerful lobbying groups supported by non-taxable contributions.

Their methodology is always the same. Hire well-paid “researchers” who are smart enough to produce reports that support the positions espoused by the Koch Brothers and keep their mouths shut.

Those reports, studies, and white papers are disseminated throughout the highest levels of government to elected officials who owe their seats to campaign contributions from the Koch Brothers.

It’s a nice little sweetheart deal that was called racketeering when the Mafia did it, but is considered perfectly appropriate today.