How Obama can hurt the Kochs with one stroke of his pen

[DeadLetterOffice]

Opinion piece at WaPo:

There is virtually no hope that Congress will fix the campaign finance system any time soon. In fact, House Republicans are actively working to protect dark-money groups, inserting a provision into a spending bill last month to protect them from new disclosure requirements. But there is a simple way that President Obama can address the issue of dark money and advance the cause of transparency. The president should sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their contributions to dark-money groups.

To be sure, such an order would not eliminate dark money. It would, however, expose de facto political contributions by powerful corporation that hold federal contracts, including JP Morgan Chase, Exxon Mobil, and Koch Industries. Moreover, with the 10 largest federal contractors receiving approximately $1.5 trillion from the government since 2000, an executive order would enable the American people to see where their tax dollars are really going.

Most important, it’s a feasible plan that Obama might actually pursue. In 2011, the White House drafted an order to require disclosure from federal contractors, but it abandoned the idea before the 2012 elections. At the time, the U.S. Chamber’s top lobbyist lashed out at the proposal, saying, “We will fight it through all available means.” Today, the idea has growing support from a broad coalition of progressive and good-government groups, more than 100 members of Congress — Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) among them — and Democratic leaders including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/shedding-light-on-dark-money/2015/07/13/074025fe-297f-11e5-a5ea-cf74396e59ec_story.html

[MohRokTah]

1. He has already hurt them horribly.

The deal he was a part of over the Iran nuclear program is set to dump millions of barrels of crude oil onto the world market. That will dramatically alter the market place and destroy profits the Koch brothers currently enjoy. They stand to lose billions in personal profits over that one agreement.

[Jester Messiah]

2. No wonder the Saudis are pissed. [nt]

[Fred Sanders]

4. All those time-limited Alberta Oil Sands leases the Koch's swallowed up......junk at less than $80 a barrel oil.

There is more than one way to skin a Koch.

[lindysalsagal]

3. They "knew" the plan was bad because the Koch brothers told them

Many of the congresspeople are still claiming not to have read the 100 pages.

They probably never will. It's called Plausible Deniability. The hallmark of congressional do-nothing-ness.

[Scuba]

5. But will he?

[DeadLetterOffice]

6. One can but hope.

And, you know, send emails and stuff that maybe someone on his staff reads.