Paul Ryan Pocketed $500,000 ‘Tip’ From Koch Brothers Following Tax Cut Bill
January 21, 2018 6:14 pm / 0 Comments / Congress, Economy, Headlines
The billionaire Koch brothers were apparently quite pleased with the passage of the GOP’s tax scam bill.
In fact, as International Business Times reports, Charles Koch handed House Speaker Paul Ryan a nearly $500,000 thank-you gift mere days after the House passed its version of the bill.
The report notes that five other wealthy donors also contributed $100,000 each to Ryan’s joint fundraising committee in the last quarter of 2017.
And Ryan’s Democratic challenger, ironworker and military veteran Randy Bryce, made sure that these massive gifts and the context around them did not go unnoticed.
Above is from: https://www.nationalmemo.com/paul-ryan-pocketed-tip-koch-brothers-following-tax-cut/
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After Scoring Huge Tax Cuts, Charles Koch Floods Ryan With Cash
By Alex Kotch @alexkotch On 01/19/18 AT 5:04 PM
In the months leading up to the passage of the Republican Party’s long-awaited tax bill last year, the powerful political operation run by the billionaire Koch brothers was one of the strongest forces pressuring lawmakers to pass massive tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations.
“Republicans never hid the fact that this tax bill was about pleasing their big donors,” Adam Smith, communications director at campaign finance reform nonprofit Every Voice, told International Business Times. “And it looks like House Speaker [Paul] Ryan is quickly being rewarded for passing this legislation that overwhelmingly benefits the Kochs and billionaires like them.”
Thirteen days after the U.S. House passed its version of the tax legislation, Charles Koch and his wife, Elizabeth, combined to donate nearly $500,000 to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s joint fundraising committee, according to a new campaign finance report released Thursday. These two donations were by far the largest sums added to Ryan’s coffers in the fourth quarter of 2017, but they were by no means the only major contributions: Marlene Ricketts, the wife of billionaire TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, donated $100,000, as did five other individuals.
In addition, as Politico reporter Gabriel Debenedetti noted, of the roughly $5 million Ryan received in the 4th quarter of 2017, more than $330,000 arrived in the two days after the House passed the tax bill.
On the same day as their donations to the Ryan committee, Charles and Elizabeth Koch each donated the maximum possible amount of $237,000 total to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s main, legal and building accounts. These Nov. 29 donations were the Kochs’ first to the NRCC in 2017, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. In June, mega-donors in the Koch political network had threatened to withhold contributions to GOP members of Congress unless they repealed Obamacare and passed tax reform.
Team Ryan, the joint fundraising committee, raises money for Ryan’s campaign committee, the NRCC and a separate political action committee that Ryan operates called Prosperity Action. The day after the Koch donations, Ryan transferred close to $1 million from Team Ryan to the NRCC; $488,000 to Prosperity Action; and $219,000 to his campaign. Ryan is reportedly considering leaving Congress after this year, but the speaker has not yet made an announcement.
Above is from: http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/after-scoring-huge-tax-cuts-charles-koch-floods-ryan-cash-2643260
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