Healthcare Enemy No. 1

About Rick Scott - the millionaire Republican heading up Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR), a new group that plans to pend around $20 million to kill President Obama's efforts at healthcare reform. Scott "made his fortune (which, yes, he still has) in no small part thanks to steady contract fees from the Great Society's entitlement programs."

SOAKING THE RICH (REDUX)....

The Washington Monthly:

John Cole posted this graph a few days ago. See that column on the far-right edge? That's where Obama proposes the marginal top-rate should be.

It's also the rate conservatives believe is so outrageous, that they're accusing the president of "socialism" and talking openly about the "Going Galt" scenario in which wealthy and industrious Americans would deliberately make less money to spite their country.

It's all quite silly, but the graph adds some helpful context to drive the point home.

Obama is proposing a top rate lower than Reagan's first term, lower than Nixon's, lower than Eisenhower's, and lower than FDR's when he pulled us out of the Great Depression.

So, really, try not to hyperventilate.

Koch Industries: The Real Force behind Right Wing America

Koch is the second largest private company in the United States.

"Although it is both a top campaign contributor and spends millions on direct lobbying, Koch's chief political influence tool is a web of interconnected, right-wing think tanks and advocacy groups funded by foundations controlled and supported by the two Koch brothers.

Among those groups are some of the country's most prominent conservative and libertarian voices including the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, Citizens for a Sound Economy and the Federalist Society. All regularly beat the drum in official Washington for the causes the Koch's hold dear-minimal government, deregulation, and free market economics."

See also:
http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_KOCH_INDUSTRIES_