The Kochs respond

Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch's privately-held company, Koch Industries, has responded to Jane Mayer's New Yorker article about their alleged covert support for anti-government political movements. (Thanks to Daring Fireball for the links.)

From the Kochs' response:

[Mayer's] article also smears the good name of Koch Industries, whose companies employ more than 50,000 Americans at hundreds of sites around the country. Those companies and employees have received more than 180 environmental and safety honors since President Obama took office. No mention of those honors – or of Koch’s commitment to complying with environmental regulations – is included in the article, even though we provided this information to the publication. Instead, the author asserts that Koch is the tenth-largest “polluter” in the nation. The more accurate and less sensational term is “emissions.” Those emissions, which are all regulated and legally permitted, are generated by the industrial processes that enable us and other companies to provide Americans and the world with essential products – including the very ink and paper needed to publish periodicals, such as the New Yorker.

Of course they're committed to complying with environmental regulations. Every business and businessman is (in public, anyway). That doesn't mean they wouldn't love to weaken and to eliminate those regulations, which those businesses and businessmen almost invariably call "onerous."

You'll also notice that the company's statement says nothing about attempting to reduce its overall emissions footprint. I don't know whether it is trying or not. However, most companies that give even the tiniest damn about their environmental image emphasize their efforts in that regard. Silence speaks volumes.

The Kochs have steadfastly supported the benefits of economic freedom, the importance of the rule of law, private property rights, the proper and limited role of government in society and warned against the perils of excessive government spending. We see escalating efforts to discount and mischaracterize important and authentic citizen efforts, as well as dismiss and degrade our support of education and human services programs.

Translation: we like the anti-government rhetoric the Tea Parties spread.

But if the only problem were that people like me disagreed with people like the Kochs, we wouldn't be in this fix. No, the real trouble is that the Kochs and their ideological allies have debased the debate about the role and the size of government to the point where the rest of us -- the folks who aren't billionaires and therefore have a bigger stake in whether our government works well or not -- can't discuss the matter rationally any more. Too many people blame "big government" for a range of ills, real and imagined, and they aren't willing to think: they're angry and They Want A Solution. Well, guess what: it's not that goddamned easy. And the Kochs have made things a lot harder by making sure their money generates a lot of heat and very little light. That's not a smear. That's just how it is.