Is Charles Koch feeling the Bern? The billionaire businessman and Republican kingmaker says Bernie Sanders is “right about one thing.”
Koch wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post attempting to find common ground with the self-identified Democratic socialist, saying he agrees with many of Sanders’ economic critiques — though the two have sharply different visions of how to solve these challenges.
“The senator is upset with a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the least advantaged,” Koch wrote.
“He believes that we have a two-tiered society that increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field.”
“I agree with him.”
But while the political odd couple of Koch and Sanders might agree on the challenges the country faces, Sanders would likely disagree with many of Koch’s solutions.
To Koch, the problems both he and Sanders talk about are caused by “regulations, handouts, mandates, subsidies, and other forms of (government) largesse.”
Koch’s argument though, contravenes Sanders’ case for better regulation of Wall Street, a more equitable tax burden, and support for green energy subsidies.
As Koch himself notes, “At this point you may be asking yourself, ‘Is Charles Koch feeling the Bern?’ Hardly.”
