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Billionaire Tom Steyer: I am absolutely nothing at all like the Koch brothers
Hotair ^ | 04/23/2014 | Erika Johnsen

Posted on 04/23/2014 10:32:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Do I have any issues with a Tom Steyer using any of his legitimately earned billions of dollars to donate to political causes, candidates, campaigns, and super PACS in which he believes? Absolutely not. Do I have a problem with Tom Steyer smearing other billionaires for doing so, funding a perniciously targeted misinformation campaign full of flat-out falsehoods against the Keystone XL pipeline, and pretending that he has some sort of imagined moral high ground in this arena? Yes, yes I do. Via Politico:

Liberal billionaire Tom Steyer insisted Tuesday that he’s not the left’s version of the Koch brothers. …

Charles and David Koch’s priorities “line up perfectly with their pocketbooks — and that’s not true for us,” Steyer said.

A Koch spokesman objected to Steyer’s characterization.

“That assertion is false and disingenuous, and people can see through that. Koch opposes all mandates and subsidies, even when they exist for businesses in which we operate. In doing so, we act against our self-interest. We have been consistent in this position for over 40 years,” spokesman Robert Tappan said in an email. …

But Steyer countered that there are major differences between himself and the Koch brothers, and he argued that his operation is “completely open” and transparent. “I think they have not been huge embracers of transparency,” he said of the Kochs.

“I think they’re in a very, very different position than me and from the people that I work with. And the fact that we’re on opposite sides of the table on a lot of issues — that is true. But the way that we’re approaching them is very, very different,” he said.

This isn’t the first time Steyer has disclaimed similarities to the Koch brothers, and while I’m sure it must be such a trial to suffer the slings and arrows of comparisons to that dreadfully indecent and un-American duo, the gentleman needs to check himself before he wrecks himself and ends up in the old-men-yelling-at-clouds detachment. I would direct you to some of my old posts here, here, here, and here if you’d like a refresher on just how egregious Steyer’s anti-Keystone XL pipeline crusade really is, but for Steyer to claim that he has never in his life rent-sought and that all of his motivations come only from the pureness of his public-welfare-promoting heart is some mind-boggling hypocrisy. For more on that particular point, I can’t do it any better than John Hinderaker at Powerline, who has some excellent suggestions for the many ways in which Steyer might improve his own transparency record and come clean about the role of the dirty energy he claims to abhor in having earned him his billions.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: billionaires; denial; donors; fundingtheleft; koch; kochbrothers; tomsteyer
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1 posted on 04/23/2014 10:32:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
The lady doth protest too much ... methinks.
2 posted on 04/23/2014 10:34:32 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: SeekAndFind
No, Steyer, you're not. The Koch Brothers actually earn their money by providing business goods and services which people need and want.

You make yours by gaming and manipulating the market like your hero George Soros does.

3 posted on 04/23/2014 10:35:42 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: All

Steyer, you could not be more correct...You are nothing at all like the Koch brothers...

They use their money for the betterment of the American people...

You use yours for the betterment of socialist special interest groups wanting to tear down the American people....


4 posted on 04/23/2014 10:39:57 AM PDT by Boonie
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To: Servant of the Cross
He sounds like Martin Short's character Nathan Thurm:

“I knew that, Yeah, I knew that, Do you think I didn't know that?”

“It's so funny that you would think that I don't know that.”

“It's not me, it's him. Why don't you look at yourself for once instead of questioning me?”

5 posted on 04/23/2014 10:51:27 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: SeekAndFind

No, Tommy, you are more like George Soros.


6 posted on 04/23/2014 10:54:03 AM PDT by windsorknot
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To: SeekAndFind

When you are taking flak, you are over the target.


7 posted on 04/23/2014 10:54:25 AM PDT by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution)
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To: SeekAndFind

No he’s not like the Koch brothers. He’s leftist limo-lib scum.


8 posted on 04/23/2014 10:56:00 AM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: SeekAndFind

I absolutely HATE rich, liberal, capitalistic commie wannabes. This maggot is right, he’s not like the Koch brothers. THEY’RE AMERICANS!


9 posted on 04/23/2014 11:03:25 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Obama's smidgens are coming home to roost.)
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To: SeekAndFind

This guy is pure scum.


10 posted on 04/23/2014 11:16:06 AM PDT by jospehm20
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To: SeekAndFind

This guy is pure scum.


11 posted on 04/23/2014 11:16:18 AM PDT by jospehm20
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To: SeekAndFind

This guy is pure scum.


12 posted on 04/23/2014 11:16:29 AM PDT by jospehm20
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To: SeekAndFind

This guy is pure scum.


13 posted on 04/23/2014 11:16:35 AM PDT by jospehm20
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To: SeekAndFind

This guy is pure scum.


14 posted on 04/23/2014 11:16:36 AM PDT by jospehm20
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To: SeekAndFind

AAAH, the word TRANSPARENCY; as a great man once said “THERE THEY GO AGAIN”.


15 posted on 04/23/2014 11:51:58 AM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Right. You are using your money to perpetrate a scam.


16 posted on 04/23/2014 11:54:56 AM PDT by Starstruck (If my reply offends, you probably don't understand sarcasm or criticism...or do.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

This POS is from NYC right out of DeBlasio school of commie economics. I despise limo libs like him. He loves his own profits, just hates everyone else’s.


17 posted on 04/23/2014 11:55:39 AM PDT by lone star annie
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To: Boonie

And the Koch brothers believe in the Constitution while I’m sure Steyer prefers the Communist Manifesto.


18 posted on 04/23/2014 12:05:58 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Conseravtives are all that's left to defend the Constitution. Dems hate it, and Repubs don't care.)
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To: Boonie
Steyer, you could not be more correct...You are nothing at all like the Koch brothers...

Steyer, above, does have a rather "dainty" look to him, doesn't he? Compare that picture with the no-nonsense, pro-business, all-American Koch Brothers who have contributed so much to our country's prosperity:


19 posted on 04/23/2014 12:22:06 PM PDT by re_nortex (DP - that's what I like about Texas)
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To: SeekAndFind

That is too bad. If you were more like them you would be a decent and America loving person. Now, you are just another piece of liberal trash.


20 posted on 04/23/2014 12:25:31 PM PDT by mulligan (I)
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