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Koch Industries: We’re Not Behind Obamacare Defunding

In a letter to senators Wednesday, Koch Industries Inc. denied it was behind the GOP push to link defunding of the Affordable Care Act to funding for the government.

“We want to set the record straight and correct this information,” reads the letter from Philip Ellender, the president of government and public affairs for the Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC.

Ellender makes clear that Koch believes the law will increase deficits, lower health care standards and raise taxes, but he said the company has not taken a position on the continuing resolution defunding Obamacare, “nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare.”

Instead, Koch wants to maintain “at a minimum” funding at sequester levels and plans for widespread spending cuts in the future “so that it becomes no longer necessary to continually raise the debt ceiling.

“Congress should focus on these efforts: balancing the budget, tightening and cutting government spending, curbing cronyism, and eliminating market-distorting subsidies and mandates,” he wrote.

Koch Industries is run by brothers Charles and David Koch, who have helped finance several conservative efforts to undermine Democratic initiatives and candidates.

A recent New York Times article linked the Koch brothers to broader efforts to defund Obamacare, but the article noted the Kochs have been more focused on propaganda criticizing the law than they have been in the push to defund it.

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