From Fighting Against Capping Interest Rates to Overpaying Financial Task Force Appointees, Koch Shills Have a Lot to Answer For

When it comes to Charles Koch and his cronies, odds are that they are more invested in propping up each other than spreading their vast wealth to those actually in need. Recently, we've seen two striking examples of this: one where Koch-funded organizations pushed back against policies that will help those in need, and another where money is thrown at a Koch surrogate on a consumer financial protection task force.

The group Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of over 200 labor unions, consumer advocates, faith groups, and community activists, took shape 10 years ago to fight for a fairer, more stable financial system after the crisis of 2008. Now, facing a crisis that is perhaps even greater, AFR is campaigning for Congress to impose a 36% cap on interest rates for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath. This measure would prevent predatory lenders from exploiting people at a time of acute financial distress.

As soon as the push for this proposal was announced, the attacks began and,  sure enough, certain Koch-affiliated groups have unsheathed their knives. The Independent Women’s Forum, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, both groups that have taken plenty of Koch money in the past, decided to recycle the same old arguments in favor of predatory payday lending. 

Koch family foundations have donated $844,115 to the Independent Women’s Forum. DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, donor-advised funds that Charles Koch often uses to conceal his donations, have contributed over $5 million to IWF. The Competitive Enterprise Institute has received at least $644,743 from Koch family foundations and at least $9,855,929 from DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. The current president and CEO of Donors Capital Fund and DonorsTrust is Lawson R. Bader, the former president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

In fact, this type of lending where interest rates can exceed 300%, doesn’t provide access to credit; it provides access to never-ending debt. Over 80% of borrowers take out payday loans to cover previous debts. That kind of burden will be nothing but dead weight on any eventual economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

Koch money is making war on American consumers in all sorts of ways these days. The other example is Todd Zywicki, an academic at George Mason University, a public institution. Zywicki is another Koch-funded figure who is now chairing a “task force” on consumer financial protection law. It’s the brainchild of Trump appointee Kathy Kraninger, who runs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Zywicki’s appointment is an example of Charles Koch’s successful “talent pipeline,” which identifies and invests in academics who will parrot their line. From there, the Koch network leverages its political infrastructure to both propel that talent into powerful public-service positions and defend their suggestions to cut regulations and protections for everyday people in favor of big business. UnKoch My Campus was quick to call out this farce when Kraninger announced it, but the story continues.

Zywicki now stands to earn as much as $226,944 for work on this project through the end of the year, in addition to his academic job at George Mason, according to a recent report by Bloomberg Law. By contrast, the 12-person, all-volunteer Consumer Advisory Board that Trump appointees dismantled (because - get this - it was too expensive) only needed $205,072 to do its work.

So there you have it. Koch-funded figures oppose making the government work for consumers, but are careful to ensure that it works for them. Grifters, all around.