Koch brothers were major backers of Republican Scott Walker, the newly elected Wisconsin governor. Walker, who is trying to bust public employee unions in Wisconsin, was punked by a phone prankster posing as David Koch. In the conversation, Walker was tricked into revealing his strategy to dupe state Democratic senators into a trap disguised as negotiations on the union issue.
Walker reveals plan to deceive Democrats
Murphy, posing as Koch, talked with Walker for about 20 minutes. Walker, thinking he was talking to Koch, said he wouldn’t negotiate with Democrats about the unions’ collective bargaining rights, but he would trick them into believing he will. Walker said he would tell the Democratic leader of the state assembly he would “talk” if the 14 absent Senate Democrats came along. According to Wisconsin state assembly rules, that would start a session, Republicans would have a quorum, and Walker would get his way. To punish Democratic lawmakers who fled to Illinois, Murphy suggested that Walker bring a baseball bat along. Walker said he has “a slugger with my name on it.”
Why the Koch brothers bought Scott Walker
The Koch brothers are supporting Walker by mobilizing their resources in Wisconsin. Americans for Prosperity, a right wing group bankrolled by the Koch brothers, has launched a $200,000 ad campaign in Wisconsin advocating that Walker strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights. The Koch brothers also stand to benefit from a bill in the Wisconsin senate allowing no-bid contracts for the management of state-owned heating, cooling and power plants. The Koch brothers own the three biggest companies in Wisconsin with the resources to perform those services.
1. Walker and the Senate Republicans are conspiring to withhold Democratic lawmakers' paychecks.
A minute into the call, Governor Walker describes a plan by the Senate Majority Leader to institute a new rule that would stop automatic deductions of lawmakers' paychecks if they do not appear in the Senate for more than two days. It would require lawmakers to appear in person to collect their checks.
Walker describes this as part of a plan he is working on with GOP Senators: "Each day, we're going to rachet this up a little bit."
2. Walker sees billionaire David Koch as "one of us."
Two and a half minutes in, Walker is describing a conversation he had with a Democratic state lawmaker, Tim Cullen, who Walker says is the "only reasonable" one among the Democrats. When the man pretending to be Koch suggests he calls Cullen, Walker says that although Cullen is reasonable, he is not "one of us." Who is the "us" that includes Walker and out-of-state billionaire Koch, but not an elected state legislator?
3. Walker is planning to threaten state workers with layoffs.
Five minutes into the call, Governor Walker says he is planning to issue between 5,000 and 6,000 "risk notices" to state workers announcing that they are at risk of being laid off. He makes this statement in the context of what he is planning to do to put pressure on Democrats to cave into his demands, not what is necessary due to the budget crunch. "If they want to start sacrificing thousands of public workers to be laid off," he says, "sooner or later there's gonna be pressure on Senators to come back. We're not going to compromise."
4. Walker has a plan to lie to Senate Democrats and pass the bill while they are not aware of the vote.
Seven minutes in, Walker describes a plan created by his chief of staff to call Senate Democrats back to "hear what they have to say." While he is discussing the issues with the Democrats, the Senate would be in recess. In actuality, once Democrats come back to the state assembly, Republicans would be able to pass the bill eliminating collective bargaining rights while Walker is in discussions with Democrats.
