Letter to the Editor:

Representative Braley and Mrs. Ernst’s accused each other of accepting out-of-state money from billionaires. Since that is a correct accusation by each, the argument is really what these billionaires expect the candidates to do for the money.

Tim Steyer is a billionaire that supports environmental issues and Representative Braley. The Koch brothers are oil and chemical men who support getting rid of the Environmental Protection Agency and give their money to Mrs. Ernst’s campaign.

The real question is “What is the agenda that these two billionaires support and do I approve of the agenda?”

Tim Steyer’s agenda seems to be limited to protecting the environment. However, the Koch brothers are much more than anti-environmentalists. They reject the idea that the government should be responsible for people through the welfare state. They oppose welfare programs, and they also oppose Social Security and Medicare. They oppose subsidies for ethanol as their interest is oil. They have pushed this agenda very successfully by making huge campaign contributions in many states and by financing the push for voter suppression so that their agenda can be realized by the politicians they have financed and by the voters they have denied of voting rights.

Often people are uninterested in environmental issues, but with the Koch brothers, people should be very interested. The Kochs’ plants are at the top of the list of polluters. They have left toxic waste in Texas, Chicago, Detroit, the Mississippi River, Florida, Arkansas, and Alaska. In Alaska, they closed their Flint Hill Resources Plant rather than clean up their toxic spills with 93 workers losing their jobs. Alaska is suing. Their Georgia Pacific plant was distributing toxic water and air close to an elementary school. In Texas, one of their poorly maintained butane pipes leaked, ignited, and burned two teens to death. In Swiftwater, Arkansas, they poured toxic waste into a stream that ran through a residential neighborhood. In that neighborhood, adults suffer from COPD and children suffer from asthma. Of 15 houses, there were 11 people who died of cancer.

Granted, not all industrialists use the US as their toxic dumping ground, and some even clean up their toxic spills. However, the Koch brothers resent any regulations that dictate what they should do. They have spent countless millions to cover up their violations and even more millions to be able to dump toxicity anytime and anywhere they want.

Recently, the Kochs have been airing warm and fuzzy commercials in an attempt to present a positive image. However, the people in Swiftwater, Arkansas, that is the people still living, would present a much different image.

We need the EPA to protect us and those we love from the Kochs. Mrs. Ernst would dissolve the EPA. That is only a good idea in her and the Koch brothers’ minds.

Anne Michael

Tama