The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    They were for it before they were against it

    By Flavius on Fri, 10/28/2011 - 9:00am |

    When it suited their purposes  the Koch Bros  touted the benefits of social security. 

    As described in the Oct 17th Nation , in 1973 Charles Koch wanted to hire Friedrich Hayek (Road to Serfdom).  He ,sensibly, afraid of giving up the benefits of Austria's health and retirement programs, turned Koch down. Koch's operatives responded  by trying to convince Hayek of the virtues of  social security  and Medicare.

    Koch himself  wrote to Hayek with detailed instructions on  applying   " In order to  be eligible for medical coverage you must apply during the registration perod ............For your further information , I am enclosing a pamphlet on Social Security". 

    This wasn't  during some earlier period of liberalism , Koch's aim in trying to recruit Hayek was to attract attention to a right wing think tank which was a forerunner of the Cato Institute.

    So social security and medicare were scorned by the K's except when it was in their interests to use them as a recruiting tool