skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

What are Americans For Prosperity’s Positions?

play audio
Play

Monday, April 14, 2014   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A shadowy billionaires' political organization is campaigning heavily in West Virginia. But what economic policies would Americans For Prosperity actually put in place?

According to Steve Wamhoff, legislative director for Citizens for Tax Justice, billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch are using the group to push policies that would benefit them personally: tax cuts and loopholes for corporations and wealthy individuals. Wamhoff said they would lower taxes for American corporations that make products overseas or use accounting tactics to hide money in such tax havens as the Cayman Islands.

"They'd be getting an even bigger break than they get now," he declared. "I think we would end up with more corporations doing things to shift their profits offshore, and in some cases, to shift factories and operations and jobs offshore."

In the last part of last year AFP spent $1.4 million running negative political ads against long-serving West Virginioa Democratic Congressman Nick Rahall. When called, an official with the group promised they would respond with detailed answers, but then the group did not return several calls over two days.

AFP has come out in favor of a flat income tax and a big tax cut for profits made on investments. Wamhoff said this means a woman working minimum wage to support two kids would pay the same rate on her wages as a millionaire. And in fact, he said, because of the tax break on capital gains, millionaires would probably pay a lower overall tax rate than a middle-class family.

That means a lower rate "than a household made of two people who are kindergarten teachers," Wamhoff said. "I think that's something that most West Virginians and most Americans would really disagree with."

Americans For Prosperity is part of a network of similar organizations set up by oil and chemical billionaires Charles and David Koch. The groups are largely funded with big, anonymous donations. The Koch brothers almost never talk to the press.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


South Dakota ranks 49th in the country for its contribution to indigent legal defense costs, according to a 2023 report from the Indigent Legal Services Task Force. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021