David Koch on Gay Marriage, Tax Increases, and Defense Spending

Apparently, David Koch has been in the news recently with the Republican National Convention. David Koch recently officially came out for gay marriage and higher taxes. Anyone who wanted to know this already could have gone to his Wikipedia page. The first one I am not surprised about the second one I question what he actually means. Koch is always associated with the Republican Party who mainly believes that marriage should be between a main and a woman. However, people forget the Koch is actually a libertarian meaning he is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I myself use to be conservative and then became more liberal on social issues because if the conservative premise is let me make my own financial decisions the parallel liberal premise should be let me make my own decisions with my body.

Anyways, some people on the left are excited while other are skeptical David Koch actually believes in same sex marriage. The guy did run for the libertarian ticket in 1980. I did see on Koch’s Wikipedia entry that he was conservative after that but really think people just associated with the conservative party. What is really interesting is that even liberals don’t think he is serious about his views on same sex marriage and think he is just lying. What incentive does David Koch have to lie? I would also point out he doesn’t benefit is any way shape or form from endorsing same sex marriage he just believes like I do people should be allowed to marry whoever they want to as long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others.

The increase in taxes comment was also interesting. David Koch never said whose taxes should increase. My best guess would be Koch wants there to be more taxpayers which by definition would be an increase in taxes since nearly 50% of the people who live in the United States owe no federal tax liability. On the spending side Koch believes that a “balanced budget would require every federal department… to take cuts”. He also said that we should cut defense spending which is not typical with the conservative viewpoint.

I am not really sure how this is really “news” since David Koch has been a libertarian for some time. People often have this association fallacy and believe “well David Koch is contributes to the Republican therefore he must hold all their beliefs”. Voting for politicians is like voting for a basket of goods. You may not like everything but there are enough things you like that you will vote for them. I wish David Koch would do more interviews to educate people on how much good he has done through his philanthropy, talk about what a great company he has help build, and to explain what has made him so successful.