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When I was first introduced to Jane Mayer’s article “Covert Operations,” I had little knowledge of what the Tea Party was or what they stand for. I also had absolutely no idea who the Koch brothers were or what kind of an impact they were having on Washington or the rest of our American society.

After researching different organizations that the Koch’s fund I started to see they have money where their political needs are the greatest. For this article I specifically focused in on three major institutions that the Koch’s fund, National Cancer Institute, Patients United Now, and the Smithsonian.

Koch has a reason for each one these organizations and why he funds them. The results all come up as him being a selfish, rich man.

Koch most likely wouldn’t have cared one little bit about cancer research until he was diagnosed with it himself. Although it is great that he is giving millions of dollars to help with research, he also refused to admit that formaldehyde causes cancer. This to my belief is solely because his company is one of the largest producers of formaldehyde based products in America.

Koch also supports a group known as Patients United Now. This is a group of people who believes in the privatization of health care. They are a big voice in the tea party movement. Koch has given money to support this group, which works its way into the tea party’s movement. Patients United Now was formed as part of a Koch-sponsored group called Americans for Prosperity, a huge supporter of the Tea Party Movement since its inception.

Finally, Koch gave $15 million to the Smithsonian to fund a project on evolution. The exhibit hall is titled The David H. Koch Hall of Human Evolution. The exhibit’s main theme is that extreme climate change in the past made humans very adaptable. Dr. Joseph Romm, editor of Climate Progress, stated, “Koch has spent over $48.5 million since 1997 to fund the anti-science disinformation machine."

The question is then raised; are the Koch’s good people with all their donations or are they just selfish and greedy people with their own political agendas? I believe that they have their way of how America should be ran because they have the money to gain control  and have already been influencing politicians and supporting groups that are on the same political page as them.