Reid: Koch brothers are ‘trying to buy America’

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) accused the Koch brothers of “trying to buy America” by running anti-ObamaCare ads.

“These two brothers are trying to buy America,” Reid said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “I don’t believe America is for sale.”

{mosads}Reid said David and Charles Koch, who have made billions in U.S. oil, are funding Tea Party groups that are running ads against ObamaCare. Reid said the “horror stories” told in these ads are “all lies.”

“Republicans may need tall tales and outright lies to convince the public that ObamaCare is bad for them. but Democrats, we don’t have to make things up,” Reid said. “The Koch brothers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars telling Americans that ObamaCare is bad for them. It’s easy to do if you have no conscience and are willing to lie, like they are.”

Reid went on to point out that the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, has provided free preventive healthcare for women and allowed people under the age of 26 to stay on their parents’ health insurance.

Republicans have repeatedly called for a full repeal of the law, saying it harms consumers and the economy by issuing mandates. 

Koch Companies President Philip Ellender said Reid’s most recent attact was “particularly troubling.”

“[Reid] appears to reference a television advertisement produced by Americans for Prosperity in which a Michigan woman suffering from leukemia shared her experiences under Obamacare,” Ellender said. “While Charles Koch and David Koch were not responsible for the advertisement in question, we believe it is disgraceful that Senator Reid and his fellow Democrats are attacking a cancer victim as part of their campaign against Charles Koch and David Koch.”

— This article was updated at 12:30 p.m.