PROGRESS MICHIGAN PRESS BACKGROUNDER AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY

PROGRESS MICHIGAN PRESS BACKGROUNDER AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY

Americans for Prosperity is part of an array of industry backed, right-wing groups who have promoted turnout at health care town halls from www.recessrally.com.

Rachel Maddow did an investigation into the groups behind the mob-style rallies and one of the more prominent groups is Americans for Prosperity (AFP).

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) was founded in 2003 by the tobacco industry, and has fought to destroy laws which promote clean indoor air & reduce smoking.¹² Recent AFP campaigns include a “hot air tour” across the country, where AFP
has denied the scientific fact of global warming,³ and this past spring’s extremist right-wing fringe “Tea Parties.”⁴

The Americans for Prosperity Foundation is Chaired by David Koch, a billionaire co-owner of oil-and-gas giant
Koch Industries.⁵ Since 1990, Koch Industries has been fined over $400 million in both criminal fines resulting from oil spills and
damages levied after teenagers died when one of Koch’s oil pipelines exploded.^{6 7}

In Michigan, Americans for Prosperity is headed by Scott Hagerstrom, a Legislative Director for former State
Representative Jack Hoogendyk.⁸Hagerstrom was handed the position by his wife, Amy Hagerstrom, who led Ron Paul’s Michigan campaign after heading up the ballot effort to impose anti-worker “right-to-work” laws on Michigan’s working families.⁹

At AFP-organized protests throughout the country, extremists have hung Congressmen in effigy, gotten in fist-fights, screamed at Representatives, and compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler.^{10
11 12}