Wisconsin’s newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker is facing a growing backlash over his attempt to cut pay and eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in his state. Although Walker is claiming his power grab is an attempt to close a budget gap, the budget “crisis” was engineered by Walker as soon as he got into office. As Brian Beutler reported, half of the budget shortfall comes from Walker’s own tax cuts for businesses and other business giveaways enacted in January.

A number of the big business interests standing with Walker are beneficiaries of his administration’s tax giveaways. But the greatest ally to Walker is the dirty energy company Koch Industries. In response to the growing protests in Madison, Koch fronts are busing in Tea Party protesters to support Walker and his union-busting campaign. Last night, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz reported on the involvement of Club for Growth and the Koch-financed Americans for Prosperity in the pro-Walker protest scheduled tomorrow. Watch it:

Koch Industries is a major player in Wisconsin: Koch owns a coal company subsidiary with facilities in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan; six timber plants throughout the state; and a large network of pipelines in Wisconsin. While Koch controls much of the infrastructure in the state, they have laid off workers to boost profits. At a time when Koch Industries owners David and Charles Koch awarded themselves an extra $11 billion of income from the company, Koch slashed jobs at their Green Bay plant:

Officials at Georgia-Pacific said the company is laying off 158 workers at its Day Street plant because out-of-date equipment at the facility is being replaced with newer, more-efficient equipment. The company said much of the new, papermaking equipment will be automated. [...] Malach tells FOX 11 that the layoffs are not because of a drop in demand. In fact, Malach said demand is high for the bath tissue and napkins manufactured at the plant.

Koch Industries was one of the biggest contributors to Walker’s gubernatorial campaign, funneling $43,000 over the course of last year. In return, Koch front groups are closely guiding the Walker agenda. The American Legislative Exchange Council, another Koch-funded group, advised Walker and the GOP legislature on its anti-labor legislation and its first corporate tax cuts.

According to the EPA, Koch businesses are huge polluters, emitting thousands of pounds of toxic pollutants. As soon as he got into office Walker started cutting environmental regulations and appointed a Republican known for her disregard for environmental regulations to lead the Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Walker has stated his opposition to clean energy jobs policies that might draw workers away from Koch-owned interests.

Moreover, other organizers for the pro-Walker protest are from groups associated with corporate and Koch interests. American Majority, a Virginia-based front group founded by organizers funded by millionaire investor Howie Rich, is on the ground contacting Wisconsin Tea Parties to support Walker in Madison. Austin James, an American Majority official who was caught teaching Tea Party members to spam Amazon.com profiles of liberal books with negative comments, is the contact for the Facebook page organizing the pro-Walker protest. Eric O’Keefe, a longtime conservative operative who helps lead American Majority, attends Koch strategy meetings.

The for-profit school industry is currently engaged in a pitched lobbying battle to stop the Department of Education from implementing new regulations to increase accountability for career colleges and other for-profit higher education companies. Investigations by the Government Accountability Office, the Los Angeles Times, PBS Frontline, and others have found that the for-profit “subprime” school industry routinely fools students into taking loans they are not prepared to pay back by scamming students with false promises of high paying jobs, falsely claiming that their credits transfer to major universities, and promising certifications that the schools are not prepared to provide. Although just 11 percent of higher education students in the country attend for-profit schools, they account for 26 percent of federal student loans and 44 percent of student loan defaults — and 90 percent of their money comes from taxpayer-funded programs.

As the industry ramps up its lobbying efforts — just this week, hiring another high-profile political press flak — ThinkProgress has learned of a new set of fake letters supporting the industry, this time to intimidate reform proponents from playing a part in the process. In January, Campus Progress, an affiliate of the same nonprofit that hosts ThinkProgress, the Center for American Progress, helped organize a letter urging the Obama administration to enact strong regulations to curb the abuses by the for-profit college industry. Many of the organizations that cosigned the letter later received nearly identical e-mails attacking the reforms and urging them to disassociate themselves from the coalition effort. The identical letters, from apparently fake constituents of each group, cited a silly, debunked conspiracy theory conjured by lobbyists to smear proponents of reform. The false assertions in the letters paralleled suggestions in articles published the same week by a contributor to the Daily Caller website and by Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW). The source of the letters remains a mystery at this time. Below are three screenshots of such letters:

Below are three screenshots of such letters:

To see more of the copy-and-paste-attack letters to reform proponents, click here.

Currently, Rep. John Kline (R-MN), Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and other lawmakers are proposing an amendment to the budget continuing resolution to block the Department of Education from reining in out of control subprime schools. Kline, who has accepted over $100,000 in campaign funds from subprime college companies, has even sought a bailout of the industry with even more taxpayer money. Hastings, another friend of the industry, participated in an industry-orchestrated rally last year (here he is at the rally with industry lobbyists). Despite powerful floor statements by advocates for holding the worst for-profit schools accountable, the amendment passed the House Thursday night on a voice vote, with a roll call vote scheduled for later today.

Earlier this week, ThinkProgress revealed several elements of the subprime school lobbying campaign. The industry has retained over a dozen high profile lobbying firms, deployed television and Internet advertising, and perhaps most insidiously, has hired a number of astroturf lobbying firms to generate fake letters and public outrage on behalf of the industry. For instance, Goldman Sachs-owned Education Management Corporation (known for its Art Institutes and other for-profit colleges) has retained the infamous astroturf firm DCI Group and has generated 74 identical letters from the same person opposing reform.