Reid’s attacks haven’t hurt Koch brothers, Phillips says

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s scorched-earth campaign to “demonize” the libertarian-minded Koch brothers hasn’t hurt them, Tim Phillips, the president of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, said Tuesday.

“I don’t think most Americans can agree with the supposed leader of the Senate,” Phillips said in an interview with the Review-Journal when asked about Reid charges that the Kochs are manipulating politics for their own benefit. “It may whip up some of their (Democrats’) hard, hard liberal base … reaching for a villain. We haven’t seen this working so far.”

Philips is heading to Las Vegas to participate in FreedomFest, an annual gathering starting today of free thinkers, entrepreneurs and folks who think author George Orwell was right about the dangers of “Big Brother” government. The meeting attracts about 2,500 people and will be held through Saturday at Planet Hollywood Resort.

Americans for Prosperity plans to spend $100 million this year, according to the Washington Post, partly to back GOP efforts in the 2014 elections to take control of the U.S. Senate, where Reid, D-Nev., reigns. But the organization that promotes free markets and less government regulation and taxes to spur the economy also is expanding operations in states such as Nevada, a must-win battleground in White House races. It is operating in 32 states, Phillips said.

“We simply do not think in terms of election cycles,” Phillips said. “Our goal is to build a long-term infrastructure that will be able to push forward prosperity for a maximum number of Americans who believe in economic freedom policies.”

Phillips said the organization might not open offices in every state but will focus on both battleground states as well as those that lean heavily Republican (such as Oklahoma) or Democratic (such as Illinois) where they’re operating now and “where we can make a difference in the long term” on the federal, state and local levels.

Americans for Prosperity has been active in Nevada since 2009, when it launched a national campaign against President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, according to Phillips. He said it continues to fight against the law and believes it might take up to a decade to overturn it — a goal of the Republican Party as well.

Asked what would replace Obamacare, Phillips said a system that would put American consumers more in control of their own health care and one that would involve more competition, including across state lines. He pointed to health care delay cover-ups in Veterans Affairs as an example of how government isn’t held accountable and Americans pay the price.

“Look at the VA scandal and the idea they would treat our veterans in such a callous manner,” Phillips said.

The organization’s efforts are part of a $300 million plan this year by Charles and David Koch to attract more young and minority voters — who tend to lean Democratic — to GOP candidates and causes in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. The Kochs also are targeting veterans in the wake of the VA scandal in which administrators in some states were faking paperwork to show shorter wait times for veterans to get health care appointments.

Meanwhile, Reid has led the Democratic Party in singling out the Koch brothers as what’s wrong with big-money politics, including the ability to set up organizations that don’t have to report who donates money to them.

In one of his early attacks, Reid in February criticized the Koch brothers as “un-American” for sponsoring a group that was running ads against Obamacare that included patients telling horror stories about their experiences.

“It’s too bad that they’re trying to buy America, and it’s time that the American people spoke out against this terrible dishonesty of these two brothers who are about as un-American as anyone I can imagine,” Reid said on the Senate floor.

Since late January, Reid has mentioned the Kochs in 22 floor speeches, according to Politico.

In fact, Reid’s personal attacks have become part of a larger Democratic Party strategy to focus on the Koch brothers through the Nov. 4 general election and beyond, according to the Politico story published Tuesday. The story notes that Reid’s wife, Landra, suggested he accuse Republicans of being “addicted to Koch,” which he did.

“The result has been a highly unusual election-year campaign against a couple of relatively unknown private citizens whom Reid and his Democrats are seeking to make into caricatures,” Politico reported.

The Kochs have responded, according to the article, by launching a public relations campaign to highlight their philanthropic actions and the businessmen’s employment of 60,000 Americans in multinational industries.

Phillips said he finds it hypocritical of Reid to go after the Kochs because there are plenty of billionaires who donate big money to the Democratic Party, including George Soros. Phillips also noted that Reid, during his 30-plus years in Congress, “has spent decades on the public dole, but has somehow become a very wealthy individual.”

“We see this as an attempt to demonize two individual Americans for two reasons,” Phillips said. “One, they happen to disagree with the Big Government ideology that Harry Reid espouses. And, they have actually taken a stand against this agenda and they’re giving their time and financial resources” to promote their ideas.

Libertarianism appears to be on the rise across America, particularly among younger voters, but also among Americans who have become disenchanted with the two main U.S. political parties.

Americans’ anger at government agencies such as the National Security Agency, which has been listening in on private Americans’ conversations, the Transportation Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, which targeted GOP organizations, has contributed to the rise in libertarian thinking, too, Phillips said.

But Phillips largely attributes the growing popularity of libertarian ideology on protecting privacy and free markets to the downturn in the economy, which he blames on a government that’s too big and puts too many regulatory and tax burdens on businesses. He said young graduates can’t find jobs after they leave high school or college with diplomas.