Without a “bold agenda,” warned Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips Tuesday on Fox News, Republicans cannot win the presidency in 2016. And with that, the Kochs sent the GOP a message: You can’t win without us in 2016 — and you’ll have to go all in for the Koch agenda to get our support.
In the interview, the Koch group’s president name-dropped Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson, giving them a not-so-subtle nod that they remain top contenders for the Koch network’s backing in 2016. But Phillips also made it clear that nothing’s a given: Candidates who want a crack at the Kochs’ $900 million have to go big and bold on the Koch agenda.
And we saw big — if not, bold — Koch pandering at Tuesday’s debate. From laughing off minimum wage increases to calling for Wall Street deregulation and massive tax cuts for the wealthy, the field was falling over itself to show Charles and David it’d promote their policy agenda. Same deal with opposing the Export-Import Bank, which Charles and David have poured millions into shutting down. (There was one exception on that latter point: In the under-card debate, Ex-Im Bank-supporter Rick Santorum spent fifty seconds chastising the field’s Ex-Im Bank opponents for their betrayal of American workers.) Ted Cruz — being, well, Ted Cruz — went so far as to invoke the name of Charles Koch’s favorite president, Calvin Coolidge, and praise his economic legacy.
Absent total adoption of the Koch agenda, the GOP nominee will get nothing from Charles and David. And that leaves the future nominee, no matter who he or she is, in a serious bind. Because the Kochs now own the Republican Party — and without their support, the GOP doesn’t stand a chance.