COLORADO SPRING, Colo. (AP) – Chief lieutenants in the Koch brothers’ political network lashed out at the Senate Republican health care bill on Saturday as not conservative enough, becoming a powerful outside critic as GOP leaders try to rally support for their plan among rank-and-file Republicans.
Tim Phillips, who leads Americans For Prosperity, the Koch network’s political arm, called the Senate’s plans for Medicaid “a slight nip and tuck” over President Barack Obama’s health care law, a modest change he described as “immoral.”
“This Senate bill needs to get better,” Phillips said. “It has to get better.”
Some Republican senators have raised concern about cuts to Medicaid and to Planned Parenthood, which provides a wide variety of health services for women. One of those services is abortion, which makes it a frequent target of conservatives. Several conservative senators have voiced opposition because they feel it does not go far enough in dismantling what they call “Obamacare.”
The comments came on the first day of a three-day private donor retreat at a luxury resort in the Rocky Mountains. Invitations were extended only to donors who promise to give at least $100,000 each year to the various groups backed by the Koch brothers’ Freedom Partners – a network of education, policy and political entities that aim to promote small government.