Flashback: Director of GOP Group Financed by Labor Unions Wants Higher Taxes

The Republican establishment and labor unions view the Tea Party as a common enemy. And the establishment group that labor unions have been financing has not only openly declared war on the Tea Party, but its director has even advocated for more taxes.

Former Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) is leading the deceptively named “Defending Main Street” PAC that is seeking to raise at least $8 million from Wall Street to “beat the snot out” of the Tea Party. LaTourette has supported tax increases and alleged that the Tea Party of not caring about economic freedom. 

And according to a report in National Journal, “the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Laborers’ International Union of North America, directed a combined $400,000 to the Republican group in September and October.” The group has “not yet submitted a major donor disclosure to the Federal Election Commission,” but the donations were revealed in other documents filed by the labor organizations. 

Defending Main Street has reportedly raised $2 million to wage war against the Tea Party starting in the 2014 midterm elections, which means Big Labor is responsible for at least 20 percent of the group’s funds. 

Appearing on CNN’s Crossfire on November 4, with guest-host Larry Elder, LaTourette supported more taxes and said Republicans would only win if it abandoned the Tea Party.

“Republicans can win the game if they act like Republicans. And that doesn’t mean acting like the Tea Party,” he said. “It means acting like Republicans who care about economic freedom, economic — or individual liberty,” he said. 

Elder, the prominent conservative radio, interjected and said, “Sounds like the Tea Party to me.” 

“It’s not the Tea Party,” LaTourette replied. 

Earlier in the program, LaTourette suggested Republicans should be open to tax increases and was called out by Elder, the prominent conservative radio host, who said, “You use terms like ‘revenue.’ You mean taxes?”

“No, I mean revenue,” LaTourette spun. 

Elder then said, “You mean taxes.”

LaTourette then essentially conceded he had been spinning by saying, “Of course. Where does the revenue come from?”

“It’s a euphemism,” Elder reminded LaTourette. “Republicans use terms like taxes and federal dollars.”

LaTourette has not been shy about his desire to use his group to defeat the Tea Party, which aligns him with Big Labor. 

“Hopefully we’ll go into eight to 10 races and beat the snot out of them,” he recently told National Journal. “We’re going to be very aggressive and we’re going to get in their faces.”