Gay marriage-backing billionaire David Koch comes to Tea Party

Mr Koch, 70, has emerged as one of the principal financial backers of the conservative Tea Party movement that is shaking up US politics ahead of November's mid-term elections. His political foundation, Americans for Prosperity, has played a major role organising national rallies against Barack Obama's tax policies. Mr Koch has publicly opposed the Democratic President's healthcare reforms, climate change proposals and attempts to regulate financial markets. Although insisting to New York magazine last week he had "never been to a Tea Party event" - and distancing himself from the movement's racist fringe - he expressed sympathy for the grassroots anti-Washington rebellion that has shaken politicians from both main parties. "(The Tea Party) demonstrates a powerful visceral hostility in the body politic against the massive increase in government power, the massive efforts to socialise this country, which goes against the conservative grain of the average American," he said...more