A former Republican California state assemblyman said Friday on "Fox & Friends" that "tax the rich"-type proposals are attractive to a wide swath of voters because they force the GOP to defend "interests that aren't frankly very popular."

Texas Public Policy Institute Vice President Chuck DeVore, who host Ed Henry said left the Golden State over its high taxation, said that Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and others are looking at several new tax proposals.

"That's a lot of money," he said.

Henry asked how such programs work.

"It works as a political device," DeVore said. "While it doesn't raise very much money, it forces the other side to try to defend interests that aren't frankly very popular."

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He and Henry discussed how Republicans have to defend unpopular businesses like financial institutions in order to prevent such progressive policies from being enacted.

DeVore said that Democratic plans to raise taxes and increase regulations on corporations would just lead to companies passing the costs to the consumer.

"There is no free lunch," he said, adding that proposals like eliminating mortgage-interest tax deductions and hiking the capital gains tax will hurt small businesses and some in the middle class.

DeVore said that while pushing their high-tax proposals, Democrats must promise voters things like publicly-funded health care or college because they would otherwise feel the financial pain of some of the initiatives.

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He said that, for example, hiking the gasoline tax or introducing carbon taxes will affect the working class when they fill up their cars or pay their utility bills.

"You have to insulate [people] from that by taking a huge portion of those new revenues raised and giving it to favored groups," DeVore said.