Tag: grover norquist

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Politics

Imagine That! Grover Norquist is Accusing Obama of Not Negotiating

Grover Norquist:

“One of the challenges, of course, is people see this happening; they realize that the president has not been negotiating at all over the past three months,” Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, said on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “We learned days and weeks and months afterwards that they had non-meetings where this is going on.”

Imagine that! This is the same Grover Norquist who authored the “No Tax” pledge that just about all Republicans in Congress have signed. The Norquist Pledge, as it’s called, forces Republicans to avoid any negotiations that have to do with raising taxes on anyone, especially those making tons more than they need. This is the same Norquist who is now accusing the President of not negotiating.

He created a pledge guaranteeing that no negotiations are done, then he accuses the President of not negotiating. These Republicans are all jokers. There is no other conclusion one can make.

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Politics

Grover Norquist – Republicans Must Keep The President “On A Rather Short Leash”

Am I reading too much into this? Am I misrepresenting what Grover Norquist is really saying here?

With all the blatant disrespect this particular president has endured from these Republicans, I’ll put Grover’s statement in the same category as that of the common Republican racist who shouted out “you lie” at the president while he addressed the nation, or the racist Romney adviser who threw out the usual stereotypical buzzword of “lazy” while referring to the first black president. Or the racist Republican governor who felt the need to point her old wrinkled finger in the president’s face as if he needed scolding.

Grover’s “short leash” comment came in an interview with Mike Allen at Politico Playbook Breakfast. Grover, respected and loved in the Republican circle and the  author of the no-tax “pledge” most congressional and senate Republicans signed, is considered smart enough to know the sentiment his statement would conjurer up. But he opened his mouth and said them anyway.

The conversation between the two men was about the so-called fiscal cliff and the Bush Tax cuts set to expire at the end of December. It went like this:

Mike Allen: This president is not going to extend [the Bush tax cuts], he knows that he loses his leverage that way.

Grover Norquist: Well, the Republicans also have other leverage. Continuing resolutions on spending and the debt ceiling increase. They can give him debt ceiling increases once a month. They can have him on a rather short leash… Here’s your allowance, come back next month if you behave.

Mike Allen: Okay, wait. You’re proposing that the debt ceiling be increased month by month?

Grover Norquist: Monthly if he’s good. Weekly if he’s not.

Apparently this president, this particular president, is looked upon as an animal by the leaders in the Republican party.

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Politics taxes

Grover Norquist Is Okay With Allowing The Bush Tax Cuts To Expire

WITH A HANDFUL of exceptions, every Republican member of Congress has signed a pledge against increasing taxes. Would allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire as scheduled in 2012 violate this vow? We posed this question to Grover Norquist, its author and enforcer,and his answer was both surprising and encouraging: No.

In other words, according to Mr. Norquist’s interpretation of the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, lawmakers have the technical leeway to bring in as much as $4 trillion in new tax revenue — the cost of extending President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for another decade — without being accused of breaking their promise. “Not continuing a tax cut is not technically a tax increase,” Mr. Norquist told us. So it doesn’t violate the pledge? “We wouldn’t hold it that way,” he said.

 Of course, letting the tax cuts expire is decidedly not Mr. Norquist’s preference. Indeed, as a matter of policy, he is passionately opposed to a single dime in new tax revenue. But the fact that Mr. Norquist interprets his own pledge to permit such conduct suggests that Republican lawmakers who have been browbeaten into abjuring any tax increase, at any time, for any reason, may not be as boxed in as they believe. The official Republican line has been that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, even for those earning more than $250,000, would be a job-killing tax increase. The fact that the godfather of the pledge does not interpret the lapse as an increase is significant.

[The Washington Post]
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Politics Ronald Reagan taxes

Yesterday’s Ronald Reagan Would Have Been A Blazin’ Liberal Today

You hear it all the time, Ronald Reagan would have done this and Ronald Reagan would have done that. And as you listen to today’s Republicans, you can’t help but wonder if they remember the same Reagan the rest of us do, the guy who actually raised taxes on the American people 11 times during his presidency.

Like the video below, where Ronald Reagan had the audacity to suggest that the rich should pay more in taxes. Statements like this would have been enough to cause today’s Republicans to round up the ‘posse,’ track down the ex president with hound dogs and nail him to a cross with a copy of Grover Norquist’s pledge glued to his forhead.

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Politics taxes

President Obama To Introduce The “Buffett Rule” On Monday – Taxing The Rich

The New York Times is reporting a new measure by President Barack Obama called The Buffett Rule. According to the news report, President Obama will announce on Monday plans to tax millionaires at the same tax rate middle class Americans pay today.

According to the Times Report, administration officials said the plan would require those making “more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers.”

Mr. Obama, in a bit of political salesmanship, will call his proposal the “Buffett Rule,” in a reference to Warren E. Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained repeatedly that the richest Americans generally pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than do middle-income workers, because investment gains are taxed at a lower rate than wages.

Mr. Obama will not specify a rate or other details, and it is unclear how much revenue his plan would raise. But his idea of a millionaires’ minimum tax will be prominent in the broad plan for long-term deficit reduction that he will outline at the White House on Monday.

Although this is a great idea, suggested by many millionaires including Warren Buffett among others, there is one minor obstacle. It’s a small pledge signed by Congressional Republicans called the Grover Norquist Pledge. Republicans have promised Mr. Norquist that no matter what the situation is, no matter how much revenue the American economy needs, raising taxes would not happen.

So yes, Mr. Obama’s Buffett Plan will be a fair plan, but Grover Norquist and the Republicans will not have it.

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Medicare Mitch McConnell paying taxes Politics Republican

Remember When McConnell Said The Rich Should Pay Their Taxes?

It was not that long ago, but when you look at what he said then and compare it with what he’s saying now in Washington, Mitch McConnell’s statement sounds like it came from a different dimension.

The year was 1990, and Mitch McConnell – the present Senate Republican Minority Leader – was in his campaign mode when he made a political ad referring to taxes, saying, ” Unlike some folks around here, I think everyone should pay their fair share, including the rich.” But McConnell didn’t stop there. He went on and took a position on Medicare that, when taken in conjunction with his taxing-the-rich statement, it prompted the Associated Press to say that he sounded like a “populist Democrat.” He called for the protection of Medicaid recipients.

Here is the transcript of Mitch McConnell’s full ad.

I’m sure you’ve been watching this mess in Washington.

I’d like you to know how I feel about it.

I haven’t voted for one of these lousy budget packages for years and I won’t vote for this one.

It would raise taxes on the wrong people.

Unlike some folks around here I think everyone should pay their fair share. Including the rich.

We need to protect our seniors from Medicare cuts too.

I don’t care if the President or Congressional leaders twist my arm. I won’t support any deal that isn’t a fair deal for the working families of Kentucky.

Those were the days when Democrats and Republicans were afraid to make their true motives known, and although they may have felt differently, putting the people first was always  the politically correct thing to do.

Today however, McConnell and his band of Congressional Republicans have made a pledge to Grover Norquist to never raise taxes on the rich, and they are in the midst of instituting some of the biggest spending cuts in our nation’s history. And yes, McConnell now wants to cut Medicare into non-existence.

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Barack Obama Chris Matthews Politics Republican

Who Is The Puppet Master of Congressional Republicans?

His name is Grover Norquist – The author of a pledge that over 230 Republican House members, 41 Republican Senators and more than 1,100 state officeholders, from state representatives to governors have signed. The Pledge forces these members to promise that no matter what the circumstance, no matter how dire the situation, they will not raise taxes.

Norquist appeared on Hardball with Chris Mathews yesterday and defended his position and that of the signers of the pledge. He was asked many times by Mathews to describe any scenario where he would allow the signers to do what’s right for the country instead of holding to the pledge, but Norquist managed to sidestep the question, choosing instead to bark the same old talking point that the pledge is “what the American people want”, despite recent polls that show over 70% of Americans disagree with Republicans on this matter.

America must raise its debt ceiling from $14.3 trillion by August 2nd to meet our financial responsibilities worldwide. Republicans, who for decades have tried to cut spending on programs benefiting the poor and middle class, turned down over $3 trillion in those cuts offered by Democrats because taking that offer would mean they must agree to closing some tax loopholes for millionaires.

Congressional Republicans have made a pledge of allegiance to Grover Norquist, instead of making it to the Flag of The United States of America.

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