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Grover Norquist: Republicans Wobbly On Taxes Won't Face Opposition Yet

Despite 'Impure' Republican Actions, Norquist Won't Fight 'Treason'
Reuters
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By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers who publicly mull acquiescing to tax increases on the wealthiest Americans may be guilty of "impure thoughts" in the words of anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, but he says that alone is no reason to throw them out of office.

"Thinking something out loud is not treason," Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, told Reuters in an interview.

Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, and Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma are among a handful of Republicans openly weighing President Barack Obama's proposal to raise tax rates on household incomes above $250,000, the stickiest point in the talks to avert the "fiscal cliff."

"Right now, he has had impure thoughts on tax increases," Norquist said of the recent comments by Chambliss. "But nobody has voted for a tax increase."

Obama and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner met on Sunday in negotiations on a potential deal, about three weeks before some $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts begin to kick in, possibly igniting another recession.

Asked about Republicans giving in on taxes, Norquist said: "It may be unhelpful, it may be throwing marbles at Boehner's feet, but I think they are trying to be helpful."

Norquist's famed "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," signed by nearly every Republican lawmaker in the House and Senate, holds that they not raise taxes. Support has appeared to wane amid a drive to reduce deficits topping $1 trillion and with pressure from the latest fiscal standoff.

Lawmakers who sign the pledge vow to oppose any efforts to boost marginal individual and corporate income tax rates and to "oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."

Corker said on Sunday the party might be forced to give in to Obama on higher tax rates on wealthier individuals. Opinion polls show the public would tend to blame Republicans if the country falls off the fiscal cliff.

"There is a growing group of folks who are ... realizing that we don't have a lot of cards as it relates to the tax issue before year-end," Corker told the "Fox News Sunday" program.

Despite such statements, Norquist said it was too early to think about supporting more-conservative candidates to challenge lawmakers who seem to stray from the pledge.

Of Corker's comments, Norquist lamented that no one pays attention to the spending cuts the senator has proposed.

"All the advocates of bigger government hear is Corker will vote for a tax increase," Norquist said.

LEVERAGE?

Norquist said Republicans do hold leverage - in their power to hold up approval of a hike in the government's borrowing limit - known as the debt ceiling. They also have the power to hold up approval of the so-called Continuing Resolution that funds the government.

If necessary, Norquist said, Republicans should only agree to the extension of these two levers every few weeks or once a month to extract spending cuts.

Political wrangling over the debt limit in 2011, including Republican demands for spending cuts in exchange for a debt limit increase, led Standard & Poor's to downgrade the U.S. debt rating for the first time in the country's history.

The existing Continuing Resolution expires at the end of March. The government is expected to run into its borrowing limit at year's end but has a few months of breathing room to shift funds around before it actually runs out of money.

Norquist's group, despite having more "non-signers" of the pledge in the Congress that will be seated in January than in the current group of lawmakers, spent about $25 million in the most recent election cycle, a record.

The group does not need to disclose its donors under tax laws, but Norquist said there are "more than 100,000 members."

Norquist, who began ATR in the mid-1980s, said he did not have enough details to evaluate whether Boehner's initial offer to raise $800 billion in revenue through unspecified closing of tax deductions and loopholes violated the "pledge."

He said he understood the offer is made "in the context of reducing marginal tax rates and broadening the base ... and economic growth." (Reporting by Kim Dixon; Editing by Howard Goller and Eric Beech)

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Before You Go

GOP Lawmakers Run Away From Grover
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)(01 of15)
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Chambliss, a conservative Republican up for reelection in 2014, started the media surge of prominent GOP lawmakers breaking ranks with Norquist last week. He told a local news station on Nov. 21 that he thought the pledge itself was outdated."I care too much about my country -- I care a lot more about it than I do about Grover Norquist," Chambliss said. "Norquist has no plan to pay this debt down. His plan says you continue to add to the debt, and I just have a fundamental disagreement about that and I'm willing to do the right thing and let the political consequences take care of themselves." As a member of the "Gang of Six" --lawmakers focused on a path towards deficit reduction -- Chambliss has proposed raising a significant amount of new revenues through tax reform. (credit:(AP Photo/Harry Hamburg, File))
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.)(02 of15)
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King championed Chambliss' take on the ATR no-tax-increases pledge when speaking about deficit reduction on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "I agree entirely with Saxby Chambliss," King said. "A pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that Congress. ... The world has changed, and the economic situation is different...For instance, if I were in Congress in 1941, I would have signed a declaration of war against Japan. I'm not going to attack Japan today. The world has changed, and the economic situation is different." (credit:(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File))
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)(03 of15)
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The South Carolina senator took to the news shows on Sunday to push for a solution to the fiscal crisis, even if it requires that the GOP gives some ground on new revenues. He told ABC's Jonathan Karl that he would be willing to break the pledge in order to ensure the fiscal solvency of the United States -- provided, of course, that Democrats would cede some serious structural reforms to entitlement programs. "When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece, and Republicans -- Republicans should put revenue on the table," Graham said. "I want to buy down debt and cut rates to create jobs, but I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if Democrats will do entitlement reform."Correction: An earlier version of this story contained a misspelling of Graham's first name. (credit:(KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images))
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)(04 of15)
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Corker became the third GOP senator to publicly disavow the pledge promulgated by Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform in the last week. Speaking to CBS' Charlie Rose on Monday, the Tennessee Republican said that he was bound to serve his constituents first and foremost."I’m not obligated on the pledge," he said. "I made Tennesseans aware, I was just elected, the only thing I’m honoring is the oath I take when I serve, when I’m sworn in this January." (credit:(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite))
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.)(05 of15)
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Although Cantor has not come out and explicitly stated that he would violate the pledge -- in the manner of Graham -- he has said that he is not concerned with the pledge and wants to do what is best for his constituents. "When I go to the constituents that have reelected me, it is not about that pledge," Cantor said on MSNBC on Monday. "It really is about trying to solve problems."As a part of a supposed grand bargain, Cantor says that Republicans are willing to put some new revenues on the table, provided that they are raised from closing loopholes rather than from increasing the marginal rates. Under Norquist's pledge, neither option would be permissible. (credit:(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite))
Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.)(06 of15)
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Rigell broke with Norquist and revoked his signing of the pledge in May on the grounds that it restricts any meaningful attempt at tax reform. "Averting bankruptcy requires us to grasp the severity of our fiscal condition and summon the courage to speak boldly about the difficult steps needed to increase revenues and sharply decrease spending," he wrote in a two-page letter explaining his reversal to his constituents. He wasn't advocating for tax hikes to further increase government spending, but any substantive overhaul of the tax code could only be undertaken if everything was on the table, he said. At the time, Norquist questioned the salience of Rigell's position, saying that the sort of tax increases he was looking for would be as unlikely as catching a unicorn. “[I've] been in touch with the Republican Party in [Rigell’s] district, and they aren’t excited about it. This is not going to be a continuing problem,” Norquist told Politico in May. (credit:(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images))
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)(07 of15)
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Coburn has publicly criticized the idea of a no-new-taxes pledge before. In July, he authored an editorial for The New York Times in which he decried the hard-line approach taken by Norquist as counterproductive to substantive deficit reduction. "In a debt crisis, higher interest rates and the debasement of our currency would be additional tax hikes," Coburn wrote. "In that sense, no one is doing more to violate the spirit of the pledge than Mr. Norquist himself, who is asking Republicans to reject the very type of agreement that could prevent future tax increases."Coburn previously disagreed with Norquist's characterization of his bill to eliminate the ethanol tax credit as a "tax increase." (credit:(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File))
Senator-Elect Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)(08 of15)
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When running for his Arizona seat, Flake claimed that he had not signed the pledge when in fact he had. But the Republican did publicly distance himself from Norquist, saying in October that "the only pledge I'd sign is a pledge to sign no more pledges.""I believe in limited government, economic freedom, individual responsibility," Flake said during a debate against his Democratic and Libertarian opponents. "I don't want higher taxes. But no more pledges." (credit:(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images))
Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.)(09 of15)
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Ribble, a freshman lawmaker from Wisconsin, decided that he wouldn't be signing any more pledges, including a renewal of Norquist's anti-tax measure. In order to achieve deficit reduction, he wants to close corporate loopholes and explore other options around tax reform."Tax rates don't correlate much to what actual revenue is, but if we would remove some of the subsidies and tax giveaways, we would have the money to reduce rates and spur economic growth which would increase revenue," he told CNN. (credit:(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File))
Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.)(10 of15)
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Andrews, one of two House Democrats to sign the anti-tax pledge, said that he thought the anti-tax promise only applied to the term in which he signed it rather than extending throughout his legislative career. "I honored that pledge -- I never renewed it," Andrews told The Hill back in 2011. "I never considered it to be like my marriage vows...I'm married to Camille Andrews, not Grover Norquist. I promised her to be faithful until death do us part, and I mean it. I did not promise him to oppose tax increases until death do us part." (credit:(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File))
Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.)(11 of15)
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Terry also believed that the anti-tax pledge only applied to the two-year term in which he signed it. He and Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) both indicated to The Hill in 2011 that they had signed the pledge 20 years ago but had not agreed to uphold the pledge while serving in the present Congress. (credit:(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite))
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.)(12 of15)
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Fortenberry told his constituents in August that he found Norquist's anti-tax pledge to be "too constraining" and did not want to be associated with it. He first broke ranks in 2011 and then renewed his position again in May 2012 when speaking to The American Conservative. "Simply looking at the status quo and suggesting that the tax code is sacrosanct and can never change, and that decisions made in the ’80s and ’90s can never change, is absurd," he said. "The tax code is weighted toward the ultra-wealthy and ultra-wealthy corporations, and has created an offshore aristocracy of people who can afford to hire an army of accountants and lawyers.""We need a simpler, fairer tax code. Removing special-interest loopholes could potentially increase revenues and allow for lower rates," he added. (credit:(Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images))
Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio)(13 of15)
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LaTourette, who announced in July that he will retire at the end of the year, hasn't signed the pledge since 1994. He was under the impression, like several other GOP lawmakers, that the anti-tax promise had a limited applicability and had to be renewed. "My driver’s license expires," LaTourette told The Hill. "The milk in my refrigerator expires. My gym membership expires, and I find the website to be a little deceptive."LaTourette and Sen. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) introduced a version of the Bowles-Simpson deficit-reduction plan in March. Although it engendered very little public support at the time -- and drew fire from Norquist -- LaTourette told HuffPost that many lawmakers privately pledged to get behind the measure after the November elections. (credit:(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File))
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.)(14 of15)
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DesJarlais walked back his commitment when The Tennessean asked about his signature on the anti-tax pledge Monday."The only pledge that matters is the one I made to my constituents to always represent their interests in Congress," the Tennessee congressman said in a statement. "I will judge any legislation put forth to avoid the fiscal cliff based solely upon the wishes and needs of the people of Tennessee’s Fourth Congressional District." In the past, DesJarlais has also appeared to waffle on conservative positions he has taken on both preventing abortion and supporting family values. HuffPost's Michael McAuliff reported in October that he had an affair with one of his patients and appeared to push her to get an abortion on a recorded phone call. (credit:(AP Photo/Erik Schelzig))
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)(15 of15)
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Alexander first broke with the pledge last year, but he reaffirmed his sentiments to The Tennessean yesterday. When speaking to Roll Call magazine last July, the senior GOP senator said that he wanted to get rid of some unwarranted tax breaks -- something Norquist's pledge would not allow. “My only pledge is to the United States flag and to the United States Constitution, and I’ve forsworn all others,” Alexander told Roll Call at the time. (credit:(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File))
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