Norquist Tells GOP That Raising Taxes On The Middle Class Doesn’t Count As A Tax Increase

[ProSense]

Norquist Tells GOP That Raising Taxes On The Middle Class Doesn’t Count As A Tax Increase

By Travis Waldron

Anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist, the president of Americans For Tax Reform and author of the radical anti-tax pledge that has played a significant role in hamstringing budget and deficit-reduction negotiations, has said that it is unacceptable for those who have signed his pledge to vote in favor of any tax increase. But now that President Obama and congressional Democrats are backing a tax increase aimed at stimulating economic growth, Norquist has changed his tune.

Norquist met with Republican members today to let them know that opposing the extension of the payroll tax cut — which would provide many families an extra $1,000 a year — would not amount to supporting a tax increase, National Journal’s Billy House reported today:



That stands in contrast, however, to Norquist’s position on tax cuts for the wealthy. Norquist has repeatedly warned GOP members about voting in favor of repealing the Bush tax cuts for the rich or tax hikes on millionaires, even verbally sparring with a member of a group of millionaires advocating for higher taxes on themselves last month in Washington, D.C. And yet, when it comes to tax cuts for the middle class meant to drive economic recovery, Norquist clearly takes a different stance.

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"Random person" has spoken!

[WCGreen]

1. so much for intellectual purity.

Fuck Grover....

[SharonAnn]

37. Well then, allowing Bush's tax cuts to expire is not raising taxes either.

[underpants]

2. If true - this tells you how centralized the control really is with them

this one little man can decree from on high that which is true and that which is not (regardless of the first counterdicting the second).

[opihimoimoi]

3. Grover is a Facist TOOL...... 49 pieces of Wealth bought his act by the GOPer High Command

He is worse than Cain...he is a JUDAS....a Benedick Arnold of today... A TRAITOR ...truly a Traitor to the American Ideal and Culture...

The Man LIES.....how he can sleep well is a mystery to me...

He should take several baths and get a real job...period

[ellisonz]

16. Oh it'd take more than several baths...

We're talking the lye supply of an entire weeks worth of state penitentiary admittances!

:evilgrin:

[opihimoimoi]

17. The Lye Budget cannot afford the waste ... better to shoot the bastid

[ellisonz]

18. With a bow...

...mount him on top of a black 95 Tacoma, drive out to Makapuu, chuck him in the ocean, and let the auamakua have at him. ;)

[opihimoimoi]

21. LOL... That would surely work..... :o)

[ThoughtCriminal]

4. Well, it's not like they're really people you know

They can't believe that those little people are even allowed to vote.

[ClassWarrior]

6. No. Corporations are people, silly. Those little squawking meatbags called "humons"...

...just don't measure up.

:rofl:

NGU.

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. Of course he doesn't. All he has to do now is get his friend Jane to convince liberals.

;)

[ClassWarrior]

8. Of course he doesn't need to waste a lot of effort convincing "centrists"...

...i.e., the Dems with the weakest, wimpiest Democratic values.

NGU.

[Tarheel_Dem]

9. Too bad you guys can't actually elect anyone nationally. You're forever bound..

to only play the role of spoiler. You & I both know there will never be a Kucinich or Sanders style leftist in the WH. As much as you "claim" to want to see the country take a sharp left, I fear you're in probaly in the minority. There just aren't enough old school liberals left. :hi:

p.s.: perhaps you can get Jane to release the names of her Republican clients. ;)

[ClassWarrior]

10. Make up your mind. "Nationally" or "in the WH?" Nationally, there's...

...Russ Feingold, Maxine Waters, Sherrod Brown, Teddy Kennedy, and yes, Dennis Kucinich and Bernie Sanders... to name just a handful of national figures with the strongest of Democratic values. In the WH? It's not some random "centrist's" ever-shifting, ever-rightward-leaning measure of "electability" that's kept a progressive out of the White House in recent decades. But that's another discussion entirely.

NGU.

[Tarheel_Dem]

11. I guess reading comprehension isn't your strong suit? Since when is a

single Congress person elected nationally? :crazy: The democratic party has had every opportunity to nominate someone in the mold of the folks you named, and what happens everytime? We don't. And there's good reason for that. No matter how we feel ideologically, we know that "electability" is key. If you can't elected, you're pretty much useless.

Last time we had the opportunity to choose a Kucinich or an Edwards (really dodged the bullet there), but we went with someone who could appeal to the all important Independent. Neither party can win with only its ideological base, and that's where moderates, Independents, and the dreaded "centrists" come into play.

My question to you is, WTF do the ideological purists and third party advocates do between presidential elections? They show up, every four years, make a lot of noise, and go into hiding until the next presidential election. Too fucking sorry to do the hard work required to actually build a ground up party of their own, but insist on trying to coopt the infrastructure built over generations, by the Democratic Party. You'll forgive me if I don't buy the sporadic activism that drives the chronic malcontents. I think a good deal of it is about attention. :hi:

[ClassWarrior]

12. Yeah, when we "went with someone who could appeal to the all important Independent"...

...what happened? Eight years of George W. Cheney**.

On the other hand, when we nominated someone who appealed to progressive values - America's best values - one Barack Hussein Obama - we took the White House. Sadly, he hasn't always governed in accord with those values, but that too is another discussion.

NGU.

[Tarheel_Dem]

13. Your hyperbole aside, please take a look in the archives. Some of the president's...

most ardent supporters, and his fiercest critics agreed that there wasn't much daylight between he & Hillary. You, like many others of late, like to engage in a little revisionist history. I was an Edwards supporter who moved to Obama when it was obvious Edwards couldn't break through (thank God/Goddess).

Many Edwards supporters, supported him because he was the Anti Obama/Hillary. It was clear to everyone but Kooch, whom I wouldn't even support for dogcatcher, that he was never going to get out of single digits. So the choice was always between two moderates. This country is never going to accept anyone to the left of President Obama, who is a pragmatic progressive, and you can blame "centrists", the media, the GOP, or whomever, but if you can't even convince the Democratic Party that we should nominate a Kooch style leftist, there's no chance in hell you'll convince the broader electorate. If a candidate can't appeal to "the middle", then he's just running for the sake of his/her own vanity, or he's being paid to be a spoiler. That's just fact. :hi:

[ClassWarrior]

14. Yeah, the people who paid attention knew all along how Hillary-like Obama is...

...but his 2008 stump rhetoric was purely progressive. This article by a progressive framing guru was written during the campaign:

No Center, No Centrists
by George Lakoff

"Centrism" is the creation of an inaccurate self-serving metaphor, and it is time to bury it.

There is no left to right linear spectrum in the American political life. There are two systems of values and modes of thought -- call them progressive and conservative (or nurturant and strict, as I have). There are total progressives, who use a progressive mode of thought on all issues. And total conservatives. And there are lots of folks who are what I've called "biconceptuals": progressive on certain issue areas and conservative on others. But they don't form a linear scale. They are all over the place: progressive on domestic policy, conservative on foreign policy; conservative on economic policy, progressive on foreign policy and social issues; conservative on religion, but progressive on social issues and foreign policy; and on and on. No linear scale. No single set of values defining a "center." Indeed many of such folks are not moderate in their views; they can be quite passionate about both their progressive and conservative views.

Barack Obama has it right: Get rid of the very idea of the right and the left and the center. American ideas are fundamentally progressive ideas -- the ideas this country was founded on and that carry forth that spirit. Progressives care about people and the earth, and act with responsibility and strength on that care...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/no-center-no-centrists_b_60419.html

NGU.

[Tarheel_Dem]

15. President Obama has an impressive record on some very progressive issues.

There are those among us for whom nothing would be good enough. Interestingly, many of us projected onto President Obama all the things we wanted, even if he never promised them. That's not his problem. One guess as to who's problem it is.....;)

[ClassWarrior]

20. I agree, he does have an impressive record on ~some~ very progressive issues.

But, as I said, that's another discussion. The fact is that he captured swing voters by selling himself as a progressive.

:shrug:

Why are you trying to change the subject now?

NGU.

[ClassWarrior]

24. ?

[ClassWarrior]

25. ?

[ClassWarrior]

29. So we agree then. Gore and Kerry lost running on whatever "centrism" is, and Obama...

...won running on solid progressive values.

Should Obama call Jane's clients?

:crazy:

NGU.

[ClassWarrior]

30. .

[ClassWarrior]

31. .

[ClassWarrior]

32. .

[dionysus]

34. Jane Hamsher/Grover Norquist 2012!1!1!1!11 *woot woot*

:rofl:

[ClassWarrior]

35. Heh-heh... Heh-heh...

:eyes:

NGU.

[FrenchieCat]

7. Operative GOP words.......

"The Middle Class Doesn’t Count"

Yep, that's them!

[davidpdx]

19. The fucktard should look up the word hypocrite in the dictionary

Little does he know he'd find a picture of himself....

[Ilsa]

22. I am so tired of that asshole. I wish he would just up-and-fucking-drop-dead. nt

[Cigar11]

23. Why the hell didn't he tell those political morons this years ago?

Why the hell didn't he tell those political morons this years ago?

[high density]

26. Well at least they're all being incredibly blatent

about their love for the rich and intense disdain for everybody else.

[underpants]

27. This fully explains why the Republicans split today

no question.

of course no one in the media dare mention it.

[donco]

28. The gospel

from the little red book of grover.

[benld74]

33. Has anyone ever tried to dig up anything on this scum?,,,,,,,

[AtomicKitten]

36. I'd like to drown his dumb ass in the bathtub (metaphorically speaking).