Grover Norquist Responds To Republicans Ditching His Pledge
By Shawn M. Griffiths on 11/29/2012 with 6 CommentsRead Time: 2 - 4 minutes
Credit: Gage Skidmore
In response to a growing number of Republicans who have said they are willing to ditch his tax pledge in making a deal over the impending “fiscal cliff,” Grover Norquist has come out in defense of the pledge and has criticized Republican lawmakers like Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who said last week that putting America first was more important than honoring a two decade old pledge.
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, has appeared on a number of cable news shows to respond to the notion that he is losing influence over Republicans in Congress. He said that while a few Republicans have expressed “impure thoughts,” no legislator that signed the pledge has voted for legislation that would raise taxes and he denies dissent among GOP lawmakers.
Senators Saxby Chambliss and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are among a number of Republicans who have implied that they are willing to put the Norquist pledge aside if it is necessary to deal with the fiscal cliff. Some political analysts and pundits have argued that Sen. Chambliss’ implication that a pledge taken twenty years ago has no relevance in a problem lawmakers are dealing with today is valid.
Grover Norquist has countered this argument by saying that the pledge is a commitment for a politician’s entire career on Capitol Hill. He has also openly mocked the idea that the denouncement of his pledge comes from the concession that spending cuts will outnumber tax increases ten to one. Norquist believes that options for generating revenue should be on the table, but raising taxes, under any circumstances, should not be among those options.
Some speculate that this sudden shift in attitude from even the most conservative Republican lawmakers has to do with the results of the 2012 elections. Others suggest that Republicans on Capitol Hill are responding to the fact that America is set to fall off the fiscal cliff in just over a month’s time and the need for a deal is getting greater. Grover Norquist is confident few Republicans will violate his tax pledge because of the possible political consequences that could hinder their chances at re-election in the future.
If a deal is not made by New Year’s Day, over a trillion dollars in automatic spending cuts will begin to take effect and Bush-era tax cuts will expire for all income brackets. The Congressional Budget Office projects that among the consequences of falling off the fiscal cliff is another recession, though not near as bad as the last one.
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6 Comments
Michael Higham
11.29.2012
@michaelhigham
I don’t know how much “violating” this pledge would harm a GOP political career. If voters see their politicians actually working on issues instead of abiding by a pledge, they shouldn’t be in jeopardy of losing their seats. However, I don’t how far the party would be willing to denounce “violators” in 2014 and 2016.
Shawn M. Griffiths
11.29.2012
@shawntx
Many Republicans have already addressed this and have said that the Oath of Office takes precedent over any other political pledge. Norquist wouldn’t be the only conservative pundit with resources and influence to go after these GOP lawmakers though and they will invest money into defeating these Republicans in primary elections.
Alex Gauthier
11.29.2012
@alexg
the tax issue has really become republican’s bread and butter over the last 20-some years, but with obama’s reelection it might be starting to wear thin
Zachery Abramson
11.29.2012
@zabramso
Being unwilling to compromise on the subject of taxes is a major weakness for the GOP. Especially when the national focus is on compromising in order to avoid the “fiscal cliff”.
Brandon Fallon
11.30.2012
@bfallon
The $4 trillion or so solution to the fiscal cliff is still mostly coming from spending cuts, mainly in defense. What was the highest tax rate when Norquist made the pledge? I don’t think taxes would be going up any higher than when he started this whole pledge drive. If anything, they’ll be going back to the rates that Clinton had when he left office and the government was forcasting surpluses in the first decade of the 21st century. Bush’s cuts were not meant to be permanent and are one of several reasons why the government is underfunded without borrowing.
The other notion is that we have to learn to live in our means. Government has been growing, but the revenue hasn’t been able to catch up. This points to ways to cut spending down to size and fixing the tax code to make it fairer for the middle class so their future is safer.
Roger Ford
12.15.2012
@roger_ford
In this society, which seems to shun thoughtful planning and prefer lemming-like following of mass sentiment, it probably is true that some Conservatives are allowing the simple arithmetic from the polls to affect them. One would hope, however, that they, as well as other members of Congress would finally be considering circumstances in a mature way. When a problem has more than one variable in its solution, e.g., decreased spending and increased taxes, it simply makes sense to avoid straight-jacketing oneself and the country.