Will Somebody Tell Norquist His No New Tax Pledges Are Stupid and Puerile

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist has told Newsmax that the claim that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire would not constitute a tax increase and would not violate a pledge not to raise taxes “doesn’t pass the laugh test.” His comment was in reaction to a Washington Post editorial that said that Norquist would not consider letting the Bush tax cuts expire an increase in taxes.
Norquist wrote a New York Times editorial published on Thursday in which he stated that if a politician supported the elimination of the Bush tax cuts it would be “a very bad thing to do.” Norquist used the example of Mitt Romney, saying that if Romney supported the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, he would “denounce him as a tax increaser and a bad guy.”
Let’s be clear about several things:

1. Tax cuts are, in general, not a good way to reduce deficits because they just give Congress more money to spend.

2. Cutting the budget must be based on cutting the budget…right?…and not on finding more money to spend.

3. The enormous debt that America has accumulated will be eliminated, if at all, by a combination of reduced spending (a smaller annual budget) and some tax increases, because there just simply isn’t enough budget to cut to get rid of the deficit. Ever.

So, what are Norquist and his band of merry men trying to do - keep American in a perpetual state of frozen time - no new programs, no new infrastructure, no wars even if the cause cries out for help, no nothing.

And, who elected him to get on his horse and lead the charge anyway? And, what bright-eyed but dim-witted Congress members thought it was a good idea to sign up to his “no tax increases” pledge in the first place.

Is Norquist God, or are they simply in need of a crutch to help them perform their constitutional duties?

Norquist was not elected. Congress members were. And 60% of the people who elected the current Congress are saying that President Obama and Congress should put aside - just this once - partisan politics and solve the debt crisis with a combination of budget cuts and tax increases.

That, dear readers, is pretty plain black-and-white truth.

When is someone in the Senate or House going to find the guts to tell Mr. Norquist to shove his pledges because the Nation’s business is their concern and American citizens’ concern, not his.

And, right now, the debt ceiling MUST be raised. If it takes compromise, that’s just part of what Congress and the President were elected to do.