He's more powerful than House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the Koch brothers, yet not many people have heard of Grover Norquist or his "Taxpayer Protection Pledge."
Mr. Norquist, founder and president of the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), is simply the single most influential Republican of the past 25 years.
Politicians may come and go, but since 1985, Mr. Norquist has been getting an increasing number of Republicans to sign his tax pledge to the point where he now has 237 members of the House and 41 in the Senate at his disposal.
When you have the majority of the House -- including House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and enough votes in the Senate to prevent legislation from coming up for a vote, that's real power.
When your organization's tax pledge is THE litmus test for Republicans running for office on the national level, you wield more power in your party than anyone in Congress.
Thanks to Mr. Norquist's growing influence over the past two-and-a-half decades, failure to pledge allegiance to the "no new taxes" mantra effectively dooms one's chances of getting the GOP nod for the House, Senate or White House.
To strengthen Mr. Norquist's hand, the GOP base is challenging Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) from the right -- because both refused to sign the tax pledge.
According to Mr. Norquist's tax pledge, politicians who sign it "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses," and "oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."
If we want to know the real story behind the $14 trillion federal debt and our annual $1.5 trillion deficits, we have to look at Mr. Norquist and his tax pledge.
If we want to know why the Republicans won the staring contest on extending the Bush tax cuts -- which are part of the "starve the beast" strategy -- the answer is Mr. Norquist and his tax pledge.
When we have successive stopgap funding bills because the GOP's only solution to the deficit is draconian cuts, blame Mr. Norquist and his tax pledge.
And when GOP leaders at both the national and state levels try to balance the budget by cutting programs that help seniors, students, the middle class and low-income families -- take a bow, Mr. Norquist.
Because of their allegiance to Mr. Norquist's tax pledge, Republicans dismiss out of hand "revenue enhancement" measures (as President Ronald Reagan called tax hikes) such as highly-popular and common-sense ideas of raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires, Wall Street bankers and the big oil companies.
That is why the GOP went on a cutting spree on the House floor when formulating their measure to fund the federal government through the end of 2012.
And that is why the debt commission's recommendation was dead on arrival.
As long as there's a House majority and at least 41 Senators who are signed onto the tax pledge, income and long-term capital gains tax rates will not return to pre-Bush levels and the estate tax (aka "the death tax") will not go back to where it was before 2002 -- because that would be raising taxes according to Mr. Norquist.
Remember, long-term capital gains -- which one pays on investment income such as stocks, bonds and real estate -- is how the Wall Street folks responsible for the Great Recession and the corporate CEOs make their millions. For three decades, they have seen their portfolios grow exponentially, while most American household incomes have stagnated.
Wall Street and corporate CEOs owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Norquist.
Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote in his March 2 piece in the Huffington Post that investment income should be treated the same as wage income. He's right, but doing so would mean raising taxes, and unless the tax-pledge crowd loses the House and drops below 41 Senators, it's not going to happen.
On the state level, guess who else has signed Mr. Norquist's tax pledge? Union-busting governors Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) and John Kasich (R-Ohio).
With his House majority, his filibustering Senators and his union-busting governors, Mr. Norquist has his hands in every big fiscal debate -- in Washington and in the states -- for more than two decades now.
And that is why Grover Norquist is the most powerful Republican in America.
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www.offthegridmpls.blogspot.com
Isn't that treasonous?
In other words, unless the current GOP is replaced by something more moderate, we as a nation will continue our rapid decline...
That all wages don't track that of the upper tier prove that Grover's and conservative economic theory wrong. It's failed. The failure of free market and trickle-down ideologies must be hammered home every time the issue pops up.
As for tariffs, Norquist criticized Trump's tariff proposal on Chinese imports on February 14, 2011.
R.I.P. Mr. Hooper
Tax rates have remained the same, but last month the deficit was $228B (and it isn't even leap year). It's not the taxes that have changed it's the spending.
Please. EVERYONE who read about it KNOWS, the Republicans and their letter stating they wouldn't consider any other legislation in Senate (where it counted - all the other legislation passed in the House, remember?) The House voted to ELIMINATE the Bush Tax cuts. Anyway, the Republican Senators didn't even want to consider extending the Unemployment Benefits for MILLIONS of Americans unless the President cut a deal for the 2% Tax Cuts.
"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the Republican whip, told different interviewers that they expect Congress to vote for the tax cuts, which have been in effect for almost a decade, to continue unaltered for at least several years in exchange for an agreement to extend an emergency unemployment program that expired last week for millions of people." (Washington Post, Dec, 2010)
Yes but the most successful societies in the 21st century are doing just the opposite with government. Look at China and Europe - bigger, more intrusive governments and in Europe's case higher taxes and stronger unions.
Grover - collective action will always win out over a loosely organized group of individuals. Making the government smaller is the formula for diminishing America.
It is never the size of government that is the problem; it has always been the efficiency that matters.
He shuns publicity - well aware that he can do far more damage - and reap more cash - in the shadows. He holds no office - never intends to seek one - and is therefore answerable to no one but the law - which is his profession to subvert. The weaker the laws and regulation, the less oversight - the broader the playing field he and his sponsors have to strip-mine our nation and economy.
They have recently masterminded the largest transfer of wealth from the public sector to the private EVER in the history of the planet - the so-called "meltdown" of the financial sector - and its subsequent "bailout."
They play - we pay. It's really that simple - all wrapped up in a shiny package that says "low taxes" - that draws fools like children following the Pied Piper to their destruction.
Since Norquist began his rise and influence - the USA has plunged into precipitous decline - the standard of living of everyday Americans has fallen while income disparity has reached record levels.
This man and his toxic dogma are a clear and present danger to the USA...