He doesn’t care for it, but Grover Norquist said the plan hatched by Senate leaders Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Harry Reid (D-NV) is preferable to the nation going into default.
This puts Norquist — one of the most powerful men on the GOP side of the aisle as the debt ceiling talks continue to percolate — just slightly to the left of some in the Republican party’s tea party activist wing, which have suggested default is a legitimate option.
In an interview with CNN directly following President Obama’s angry presser Friday, Norquist was not ready to go that far. He said it was better to do something distasteful (McConnell-Reid) and then have a larger debt/deficit fight in next year’s election.
Asked if Obama’s warnings that default would be a “disaster” were true, Norquist said that as far as he knows, they are.
“Look I assume it’s a disaster, there’s no reason to assume otherwise. It’s gambling with the economics of the country to get that far,” Norquist said. “We need to get to where first of all we can cut some spending, not raise taxes. As much as you can get is as much as we should fight for. But again: rather than close the government down or go into default, let’s take it to the American people, go into the next election and fix things then.”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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