Americans for Tax Reform

Grover Norquist: Obama's Basically Stalin

Thomas Lane | September 20, 2011, 6:04AM

Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin

Although he did so in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way, tax-hater extraordinaire Grover Norquist amped the "class warfare" rhetoric against President Obama's "Buffett Tax" all the way to eleven.

Shortly after the President announced his plans to adjust tax formulas and make the hyper-wealthy "pay their fair share," Americans For Tax Reform president Norquist tweeted, "Obamas [sic] "new" strategy to divide America: Get the Kulaks."

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Mitt Romney

Did Mitt Romney Raise Taxes Or 'Close Loopholes'?

Benjy Sarlin | August 12, 2011, 9:40AM

News that then-Governor Mitt Romney's office played up his predecessor's tax hikes to secure a better rating from Standard & Poor's may undercut his hardline anti-tax image. But the S&P story also revives a longstanding debate over Romney's own revenue raisers as governor, an issue that takes on greater significance than it did in 2008 thanks to the recent debt ceiling talks.

On Wednesday, Politico reported on a presentation Romney's office gave to S&P in 2004 touting the strength of the state's budget thanks in part to a 2002 tax increase that he opposed. The presentation also highlighted higher fees and newly closed loopholes that Romney championed himself. While Romney supporters have long argued these policies should not count as tax increases, critics have long insisted otherwise and the S&P story pushes the debate into the headlines once again.

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Debt

Grover Norquist Backs The New Debt Deal

Thomas Lane | August 1, 2011, 6:00AM

Grover Norquist

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has at least one powerful ally in his latest effort to sell the GOP on a debt deal: tax hater extraordinaire, Grover Norquist.

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John Boehner

Why Boehner's Debt Limit Plan Will Have To Fail Before Endgame Becomes Clear

Brian Beutler | July 26, 2011, 5:17PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

High level discussions continue between Democrats and Republicans to make sure Congress raises the debt limit before the Treasury runs out of borrowing authority and has to slash public spending on a massive scale. But for the moment, we're in a period of repose. In public, few are willing to budge too far off their own party's plan to raise the debt limit. And members and aides are now believe that a viable solution won't emerge until one of the existing, partisan plans fails publicly.

In other words, things haven't moved a whole lot since yesterday. For the moment, most participants expect that the House GOP plan, authored by Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will move first, and will fail, either in his own chamber or in the Senate. But they're now pessimistic that a workable plan will emerge before then, something party leaders were hoping against hope for yesterday.

"I think so -- probably that's the case," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

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Debt ceiling

Grover Norquist Backs Boehner Plan For Debt Ceiling

Benjy Sarlin | July 25, 2011, 6:21PM

One of the key figures in the debt ceiling fight, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, lent his seal of approval to Speaker Boehner's proposal to increase the debt ceiling with two separate spending cuts.

The key for Norquist and his group American For Tax Reform is the plan's lack of tax increases. The organization's no-tax pledge, signed by virtually every Republican lawmaker, is their primary means of influence and Norquist has stated that any deal that includes increased tax revenue -- even with much larger cuts -- would fail the test.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Wiggle Room For Grover? Norquist Can't Quite Say 'Hell No' To New Revenue

Brian Beutler | July 22, 2011, 9:50AM

Grover Norquist

Grover Norquist has walked the razor's edge in the debate over debt and deficits, warning Republicans not allow any deal that raises tax revenues to pass the House and Senate. But he can't quite bring himself to say that voting for such a package would run afoul of his inviolate pledge.

Here's Norquist in the New York Times today: "My position, and the implications of the pledge regarding such "temporary" tax cuts, is clear," he said referring to the Bush tax cuts which expire automatically if Congress does nothing. "If there were no vote in Congress and taxes rose automatically, then no politicians would have voted for higher taxes and no elected official would have broken his or her pledge."

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Tax Breaks

Dems See Opening To Push GOP On Taxes After Ethanol Subsidies Vote

Benjy Sarlin | June 15, 2011, 3:01PM

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Tom Coburn (R-OK)

Looking to exploit a rare rift between Republicans and anti-tax groups, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) renewed calls on Tuesday to include revenue increases in any deficit deal.

Some 34 Senate Republicans voted for an amendment ending ethanol subsidies on Tuesday, despite warnings from anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist that dropping tax credits counted as a tax hike. The divide over the issue is complicated and hinges on regional factors in both parties, but Democrats largely voted against the unsuccessful amendment due to stated objections to the procedure by which it was brought up.

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Grover Norquist

Grover Norquist: This Time, Gov't Shutdown Will Help The GOP (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 19, 2010, 10:20AM

Grover Norquist

Grover Norquist wants to party like it's 1995. The Americans for Tax Reform chief and noted Ronald Reagan fan says that Republicans would really do themselves a favor by forcing another government shutdown like they did the last time they took over the House when a Democratic president was in office.

Speaking to Politico, Norquist said that if the Republicans shut down the government over spending concerns this time around, it'll be a lot different than when they did it in 1995. The shutdowns that year are generally seen as a victory for then-President Clinton, who used the images of shuttered Social Security offices and other government agencies to paint the GOP as fanatical.

If the government were to be shut down thanks to a budget dispute between the White House and the Republicans in Congress next year, however, Norquist says the only person who'd suffer politically would be President Obama.

"He will be less popular if in service of overspending and wasting people's money, he closes the government down," he said.

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Steve King

Steve King: 'Some People In The White House' Would Fail Citizenship Test

Eric Kleefeld | April 15, 2010, 5:12PM

Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) declared at an event hosted by Americans For Tax Reform that members of the Obama administration would fail the United States citizenship test, due to their lack of belief in a capitalist economy.

"Even though there would be some people in the White House that would fail this test, if you look at the naturalization flash cards, if you want to become a naturalized American citizen...[the flashcard] will ask, 'What is the economic system of the United States?' Flip that flash card around, it says free enterprise, capitalist," said King, CNSNews reports.

"I am not convinced that people in the White House understand it, let alone believe it, given some of the activities that we have seen," King said.

Grover Norquist

Grover Norquist's Group Totally (Hearts) Ryan's Social Security-Slashing Budget

Christina Bellantoni | February 5, 2010, 3:58PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform

A real split is developing between fiscal conservative groups and Congressional Republicans as Rep. Paul Ryan's budget "roadmap" gets more attention.

GOP leaders in the House have said again and again that even though Ryan is their chief budget writer and he'll be the one to offer their alternative spending plan this spring, what he produced showing massive Social Security and Medicare cuts is not their official plan.

But we keep talking to conservatives who are asking in earnest, Why not?

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Health Care

Sen. Ben Nelson Getting Squeezed By Left And Right On Health Care

Christina Bellantoni | October 26, 2009, 11:47AM

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)

Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform is targeting Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) on health care with a national cable television ad that also will air in Nebraska.

Norquist, who has made a career of holding local, state and federal lawmakers accountable to signing a pledge with his group about not raising taxes, provides supporters a copy of the Nelson pledge in an ATR blog post today.

"He is bound by that Pledge for the duration of his career as a senator," ATR wrote, blasting the health care bill.

What's more, they are pressuring Nelson - already being hammered by the left on this issue - to filibuster the procedural motion to move forward on health care debate, suggesting a vote for what is known as cloture is a violation of the pledge.

"Now is the time where Senator Nelson must follow through on the promise he made to get elected," ATR wrote.

The ad after the jump.

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