Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, called on President Obama to fulfill his campaign promise of increased transparency in the White House by allowing C-SPAN cameras in the room during the fiscal cliff negotiations. Mr. Norquist stated:

Only C-SPAN cameras can stop the Obama PR team from misrepresenting both the Republican position and their own […]If the C-SPAN cameras were in the fiscal cliff negotiation room then Obama would have a hard time convincing Americans that his budget is serious.  He is demanding $1.6 trillion in higher taxes.

Norquist also called for the full text of the agreements to be made available to the public for a full 7 days before becoming law. He stated:

American taxpayers need one other final protection.  The final agreement must be put in writing, in actual legislative, legal wording and placed online for every American to read for seven full days […] We cannot be fooled as we were in 1990 and 1982 when we were told there were real, large, and permanent spending cuts to accompany small tax hikes.  The tax hikes were large, permanent, and painful, while the spending cuts were a fiction.  The spending cuts never happened.

A brief history lesson in “grand compromises” shows that the spending cuts originally promised have never materialized and the American people are simply left with a higher tax burden to shoulder.

To read a full copy of Mr. Norquists’ article, click here.