Matt Lewis of The Daily Caller writes, “Norquist said he understands why Cain’s plan is popular. ‘When you hear 9-9-9, the only thing people really know is — I get it, everybody pays the same rate, everybody can see what everyone’s doing’.

Norquist cited New Jersey’s tax system as a warning against adding a new national tax. ‘In New Jersey, they had property taxes [which were] very high — and no income tax,’ he said. New Jersey then sought to correct this by adding an income tax. ‘And so you went from New Jersey having the highest property taxes in the country — to New Jersey having the highest property taxes and income taxes,’ he explained”.

Regarding Presidential candidate Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan, The Washington Post reports, “An ATR official told The Fix that his group doesn’t outright oppose the idea but has ‘strong reservations’ – particularly about a Value Added Tax that they think is too easy to raise.  ‘We are very, very opposed to that, so we would be very uncomfortable with transitioning business taxes over to a VAT,’ said ATR tax policy director Ryan Ellis.  ‘It’s pretty easy to raise that rate of the VAT when you’re in a budget crunch’’’. 

Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform writes in National Review Online, “When Reagan ran in 1980, his economic policy of Kemp-Roth was important because he was running against George H. W. Bush, who did not support or understand supply-side economics.”

Today, all the presidential candidates are for lower rates and for tax reform that is not a Trojan horse for tax hikes.

The debate about 9-9-9 or Huntsman’s plan or Romney’s plan or Perry’s upcoming plan helps pass the time if Netflix hasn’t arrived.  But the only real question is whether each candidate has a working thumb and forefinger and can sign the legislation Boehner and McConnell pass. We are not looking for a fearless leader. We are looking for signer in chief.”

As reported by Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post, “I spoke this morning to Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, about Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan.  He told me he didn’t want to be too hard on the plan because Cain had correctly sized up the overwhelming discontent with the present, ‘redistributive” tax system’.  “He identified several real problems with the plan, including the introduction of a new federal sales tax that would be added on, but would not replace, the personal income and corporate income tax systems. He told me, ‘The number of taxes matters.’”

Bernie Becker and Justin Sink write in The Hill: “On Wednesday, Rep. Steve Scalise talked up the version of the bill he introduced last week in the House, after the anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist wrote Buffett to say that nothing was stopping the billionaire from contributing more tax dollars to the Treasury.  For his part, Norquist continued his scathing critique of Buffett, accusing the investor of “moral preening.”

“It’s like the guy at the bar who pretends, ‘I’d like to beat you up, but all my friends are holding me back.’ And there’s nobody there, holding him back,” Norquist said.

 “Senator Thune should be commended for solving Warren Buffett’s seemingly intractable problem,” said Norquist in a statement. “Thanks to Senator Thune’s leadership, Mr. Buffett soon will be able to simply write a check when he thinks the government can spend his money better than he can.”