Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist was quoted in a Bloomberg Politics article written by David Weigel about Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
“If Walker lost, four or five states would do maybe half of what Wisconsin’s done,” says Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist.
“There’d be some nibbling at the edges, and some postmortems on how he defunded the left. If he wins, twelve to fifteen states would copy Wisconsin. I mean, who wouldn’t? If the combined forces of the AFL-CIO and all their allies can’t beat him, why not do teacher tenure reform, why not make union membership voluntary, why not phase out the income tax? You get twelve states to do what Wisconsin did, and the Democratic Party would have to find several billionaires to make up the lost revenue.”
Townhall’s Cal Thomas wrote an article about former Gov. Jeb Bush’s comment that he would be willing to raise taxes, and its implications should he decide to run for president in 2016.
Norquist and other anti-tax advocates perhaps see in Bush’s comment a replay of his father’s pledge at the 1988 Republican National Convention: “Read my lips: no new taxes.” He violated that pledge when congressional Democrats promised to cut spending in exchange for tax increases. Bush raised taxes. Democrats did not cut spending. Many have long believed that broken promise contributed to his failure to win a second term.
Steve Byas of the New American wrote about the possibility of former Gov. Jeb Bush running for president, and the reaction of Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist.
“Jeb stabbed Republicans in the back just when they were unified in insisting on major spending cuts with no tax increases,” Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform told the Washington Times.
Norquist was referencing Bush’s comments that he could accept a budget deal in which taxes were raised by $1 for every $10 in spending cuts that the Democrats would agree to. Norquist was enraged, particularly because the Democrats had not even offered any such deal.