On Wednesday, former Obama Czar, Van Jones, excoriated those who have made a very serious commitment to taxpayers by promising never raise their taxes.  The Left, a group that often appears not to take the time to read the 61-word Taxpayer Protection Pledge, disparages the Pledge and decries those who sign it by claiming signers enter into some kind of secret allegiance to an unflinching ideal.  However, candidates openly campaign on this promise and ATR openly promotes candidates that have signed the Pledge. Voters deserve to know where a candidate or elected official stands on the taxes, and the Pledge provides a binary and definitive answer.  Since candidate and officials often make lofty promises, why not give them an opportunity to demonstrate their words expand behind rhetoric?

When lawmakers choose to sign the Pledge, they make it not to “a single individual” as Jones claims, but to the taxpayers of their district, their state, their country.  Therefore, those who break the pledge are held responsible for it not by Grover Norquist, not by ATR, but by their constituents who feel that a public servant who breaks his or her word is no longer fit to serve in that office.  Even to compromise on a pledge is to break it.  Do we want politicians in office who compromise on their promises or values? 

Van Jones, who resigned after a scant 6 months in office, wants bigger and more invasive government.  Jones is diluting the issue, trying to confuse the American people, and blaming the Democrat’s overspending problem on the Republican’s adherence to the pledge they made to their constituents.  Critics should take the time to read the Pledge.

Taxpayer Protection Pledge I, _____, pledge to the taxpayers of the (____ district of the) state of ______ and to the American people that I will: ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

Mr. Jones, at the end of the day, lawmakers and candidates answer to their constituents who, through the cast of a ballot, decide whether or not they want representing them individuals who keep promises and safeguard the best interests of the people they represent, or those who choose only to adhere to pledges and promises when they are convenient.