“Will U.S. go belly-up on debt?” in POLITICO’s Arena, Grover Norquist responds: “Failing or refusing to increase the debt limit to accommodate President Obama's spending increases need not lead to a default on government debt. Obama wields that as a threat to allow his spending to continue unabated. However, this has been exposed as a political ploy, not a real concern, by Sen. Pat Toomey, who has introduced legislation that would instruct the federal government to pay debt obligations first. It would avoid any threat to the American government's creditworthiness.”
From The Hill: Paul Ryan’s budget proves Gang of Six bipartisan bargain to be unnecessary. “Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, said in an interview that the Ryan plan ‘underscores’ the fact that the House will never pass a bill based on the president’s debt commission report, which did not get enough votes to win the commission’s endorsement. ‘Republicans in the Gang of Six had the mistaken belief, not completely without reasoning, that you couldn’t get $4 trillion in deficit cuts only by cutting spending…. Except here is Ryan with not an outline, but a detailed plan … with none of the downside. Why would anybody look at Simpson-Bowles again?’ Norquist said Friday.”
“Wyden-Coats reform bill falls out of favor with tax groups” by Bernie Becker at The Hill. “Ryan Ellis of Americans for Tax Reform, who posted a laundry list of his issues with Wyden-Coats last week, said the measure basically had two admirable qualities: the elimination in the A.M.T. and the steep reduction in the corporate tax rate. And what has changed in the last year, Ellis added, is that there is now much broader agreement that the corporate rate – which is among the highest in the developed world – needs to come down. ‘When Gregg-Wyden came out, it was a big deal to have Ron Wyden acknowledge the corporate rate was too high,’ Ellis said. ‘Now, we’re not getting as much for our side.’”