The Wall Street Journal reports on California governor Jerry Brown’s proposal to extend “temporary” tax hikes: “Mr. Brown, a Democrat, would have to pick off two Republicans in the assembly and two in the senate to obtain a supermajority for extending the tax increases. Conceding that Republicans are unlikely to go along with Democrats this time around, he has asked the legislature to put a proposition on a June special election ballot to extend the hikes. But getting the extension on the ballot would also require a two-thirds vote of the legislature, and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist of the Americans for Tax Reform has warned Republicans that a vote for putting the extension on the ballot is equivalent to a vote to raise taxes.”
In The Hill, Dick Morris writes that “most Americans do not want to see the debt limit raised at all. If it must be increased, they will insist that it be preceded by major cuts in government spending. Americans for Tax Reform (ATR.org) is pushing a pledge for members of Congress to sign promising not to raise the debt limit without first effecting ‘significant’ cuts in federal spending. A majority — an overwhelming majority — of the House Republican Conference is sure to sign the pledge, forcing the leadership’s hand. We hope that Republican members will go to www.ATR.org and sign the debt-limit pledge.”
Bob Barr writes: “On Monday, Americans for Tax Reform, an organization led by Grover Norquist that promotes less taxes and is famous for the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, announced its opposition to the proposal noting that the “income tax reductions amount to roughly $750 million in savings for Georgians, but tax increases on groceries, tobacco, communications services, the Internet and other services approach $2 billion. ….Broadening the sales tax base by removing exemptions is not necessarily a bad idea. Most economists agree that having a broad tax base is sound public policy. But if the Republican-dominated General Assembly wants to take that approach, there must be corresponding tax cuts in other areas to ensure that any proposal is revenue neutral – not a massive, billion dollar tax hike, which is exactly what the council is proposing.”