Reid J. Epstein writes for POLITICO concerning the Minnesota government shutdown: “Grover Norquist, the president of American for Tax Reform, told the Star Tribune that state Republicans should not cut a deal except their own with Dayton, who has said he won’t pass the GOP’s ‘all cuts’ budget. ‘Democrats want to spend more; Republicans want to spend less,’ Norquist said. ‘What would a compromise look like? If you spend more, the Democrats just won … Spending more and raising taxes a little is not a compromise, it’s called losing.’”
Alan Silverleib and Tom Cohen write for CNN: “GOP leaders insisted Tuesday they will not yield to Democratic demands for tax increases on the wealthy as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling. At the heart of the GOP resistance is a bedrock principle pushed by conservative crusader Grover Norquist against any kind of tax increase. A pledge pushed by Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform, has been signed by more than 230 House members and 40 senators, almost all of them Republicans.”
Gail Russell Chaddock writes for The Christian Science Monitor: “Pressed by outside conservative groups, House GOP leaders closed ranks on Monday to deny claims that Republicans have been — or could be — open to raising taxes as part of a deal to resolve the nation’s debt crisis. ‘Republicans haven’t voted for a tax increase since 1990,’ says Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. ‘Democrats who think Republicans can be talked into passing tax increases so that Democrats can spend more money have very, very long memories.’”
Grover Norquist is featured in The Week: “In 1985, the Reagan administration set up Americans for Tax Reform to lobby in favor of overhauling the tax code. Reagan installed the 29-year-old Norquist, who’d served as an economist at the Chamber of Commerce, as its chairman. To ensure that future Congresses would not reverse Reagan-era tax cuts, Norquist wrote the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, an oath made by lawmakers directly to their constituents never to support tax increases of any kind. More than 1,200 federal, state, and local Republican officeholders have signed the oath, which has become a litmus test for true conservative values.”