Jason Horowitz writes for The Washington Post: “For more than two decades, signing Norquist’s pledge has been an almost religious rite of passage for Washington Republicans. The 54-year-old president of Americans for Tax Reform is Washington’s anti-tax doctrinal watchdog, his stature derived from the faith of his Republican signatories. The stakes for the anti-tax orthodoxy have never been higher, he argued. ‘If the entire Republican Party decides, ‘Okay, this once we’ll trade a tax increase for something,’ then the pledge would be meaningless,’ he said, discounting the suggestion that such a break would dilute his own power. Instead, he calmly predicted that the White House will give in on spending because Boehner and the GOP congressional leadership are ‘in line.’”
Mike Fraioli, president of Fraioli & Associates, answered “Debt stalemate — who budges first?” in the POLITICO Arena: “All but six House Republicans and all but seven Senate Republicans have signed Grover Norquist’s tax pledge. President Obama’s problem is that he is negotiating with the wrong folks. Instead of meeting with McConnell, Boehner and Cantor, he should be meeting with Norquist.”
Dick Morris writes for The Hill: “As Republicans scrounge for revenue sources that will satiate Democratic desires to extract more money for the public sector but will not run afoul of their pledges not to raise taxes, they should look carefully at some of the ideas pushed by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl and by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform. Americans for Tax Reform points out that the federal government owns 650 million acres of land , which is about one-third the area of the United States. The Bureau of Land Management says that 3.3 million acres are suitable for sale to the private sector. Sell them off! The Heritage Foundation estimates that we spend $25 billion a year maintaining unused or vacant federal properties. Shrink government ownership and raise revenue at the same time.”
Jonathan Weisman writes for The Wall Street Journal: “Antitax activist Grover Norquist, the keeper of the no-new-taxes pledge that virtually all Republican politicians have signed, has a new set of marching orders for the GOP troops, especially for the party’s presidential hopefuls: Enact Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan. In an extensive interview with Wall Street Journal reporters and editors, the president of Americans for Tax Reform said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich ran into trouble with Republicans not so much because he called the Ryan plan ‘right-wing social engineering’ but because he thought Republicans are looking for a ‘big thinker’ with brave new plans. They aren’t, Mr. Norquist said. ‘We know where we want to go,’ Mr. Norquist said of Mr. Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity.” ‘We just need someone to sign the bills.’”