Dan Mitchell in Forbes: “There’s a significant debate now taking place in Washington…on whether fiscal conservatives should maintain a rigid no-tax-increase position. One side of the debate features Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform…The other side features Senator Coburn of Oklahoma…I’m on Grover’s side on this tax debate for two reasons. First, we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem or a deficit/debt problem… [It is] the underlying problem of a government that is too big and spending too much… The second reason for a firm no-tax increase position is that higher taxes are a very ineffective way of reducing budget deficits. Indeed, tax increases generally backfire and lead to more red ink.”
Grover Norquist comments on the Continuing Resolution in a POLITICO article by Jonathan Allen. “‘It gives you a public conversation for a couple of weeks at a time about what’s being cut,’ said Norquist, who agrees with the goal of eliminating Planned Parenthood funding but prefers to communicate to independents by keeping the focus on cutting spending generally rather than on policy changes.”
ATR supports the short term CR as highlighted by Erik Wasson in The Hill. “Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist argued that the GOP is moving at a pace at which it could meet its goal of reducing spending this year by $61 billion through a series of short-term measures.”
“Conservative Groups Oppose Stopgap Budget Bill” by L.A. Holmes at Fox News: “House Republican leadership argues at least one conservative group doesn't think banding together against the CR is such a good idea. Boehner's staff points to comments made by Grover Norquist, president of the anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform, on C-SPAN Sunday that challenge conservatives' opposition to the short-term bill. ‘Is this vote the only opportunity? We are going to have a vote every two weeks, every three weeks. There are lots of bites of this apple,’ he said….Norquist also said that this may not be the right opportunity to tackle Planned Parenthood funding.”