Grover Norquist in the POLITICO Arena: “The Ryan budget — block-granting Medicaid, food stamps and all means-tested welfare programs, serious rolling back the recent spike in domestic discretionary spending and reforming Medicare alongside revenue neutral tax reform with top individual and corporate income tax rates of 25 percent — is the new Kemp-Roth. The alternative is Obama’s “keep on spending” and raise taxes to pay for it. That way lies Greece.”
Ben Geman for The Hill reports: “Americans for Tax Reform is warning senators that a vote for Democratic legislation that strips tax breaks for major oil companies would run afoul of the group’s pledge to oppose tax hikes that most Senate Republicans have signed. In a letter to lawmakers ahead of Tuesday evening’s vote, ATR President Grover Norquist argues that deductions that oil companies claim are not subsidies, stating ‘Every deduction or credit [the bill] proposes to revoke or limit has a specific purpose common throughout the tax code. Raising taxes on oil and natural gas producers will do little to reduce the deficit — perhaps nothing — and only encourage Washington’s overspending problem.’”
ATR’s steps to avoid raising the debt limit, as highlighted in The Washington Times: “Americans for Tax Reform are offering seven handy-dandy actions that the Obama administration can take instead of raising the $14.3 trillion federal debt limit. They are: Swap out the debt, the nonpartisan coalition says. The government sits on big investments in various funds, and can exchange liabilities from debt that ‘counts against the limit to debt that doesn’t.’ Then get out of the bailout business, redeem TARP assets in full and lease government lands for energy production. Then sell public lands and reform federal property management. And one more thing. End the spending spree, the tax group counsels. ‘Congress must use the debt limit debate to refocus on the governments overspending problem, and make meaningful institutional reforms to establish fiscal restraint.’”