ATR’s Grover Norquist is in Politico’s “The Arena” answering, “Should Obama quit after one term?” Grover responds, “If Obama announced he would be a one-term president, he might well become ‘the type of leader he promised he would be during the '08 campaign, a uniter who'd transcend the red-state, blue-state divisions in America.’…But we already have two years of painful evidence that the campaign was the lie and the presidency was the man… If — after two years of disappointing reality — anyone still believes Obama's character can be found in his campaign speeches and not in his presidency, then we should alert Bernie Madoff that we have found new investors for his plans once he gets out of public housing.”
“Reduce out-of-control spending now” runs as a headline in Politico. Grover Norquist and Rep. Fred Upton outline their ideas for slashing the spending largesse on Capitol Hill, “A first step for every committee must be to repeal the billions of dollars of unspent stimulus funds in their jurisdiction… We must also stop letting legislation move through the committee process with the opaque, anything goes “such sums as may be necessary” appropriations language… Committees must hold budget hearings for every agency within their jurisdiction, and then, as candidate Obama promised, go line-by-line through each budget to identify potential items to cut. A chainsaw would be the recommended tool of choice.”
Think the debt-commission report is all great and good? Think again, from Aol News, “10 Political 'Nonstarters' From Federal Debt Panel.” Coming in at number seven, a federal gas tax hike of 15 percent, “Republicans don't like taxes, so expect them to slam the brakes on this one. The conservative Americans for Tax Reform helpfully estimated the average weekly fill-up for a 15-gallon tank would go up $117 more per year. This one may stay in neutral.”
From The Hill, “The Big Question: Is the Republican ban on earmarks a good idea?” Grover Norquist responds, “Yes. The Republican ban on earmarks is a very good idea… an earmark is given to a congressman or senator to bribe him or her to vote for a bill they would otherwise reject. This is a corruption, bribery and a bad idea… The second kind of earmark is when the federal government is doing something that should be done at state or local level… Shut down the entire program at the federal level and require states and local governments to loot their own peasants to fund their own pyramids.”