ATR president Grover Norquist this morning appeared on Maria Bartiromo’s Mornings with Maria on Fox Business.
Norquist discussed the new Coronavirus bill, the prospect of re-opening negotiations on the end of year package, Biden’s tax hikes, and the threat of Biden weaponizing the IRS on conservative groups.
On Republicans stopping the Pelosi $3 trillion spending plan:
“The big win was…we did not get stuck paying the bill for corrupt cities and failed governors. There is not the bailout for New York City, San Francisco, and Illinois. The Republicans in the Senate, under Mitch McConnell, stopped that from happening. That was a big, big, win. They also took the $3.3 trillion that Nancy Pelosi wanted and took it down dramatically. There are tax cuts in what passed. The Trump people have gotten rid of six of Obamacare’s taxes that hit the middle class. The one they got rid of in this particular package was one that ten million families were hit with higher taxes because Obama made it more difficult, under Obamacare, to deduct very high healthcare costs…that will not happen again because of this bill. There are a series of good tax cuts, a number of tax cuts were made permanent. On the spending, it was a fraction of what Nancy Pelosi wanted.”
On re-opening the end of year package:
“We got better than one could possibly imagine given that Nancy Pelosi had the veto… Re-opening this package doesn’t mean it’s going to get better. Democrats still have the House of Representatives, they can stop anything they want to. The President is now saying ‘I’m not happy with all this spending.’ I’m not either. ”
On Biden’s tax hikes:
“Looking forward to Biden, he wants to double the capital gains tax…he wants to have a carbon tax, an energy tax on all Americans, which of course hits the middle class. He wants to hit those 5 million Americans who were damaged by the Obamacare penalty tax – he wants to bring that back, Trump brought it to zero. I think Trump should look at the successes he’s had and talk about those, because Biden threatens them all.”
On if Biden will weaponize the IRS against conservative groups:
“Sadly, yes…During Obama, they killed the Tea Party movement by not letting them incorporate…which is what normal political movements do. That’s why the Tea Party movement fragmented, it was destroyed by the IRS as a political movement. Yes sadly, but if they can’t change laws, the damage that Biden would do is temporary.”