Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojkt“I would rather fix the country and lose a battle with Grover Norquist than send our country down the tubes and pay attention to a point of view that is just suicide,” Coburn said. “And the fact is that there’s a lot of ways to enhance the revenue to the federal government. Reforming the tax code is a way to do it but we have to get $4 trillion.”
“The Republican leadership in the House have made it very clear that if Coburn continues to be for tax increases, he’s by his lonesome on that and nobody else has joined him.”
Senator John Thune of South Dakota suggested that antitax pledges ought to be revisited, because they can be interpreted too broadly in closing loopholes or eliminating tax deductions. “We shouldn’t be bound by something that could be interpreted different ways if what we’re trying to accomplish is broad-based tax reform,” he said.
“There is pledge fatigue,” said Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, who signed the Norquist pledge when he first ran for office in 2004 but has since jettisoned his support. “Many Americans are very cynical about the motives of politicians, so they want something harder to be able to believe in a person. But the pledge turns the power over to someone else to interpret whether what you did was right or wrong and limits your creativity.”
Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, who also signed it, said in an interview: “I’ve signed more pledges than I should have over the years. All of us ought to be somewhat reluctant to make these pledges. I think people who have been here longer do fewer.”
Filed under: taxes | Tagged: Grover Norquist |
All Things in Moderation 
I expect that Representatives and Senators make one and only one pledge.To the United States of America.BB
LikeLike
FairlingtonBlade:That's what I like about you — you're such an idealist! I think we should do away with Representatives and Senators and just have an algorithm based on the special interest pledges the constituents vote for. That way, we won't have to pay for their salaries and their bloated FEHB and FERS costs. Much, much cheaper for the taxpayers.
LikeLike
Heh. WIth the Values summit going on, I considered making an analogy to false idols, but thought the better part of it. Well, my better half is back for the first time in several weeks, so I'm going to cook her a good meal. I'd go for a bit more later, but she had 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night and I'm still getting over a virus given to me by Primo and Secondo.And so it goes…BB
LikeLike
I have no objection to things like the No Tax Pledge (or a Giant Mother F*ckin' Tax Pledge) in principle, but the over-arching nature of the Norquist pledge puts process over results, or certainly can.I also like the pledge to stop pledging. That's very meta.
LikeLike