In an op-ed for Human Events, Grover Norquist writes: “President Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi had a plan. Together they would explode federal spending with bailouts, stimulus, ObamaCare, cap and trade and more Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). If the Republicans keep their pledge, the only way to ‘fix’ Obama’s overspending is to spend less. This was a chilling thought for the Democrats. So they went to work to undermine Republican resistance to tax increases. But one Republican member of the commission, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma… has adopted Obama’s strategy and is now telling Republicans it's okay to vote for trillions in higher taxes. Coburn went further and on the floor of the Senate on Monday, June 13, when he said he supported the mandate to use ethanol and would vote against Sen. Jim DeMint’s legislation to abolish the mandate. Americans for Tax Reform worked with Republican leadership and DeMint so that DeMint could offer his amendment to actually end the ethanol mandate and also abolish the death tax so that together with Coburn's $2.4 billion tax increase the result would be a tax cut, not a tax increase, and no Republican would be tricked into breaking his or her pledge. Republican leadership has again committed to demanding spending cuts without higher taxes in any budget negotiations. They will not be undermined. The Coburn effort to break the Republican unity in demanding spending cuts and no tax hikes failed.”
In the POLITICO Arena, Grover Norquist weighs in on why no Senate Democratic budget has been written: “The Democrats are wise not to put in writing their tax and spend proposals. In 2008, Obama won hiding the cost of his agenda. In 2010, when the American people could see and read the stimulus/bailout/banking bill/Obamacare/more troops in Afghanistan cost in dollars and lives…the Democrats did poorly. Best not to let the American people know what they have in store. If the Democrats actually wrote out the taxes and spending they have planned for us in 2012, it would make November 2010 look like a good start.”
Andrew Stiles writes for The National Review: “The feud between Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and tax lobbyist Grover Norquist came to a head (again) this week as Republicans girded themselves for a potential deal on the debt ceiling. Sparks flew Tuesday when Coburn forced a cloture vote on an amendment to eliminate $6 billion in ethanol tax subsidies. Ethanol, however, was hardly the issue at stake. GOP leaders have made it clear that Republicans will not support a deal to raise the debt ceiling if it includes tax increases. Coburn’s amendment eliminated tax breaks for the ethanol industry but did not include any offsetting tax cuts. The vote failed, 40 to 59, well short of the 60 needed for cloture, but the fact that 34 Republicans supported the amendment raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill as perhaps a sign that Norquist and his pledge have lost clout in the GOP conference. Norquist vociferously denies this charge, pointing out that ATR gave senators the go ahead to vote yes on Coburn’s measure provided they also agreed to support an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) that would have made up for the lost tax credit by eliminating the inheritance tax. There has been no vote on that measure yet, and it’s not clear when or if a vote will happen, but most Republicans have voiced support. ‘No one violated the pledge,’ Norquist said. ‘Nobody followed Coburn over the cliff.’”
Kate Ackley writes about today’s lobbying process in Roll Call: “‘It used to be that elections were interesting and then you go and lobby the people that got elected,’ says Grover Norquist, president of the anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform. ‘But now because the two parties each have more cohesion in terms of their policies and principles, now the key question is elections.’ Norquist contends it’s essentially a waste of time to trudge up to Capitol Hill to lobby on such matters as tax policy because most senators and House members have made up their minds irreversibly — and did so before they were first sworn in. ‘It really has moved ‘lobbying’ out into the districts because that’s where you talk to people. That’s where you elect people,’ he says."
For The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Laura Myers writes: “The next big event on the presidential sweepstakes calendar in Nevada is July 10. That's when the leading Republican candidates are scheduled to participate in a debate in Las Vegas at M Resort. The debate is organized by Americans for Tax Reform, the Grover Norquist group. And it's being held in conjunction with the annual Conservative Leadership Conference on July 9, where most of the GOP contenders are expected to speak.”