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Owner59 -> RE: See`n the crack in the wall....GOP "we can`t afford default". (7/21/2011 8:53:26 AM)
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More cracks......
"Anti-Tax Zealot Grover Norquist Is Fine With Letting the Bush Tax Cuts Expire"
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/07/anti-tax_zealot_grover_norquis.html
Republicans do not like taxes. That much is certain. But one of the reasons Republicans in Congress are so dead set against raising any taxes by any amount on anyone or anything, even if that's what it takes to reach a deal on the debt ceiling and keep the American economy from collapsing, is because their hands have been tied by the Americans for Tax Reform pledge that 95 percent of them have signed. The only thing more unforgivable to ATR than voting to raise taxes is voting to raise taxes after having vowed in writing never to do so. Meanwhile, Democrats demand that any debt-reduction plan must include some kind of new tax revenues, which is why Congress finds itself at an impasse. But maybe the Washington Post has stumbled upon an escape hatch:
With a handful of exceptions, every Republican member of Congress has signed a pledge against increasing taxes. Would allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire as scheduled in 2012 violate this vow? We posed this question to Grover Norquist, its author and enforcer, and his answer was both surprising and encouraging: No.
In other words, according to Mr. Norquist’s interpretation of the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, lawmakers have the technical leeway to bring in as much as $4 trillion in new tax revenue — the cost of extending President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for another decade — without being accused of breaking their promise. “Not continuing a tax cut is not technically a tax increase,” Mr. Norquist told us. So it doesn’t violate the pledge? “We wouldn’t hold it that way,” he said.
[:D]
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