Grover Norquist: ‘No Republican Voted For A Tax Increase’
Source: TPM
DAVID TAINTOR 1:45 PM EST, WEDNESDAY JANUARY 2, 2013
Anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist on MSNBC Wednesday insisted that Republicans who supported the fiscal cliff deal did not vote to increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans. "No Republican voted for a tax increase," Norquist said.
"Wait a second," Andrea Mitchell said. "I mean, we're not living in the 'Alice in Wonderland' world here. There is a tax increase for wealthier Americans. It's literally a tax increase."
Technically, it's not, Norquist said. "What happened yesterday was, all the tax rates went up, and then the Republicans and the Congress together took them down for some people, not for everybody."
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Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/grover-norquist-no-republican-voted-for-tax-increase
peacebird
(14,195 posts)going over the cliff gave the GOP cover on taxes, as they were rolling back a tax increase on all but the top earners.....
Estevan
(70 posts)this guy is just trying to save face after looking like the biggest asshole on the planet.
adieu
(1,009 posts)Do a Javert and jump into a sewer.
Berlum
(7,044 posts)bluesbassman
(19,310 posts)Grover would've had a hell of a career as a song and dance man.
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)I was literally laughing at Grover's contortionist antics. I surmised that Grover must be fastidious in keeping his shoes clean. Anyone who dances on their own tongue as much as he does would care about their sole!
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)YOU have been elected to NOTHING!
Shut the FUCK up and go away...How the hell do we shut this jag off down????????
denverbill
(11,489 posts)Is that what Norquist is saying? After all, tax rates went up prior to Dems passing this. Only a handful of Congressional pukies went along.
He's arguing that failing to stop tax cuts from expiring is different from increasing taxes.
One is a sin of omission. The other a sin of commission.
Strictly speaking, it's true. But it's playing on the kind of legal nicety that most people find deceptive or manipulative.
It's not a new kind of language game. Back in 2010 or so there was the whole "Obama promised not to raise taxes" and the way the expiration of the * tax cuts was going to work would have raised taxes on some people he promised not to raise taxes on.
The response was that Obama couldn't lie. Instead, there'd be no tax increased. There'd be the expiration of a decrease. A different kind of thing--nobody would actually raise taxes, they'd just let them raise automatically.
Same reasoning.
I termed this a negative tax reduction. Nobody voted to raise taxes, technically speaking. They just voted to extend only certain tax cuts that were going to expire (Senate) or had expired (House). The effect is identical to that of a tax increase because, well, taxes increase.
denverbill
(11,489 posts)Nobody voted for a tax increase. That was automatic and occurred Jan 1 for everybody.
The only thing voted for was a tax cut for everyone but the wealthy. That's true.
What he glosses over is that most Republickers voted AGAINST the tax cut. All Democrats voted for it.
rateyes
(17,438 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,312 posts)Yes Andrea, the rethug teabaggers that you and the rest of your lamestream ilk coddled and nurtured, ARE "living in the 'Alice in Wonderland'" world, and your network - including you, Monkey Boy Gregory, & Schmuck Toad, enabled it and the loons that people the GOP.
The "both sides do it" bullshit is "Alice in Wonderland".
The "The race is tied and Rmoney may win" bullshit WAS "Alice in Wonderland".
And like a good little corporate tool, Norquist the Rasputin of today, will be given a pass.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)+1,000,000.
WinstonSmith4740
(3,048 posts)Wouldn't you love to see someone ask them just what color the sky is in their world? My money's on Soledad.
MADem
(135,425 posts)He's talking like one conked him on his head!
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)You remember him, don't you?
QED
(2,730 posts)I've always thought of little Grover as a domestic terrorist.
Did you know that he thought up his idea in high school?
"The story has become Washington legend. Grover Norquist, who apparently was a Republican when he was a zygote, came up with the idea for the no-tax pledge in high school. "I had this history teacher who said that most people don't know who their Congressman is," Norquist told me, over coffee, as the President and Congress wrangled about the debt-ceiling limit an argument Norquist probably has done more to precipitate than any other person in our nation's capital. "I had this insight: What if you could brand the Republican Party like Coke or Pepsi? What if it was defined as the no-tax party? Then people would know what they were getting." "
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2082951,00.html#ixzz2GqeNQk6b
wordpix
(18,652 posts)adieu
(1,009 posts)Half the GOPs house voted for the bill, half in the house voted against, yet NO GOPs in the house voted to raise taxes? How does that work?
Lasher
(27,501 posts)Then they were substantially resurrected and made permanent in January this year.
liberal N proud
(60,302 posts)mac56
(17,561 posts)HawkeyeLibkid
(76 posts)to idiots like Grover. Anyone who has signed his phony pledge should be tried for treason in my opinion.
NICO9000
(970 posts)Went something like
"Don't go away mad
Don't go away sad
Just GO AWAY (go away!)
subterranean
(3,427 posts)So technically, they did vote for a tax increase. They also voted for a tax increase -- twice -- when they put an expiration date on the Bush tax cuts and the two-year extension.
marble falls
(56,358 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)He could power the Eastern Seaboard with that amount of spin.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)we all live in a fact-based reality - not fantasy.
bucolic_frolic
(42,676 posts)and your guys all lost it
and you've lost your mind if you ever had one
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)A minority of House Republicans voted in favor of cutting taxes. While Democrats rather wholeheartdly endorsed cutting taxes. Again.
You want to have some fun? Utter the phrase, "we have to STOP cutting taxes," around a crowd of people. I get the most bewildered stares when I say that.
But it is true. I am 51 years old. Feds must have cut my taxes a dozen times during my career. And nobody noticed. Which sort of makes me wonder why the pols even bother.
jmowreader
(50,453 posts)Norquist said NO Republican voted for a tax increase. There was one and Republicans voted for it.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)There was no vote to increase taxes.
There was no vote to extend the tax holiday.
There was a vote to enact some permanent tax cuts. Those cuts matched some, just not all, of the temporary tax holiday.
The above is simple accuracy, not framing. But if you are willing to spin, then there are two ways this could be framed:
1. Conservatives and Teabagger Republicans voted against cutting federal income taxes, or
2. Democrats and Moderate Republicans voted for a tax increase.
For some weird reason, DUers want to frame this as #2. I'm sure when Rightists come to their political senses, they will be happy to frame this as a Democratic tax increase instead of a tax cut. And they are getting lots and lots of quotes from people on the Left making that very claim right now.
We do not deserve to win elections.
jmowreader
(50,453 posts)Under it, allowing Bush's temporary tax cuts to lapse like they were designed to qualifies as a tax increase.
He also considers allowing a loophole to close to be a tax increase.
You are thinking like a rational person and a rational person wouldn't consider this bill a tax increase. I applied Norquist's spin to it, and under that it is one.
Three of Idaho's four members - both senators and the non-teabagger congressman - voted aye.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)And, of course, it has the advantage of being accurate.
salib
(2,116 posts).... For that reason, Norquist is insisting on an interpretation of his pledge in which failing to prevent a tax increase or even voting to partially cut a lapsed rate would constitute a violation.
I think the American people would look at anything that raised taxes from where they are today to be a tax increase, Norquist told TPM Monday. Everybody knows this has been coming.
unblock
(51,974 posts)oh, i see, that just magically happened.
yesphan
(1,586 posts)You and your ilk diminish us and this nation. Please help organize and establish your
libertarian utopia somewhere else.
Javaman
(62,439 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)catnhatnh
(8,976 posts)"These are not the tax increases you were looking for."
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,539 posts)Remember him? The Iraqi Information Minister's statements during the war with Iraq were as fantasy-filled as Grover's:
"There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!"
"We have them surrounded in their tanks."
"They're not even within 100 miles of Baghdad. They are not in any place. They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion ... they are trying to sell to the others an illusion."
Why does anyone care about what Grover Norquist has to say?
Arkana
(24,347 posts)"KALIMA...KALIMA!!!!!!!!"
Norquist is slowly losing his grip over economic policy in this country and watching him squirm is just delicious.
NHDEMFORLIFE
(489 posts)samsingh
(17,571 posts)they are a menace and a threat to American values.