Promises, Promises

In a recent column, I wrote, “How can you believe anything that comes from the mouths of politicians who consider their “no-tax” pledge to Grover Norquist more important than their oaths of office?  So who is Grover G. Norquist?  He is the head of Americans for Tax Reform.  From The Daily Beast writer, Lloyd Grove, “He is the arbiter of what is and what is not a tax increase.  His presence was strongly felt in this deal…235 House Republicans and 41 Senate Republicans—as well as two House Democrats, are signatories to Norquist’s inviolable Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which must be co-signed by two witnesses and is kept, along with the other signed pledges, locked in a safe in an undisclosed location somewhere in the nation’s capital. 

The ATR pledge allows zero wiggle-room. It commits members of the House and Senate to “ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.”

Why would they sign his pledge?  Because of Norquist’s promise to use the influence and money behind the ATR to support those who sign the pledge and campaign against any politician who takes the pledge and fails to uphold it faithfully.

As usual big money is involved.  “In the 2010 election cycle, ATR—which doesn’t disclose its donors and, thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, won’t have to anytime soon—spent $7.5 million. For 2012, Norquist says he hopes to raise and spend $15 million, in coordination with an additional $10 million from a super-rich donor he refuses to identify.”

Why would one super-rich donor want to give the ATR $10 million?  Why would the ATR refuse to disclose its donors?  Why would the ATR’s position to “allow zero-wiggle room” regarding any change that might increase taxes even one red-cent?  Well there’s at least two possible reasons:  (1) They simply have the country’s best interests at heart.  (2) They are protecting the vast wealth of their super-rich donors. 

Read this from David Corn about the August debt crisis before you answer:  “The speaker, as it turned out, did not have enough Republican votes to pass the bill—only 174. When there were minutes left for the vote, and it became apparent that Boehner would fall far short of the 216 votes necessary for passage, Pelosi's Democrats began voting in favor of the measure. "We were not going to let it go down," she told a small group of journalists on Wednesday morning.”

So even the absence of tax increases was not enough to get the ideologues to budge.  They may not have liked the bill, but the Democrats voted for it to avoid default.

Now some people are trying to promote the myth of “false equivalence”, that both sides are equally responsible for this last crisis.  Well that’s politics as usual.  But the reality is that this pledge and the ideologues in Congress took a previous oath to “uphold and defend the constitution.”  Our constitution clearly says that we will pay our bills.  Yet these “pledge signers” and ideologues ignored that and refused to vote for a bill that would allows us to do so.  Thanks to the Democrats, we avoided a default but unfortunately got downgraded any way.  Not because we don’t have the ability to pay our bills already charged to our credit card by Congress, but because we seem to have lost our ability to govern.  Why?  Because of at least three other agendas in Washington:  (1) Don’t mess with Grover Norquist.  (2) Keep trying to solve complex problems with artificial ideologies based on theories that have been proven wrong.  (3) Be sure that Obama fails, regardless of the cost to the country.  There are more.  I just don’t have enough room to list them.     

Robert DeFilippis