Norquist’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge is the Height of Fiscal Irresponsibility

http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/norquists_taxpayer_protection_pledge_is_the_height_of_fiscal_irresponsibili/

Grover Norquist likes to boast that 41 Senators and a majority of Representatives have signed his Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which unconditionally rejects any net reduction in tax credits, deductions, or rates unless matched dollar-for-dollar by some other tax reduction. Norquist has plenty of reason to gloat, but taxpayers should be livid. Adherence to this doctrinaire pledge would rule out anything remotely resembling a balanced approach to deficit reduction and instead force the dismantlement of the social contract of the last 80 years.

This anti-government agenda propagates two related falsehoods that preclude serious deficit reduction: that tax cuts pay for themselves, and that only spending cuts can reduce the deficit. Some leaders in Congress are more than happy to push this agenda, despite evidence to the contrary. Take, for instance, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who recently claimed that the Bush-era tax cuts paid for themselves. A litany of former Bush administration economists soundly rejected this assertion, and McConnell’s perpetuation of this falsehood damages sensible discourse. Similarly, Norquist boldly claims that “the only time the deficit comes down is when you refuse to raise taxes and you rein in spending.” Contrary to this revisionist history, the only budget surpluses of the last 40 years resulted from tax increases enacted by President George H.W. Bush, followed by more tax increases enacted by President Bill Clinton.

Having taken revenue increases off the table, today’s conservatives are pushing massive spending cuts paired, of course, with sweeping tax cuts. The House Republican budget demonstrates an unwillingness to pay for public investments, services, and a safety net, especially for the vulnerable and poor: their budget slashes more than $2.2 trillion from health programs, eliminates guaranteed Medicare within a decade, halves federal Medicaid spending by 2030, and by repealing the expansion of coverage in the Affordable Care Act, would increase the number of non-elderly uninsured Americans by some 34 million by the end of this decade. But the accompanying tax policies reveal this is a matter of unwillingness, not inability, to protect the poor, disabled, and elderly.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that the House Republican budget would reduce revenue by $2.9 trillion (ignoring elimination of unspecified tax preferences) on top of extending all current tax cuts at a cost of $4.6 trillion in lost revenue and an additional trillion in debt service over a decade. (Allowing any temporary tax cut to expire is considered a tax increase and a violation of Norquist’s Pledge.) Despite eviscerating the non-security discretionary budget, Medicaid, and other health and low-income programs, the House Republican budget would not even achieve budget balance until close to 2040, according to a long-term analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, despite assuming an unrealistically high level of revenue specified by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R.-Wisc.) staff.

More at the link --

use the bankruptcy to kill medicare and social security.

This is what the Bush administration was all about.

affects the rest of us, like the earned income credit being taken away in WI...but tax cuts to the rich being taken away...holy cow, he screams...


So his tax rebellion isn't just stupid and irresponsible, it's cruel and class warfare.

No one, you say? So why are these politicians have to make promises to him personally? And why do they have to keep them?

Seems to me they swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to abide by the arbitrary rules of an anti-government zealot.

They are most definitely not representing their constituents, the majority of whom want Medicare and Social Security to be retained in their present form and who want the rich to be taxed more, rather than have the poor and the middle class pay for rich people's tax breaks by giving up programs that have become part of the fabric of this nation.