Friday, November 30, 2012

No more tax increases: Why Grover Norquist is right

The Lakeland Times ^ | 11/30/2012 | Richard Moore

There was quite a dust-up in the Republican Party this past week when Georgia U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss uttered the unthinkable and said he would no longer adhere to the famous Taxpayer Protection Pledge conceived by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
Chambliss was blunt in renouncing his commitment not to vote to raise taxes: “I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge. If we do it his (Norquist’s) way then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that.”
Now this is not particularly surprising coming as it does so quickly after President Obama’s re-election, which has sent weak-kneed, spineless Republicans hotfooting it from their principles. And it is not particularly surprising coming from Sen. Chambliss because conservative groups have already put a target on his back for his past RINO proclivities.
While it might not be surprising, it is telling. Mr. Chambliss said straight up that we must raise taxes, or we will continue in debt. It is a Democratic argument, and it is false, as most Democratic arguments are. Let’s take a look why.
Follow the conditional statement, and there can be only two possibilities to validate it. Either revenues are slumping in dramatic, irreversible fashion, and so more are needed to meet the realistic, indeed necessary, demands of the modern state, or we are held hostage by nondiscretionary spending, that is to say, we’re spending so much because we have to, not because we want to.
Implicit in the first possibility is that the money stream is historically low and not likely to recover sufficiently. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at lakelandtimes.com ...

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