Who the F@#! is Grover Norquist?

Redwyvre

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Perhaps people including elected Republicans are beginning to realise listening to someone like Grover Norquist and allowing the wealthy to have an annoying long eye-popping tax break hasn't created jobs, isn't creating jobs, and won't create jobs. It is sort of like having financial advise that doesn't deliver and so it's time to change advisors.
 

Calboner

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A certain Robert Thurman argues in a video that elected representatives who sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge promoted by Grover Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) are betraying their oath of office. Here is the text of the ATR pledge for members of the US House of Representatives (source; there are corresponding forms for US senators, state legislators, and state governors):

Taxpayer Protection Pledge
I, _______________, pledge to the taxpayers of the _____ district of the state of__________, and to the American people that I will:
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.
Here is the oath of office that members of the US House and Senate take (emphasis added):

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
Thurman observes:

These people have signed a sworn oath that contradicts their oath of office. And therefore, in fact, they do have mental reservations, and they do have purpose of evasion and they are not sincerely taking their oath of office. And if they persist in that, and if they are held to that by this outside person who is not a member of the government, then they are, in fact, breaking their oath of office and they are not serving what they swore to serve the American people.
Thurman makes the claim that the ATR pledge is effectively an oath to ATR and that therefore to sign it is to betray one's oath of office. ATR, of course, denies this, and insists that the pledge is a pledge of each elected official to his or her constituents and no one else. It is certainly right about that as far as the text of the pledge goes. It also admits that it "has the role of promoting and monitoring" the pledge, and Norquist has been explicit that ATR will use any elected official's abandonment of the pledge against him or her in an election. So ATR pressures Republican legislators and governors to sign the pledge and makes known its intention to see to it that any signer who abandons it is voted out of office, but denies that it is incurring any elected official's loyalty. A pretty fine distinction, I think.
 

hot-rod

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In the long run, the Republicans, WILL, rebuff the mandate of the people. Re-read their statements, They're quite alright adopting the Romney position to work the deficit. And we know how dangerous that would have been. I see the Right Wing trying to do what they did before the election. I hope Obama sticks to his guns, and decides not to broker a deal, and just let everything lapse. The Dems have the strong case. The Right, not so much, if at all. The Dems should just sit tight. They don't need to broker a deal, it's the Right that is in a panic mode. Let them panic.
Can you try to imagine the size of the shock waves when Hillary Clinton runs for president and Elizabeth Warren runs as her vice-president in 2016?..:yup: I hope I'm around to witness that....:yup:..........:usa:
 

Bardox

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Grover Norquist is like the creature Gollum. His "precious" is taxes. Don't touch or he'll snarl, pounce, and bite your finger off.
 

Who_Dun_It

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Can you try to imagine the size of the shock waves when Hillary Clinton runs for president and Elizabeth Warren runs as her vice-president in 2016?..:yup: I hope I'm around to witness that....:yup:..........:usa:

I'd rather see Warren stay where she's at and prosper for at least a couple terms if not more. She can do more good there and as long as there is a President in office that agrees with and signs what ever she is able to get through, especially when it comes to the Wall Street and the Financial Industry.