Deep Thoughts With Grover Norquist

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by: Colorado Pols

Influential antitax lobbyist Grover Norquist said Monday that President Obama won reelection by painting GOP nominee Mitt Romney as a “poopy-head” and that Democrats should not interpret his victory as a mandate for higher taxes.

“We just had an election: The House of Representatives was elected, committed to keeping taxes low. The president was elected on the basis that he was not Romney and that Romney was a poopy-head and you should vote against Romney,” Norquist said on CBS’s “This Morning.”

…Norquist, like many Republicans, rejected the idea that the results of the election – which left President Obama in the White House and Democrats controlling the Senate – equaled a mandate for the Democratic agenda.

Host Norah O’Donnell pushed back. “Well, I’m not sure that’s what the president called Mitt Romney, Grover,” she said. “That’s not the debate that was had … he said very clearly throughout the debate that the wealthiest Americans should pay more and he won eight of the nine battleground states and Republicans failed to reclaim the White House or the Senate.”

“What about the exit polls that show a broad support for raising taxes on the wealthiest americans. Are you wrong?” she asked.

Norquist pointed to negative advertising against former GOP nominee Mitt Romney…

And here we see the latest conservative rationalization for last week’s defeat–it wasn’t the conservative agenda Mitt Romney ran on that was rejected, but the person of Mitt Romney, as presented so negatively by President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

But this ignores the public polling that overwhelmingly showed support during the 2011 debt ceiling debacle for ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest, and exit polls from this election that found six in 10 voters think taxes need to go up–on the rich, if not everyone. This seems to reflect understanding among voters that tax rates in America are at their lowest level in generations, and those historically low tax rates have a direct relationship to the nation’s chronic budget deficits and ballooning debt. If that’s right, voters did make a choice Tuesday.

And folks, it wasn’t which one is a “poopy head.” Why is Grover Norquist so feared again?

12 thoughts on “Deep Thoughts With Grover Norquist”

MADCO says:

November 13, 2012 at 1:33 am

Cause he could go.

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G Pulviczek says:

November 13, 2012 at 2:07 am

Grover is the poopy-head, of course.

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Albert J. Nock says:

November 13, 2012 at 2:10 am

link is garbage.

“USA Today calculated that a person making $100,000 per year pays $23,600 in taxes today, compared to $28,700 in the year 2000 and $27,300 in 1990.”

These numbers do not take into acccount State/Local taxes and fees nor do they take into account inflation or reduced purchasing power.

You have to look at guberment spending in relation to gross domestic production and the man-hours required.

Also, you cannot include guberment spending in your GDP calculation.

You will learn guberment is indeed consuming more of each hour you work… Hey, crony capitalism is also taking a more than fair share.

In the end, the average workers/producers have little to show for all their effort.

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1. Gray in Mountains says:
  
  November 13, 2012 at 2:15 am
  
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2. Phoenix Rising says:
  
  November 13, 2012 at 2:36 am
  
  That’s a bit more off-kilter than normal for you.
  
  Inflation works against money – if $100,000 isn’t worth what it was worth in 2000, then neither is $28,700.
  
  And GDP is, well, GDP – it’s the sum total of the domestic economy. That includes government, which last I checked pays people and companies money.
  
  The simple fact is: you aren’t paying the bills, and neither are the rest of us. You’ve gotten military service and a paranoid anti-terrorist response served to you for the past decade on the national credit card, which you’ve decided we shouldn’t pay down as fast as we could if we were paying the bill the way we should have.
  
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  1. Littletonian says:
    
    November 14, 2012 at 6:21 am
    
    Nock resents that. Remember, this is the guy who brings up stats about the goddamn moon to “prove” his point: http://www.coloradopols.com/sh…
    
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3. parsingreality says:
  
  November 13, 2012 at 6:32 am
  
  Despite productivity increasing over the last three decades, the average worker is not reaping any of the benefits. It’s gone to the plutocrats.
  
  Taxes are the price of civilization as a famous Supreme Court Justice once said. Everyone wants government services, no one wants to pay for them.
  
  The higher GDP/person, the more people expect from their governments. Not here, but in all nations.
  
  I have no problem, philosophically, paying taxes. I do have a problem, philosophically, spending $600 Billion dollars a year for a military that couldn’t stop box cutters. But just like all those 47%’ers leeching on the working folk that so upset righties, I can’t pick and choose where my taxes go.
  
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Automaticftp says:

November 13, 2012 at 2:15 am

Feared?

Democrats should celebrate him – he has helped make the GOP look like an idiocracy.

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Aristotle says:

November 13, 2012 at 2:30 am

Yes, the Senate and swing state results prove that there was a rebuke to the GOP’s tax policies, and perhaps more. But Obama mostly ran on that.

Yes, the victory was as much won by the superior candidate as it was lost by the inferior one. From Obama’s more charismatic and presidential demeanor to Romney’s ripping on 47% of Americans; from the improving economy under Obama to the promise to return to 2008 by Romney, this was very much about the men who were running.

Either way, Norquist is almost as stupid as Nock.

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RavenDawg says:

November 13, 2012 at 6:31 am

When the election results came in I joined with others in thinking “Oh boy, now there will be a big internecine Repub blood bath, get the popcorn.”

However the House TeaParty Repubs are dug in within their conservative districts. They don’t give a shit about the mainstream interpretation of the election. They are faith-based as opposed to reason-based by definition and they are not interested in compromise as that would guarantee them a primary challenge.

So the blood bath is going to be played out in the public arena of the “fiscal cliff,” not behind closed doors. The outcome will be determined by the total interaction between the TPR, the “realist” Repubs, Obama/Dems, and whatever voters are still paying attention after the election. The outcome will not just be a matter of pundit snark but is likely to affect a lot of vulnerable people.

I hope to god Obama learned from the first term and doesn’t cave in to Repub intransigence , otherwise we are in for 4 more years like the last 4.

Like TJ said, eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.

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skepticalcitizen says:

November 13, 2012 at 12:36 pm

Copy of my recent e-mail letter to Republican representative. I’m certain it will be ignored.

Congressman Coffman, you have signed the Norquist pledge.

“Signers pledge to the taxpayers of their Congressional district and to the American people that they won’t support a net income tax increase. The Pledge is made in writing to voters before a politician is elected so that these voters can hold the politician accountable on the tax issue. Pledge enforcement is done by voters, not by Grover Norquist or Americans for Tax Reform.”

The fiscal cliff, and the long-term deficit and debt problems faced by the USA, cannot be solved by spending cuts alone.

Please revoke the Norquist pledge. You will send a strong message to the electorate that you are willing to compromise and govern. Your Tea Party-aligned pattern over the past two years has been clearly obstructionist and has damaged our country’s sovereign debt.

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1. Lurker19 says:
  
  November 13, 2012 at 5:55 pm
  
  and Coffman will send you two identical meaningless replies at the same time.
  
  And how do I know? He does it to me all the time.
  
  This will be the third time Coffman votes to raise taxes. Because once an idiot, twice an idiot, third time’s the charm.
  
  And, gee, no Gopher here to jump up and say that the only way to lower taxes is to raise them.
  
  As for Norquist, he was a hindrance in the last election (good for our side) and has now become the crazy old aunt that lives in the attic, and only comes out to embarrass the family.
  
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