Rep. Frank Wolf ripped into lobbyist Grover Norquist on the floor of the House today, stating that his no-taxes pledge has “paralyzed” Congress from doing what is necessary to tackle the deficit.
According to Politico.com:
“Simply put, I believe Mr. Norquist is connected with, or has profited from, a number of unsavory people and groups out of the mainstream,” Wolf said.
In an interview, Norquist dismissed Wolf’s remarks as a “hissy fit.”
“He gets in these silly attacks on me that are plagiarized from racist websites,” Norquist told POLITICO. “He’s got to know that this is garbage.”
Wolf, a 16-term congressman who sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, also accused Norquist of using his no-taxes pledge – signed by virtually every congressional Republican — as leverage to push causes that the lawmaker said “many Americans would find inappropriate.
Wolf, who has a long conservative voting record, has not signed Norquist’s pledge.
Wolf emphasized that he himself did not support tax increases – essentially the mission of Norquist’s organization, Americans for Tax Reform. But the no-taxes pledge, Wolf argued, was hamstringing Congress from being able to “realistically” pursue tax reform – which Wolf said was a critical component in taming the nation’s debt.
“Have we really reached a point where one person’s demand for ideological purity is paralyzing Congress to the point that even a discussion of tax reform is viewed as breaking a no-tax pledge?” Wolf asked.
“He gets in these silly attacks on me that are plagiarized from racist websites,” Norquist told POLITICO. “He’s got to know that this is garbage.”
Good for Frank Wolf. He understands the meaning of compromise. Its about time someone sent Norquist packing.
Nationaljournal.com had the following to say:
Norquist was dismissive of Wolf’s attack in an interview with National Journal. “He either doesn’t understand what the pledge is or he is not accurate in how he portrays it,” Norquist said. “He had a melt-down and a hissy fit and I hope he’ll sober up and get back to the issue of holding spending down, not raising taxes.”
No one is quite sure what set Rep. Wolf off and no other congressmen or women jumped in to back him up.
I’m not a fan of Norquist. He has…..issues.
But blaming him for the voluntary actions of others is foolish. So he has a pledge. So what? It could be they signed it because it was a symbol of what THEY believed and what they believe their constituents want.
Why don’t the Repugs just ignore this guy? Norquist has them by their gonads. When Norquist says jump, the Repugs say “How high?”
Norquist is also a supporter of Islamic terrorists.
Or could it be that they signed it because they wanted to get elected and so they jumped on what they perceived to be the bandwagon?
I see obstructionists. A successful nation takes a lot of compromise. Those dudes are doing brinksmanship at every turn.
I can’t blame the lobbyist, since he’s not paid by taxpayers to act in our best interests. That’s the job of our worthy elected representatives. Just another argument for term limits.
Emma’s leftward pull is getting stronger every day. Must….resist……
I think Frank Wolf was right to do this.
I do too but he isn’t getting any help from his colleagues. I am not sure who the shady characters are but an ordinary citizen should not be welding that much power over others.
@Emma
You go girl!!! The center is fun. Join us. WE have tea and cookies.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/05/us-usa-court-scalia-idUSTRE7946LB20111005
“I hear Americans nowadays … talk about dysfunctional government because there’s disagreement,” he said. If they understood the Constitution, he continued, they can “learn to love the separation of powers, which means learning to love gridlock, which the framers believed would be the main protection of minorities.”
I almost got misty reading this.. 😉
Perhaps Justice Scalia should review the definition of “gridlock”: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gridlock
In gridlock–nothing moves, which seems to be what is happening with this congress. I don’t think that is what the founding fathers intended–what they intended was compromise: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/compromise
Too bad more Republicans don’t have the cajones or ovaries to disavow Norquist and his pledge.
If any pledge is keeping our Representatives from helping our economy We have the wrong people representing us! The pledge they were supposed to take had to do with representing
the Constitution for us.