Posted on 11/26/2012 11:54:57 AM PST by CNSNews.com
As the fiscal cliff looms, a growing number of Republican lawmakers are abandoning their pledge to the American people NOT to raise taxes.
It was reported last week that Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) broke from his conservative colleagues when he stated on WMAZ-TV, "I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge."
Chambliss was referring to the Taxpayer Protection Pledge created by Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform. The pledge asks candidates and incumbents to bind themselves to oppose any and all tax increases.
The promise, made to the American people states the following:
1. Oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and
2. Oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) joined Chambliss in renouncing the pledge he took, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday:
"A pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that Congress. For instance, if I were in Congress in 1941, I would have signed a... declaration of war against Japan. I'm not going to attack Japan today. The world has changed. And the economic situation is different."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also said on ABC's "This Week" that he is ready to violate the anti-tax pledge:
"I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country. When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece."
Former GOP Presidential candidate and Arizona Senator, John McCain hinted on "Fox News Sunday" that he is also open to violating the pledge. McCain told host Chris Wallace that while he was strictly against raising marginal tax rates, "[W]e can close a lot of loopholes." He identified the deduction on charitable giving and the home-mortgage deduction, specifically.
Even Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH) has said that he is willing to accept "more revenue" as part of a fiscal cliff deal. In a statement given the day after the reelection of Barack Obama, Boehner said, Republicans are willing to accept "new revenue, under the right conditions" to reach a bipartisan agreement.
The question now is: Will the Republicans who took this pledge honor their commitment to the American people, or will they surrender their promise under the guise of doing what is "for the good of the country?"
To quote an ancient Chinese proverb: "In a broken nest, there are few whole eggs."
Combine this with the facts that Obamacare will remain intact, Susan Rice will be confirmed as SOS, John Kerry as SecDec and Benghazi will ultimately be swept under the rug, the RNC needs to tell us what the hell they stand for.
And just who put us in that situation?
For the Good of the Country? WOW, just WOW, so heartwarming to know you finally have the Good of the Country in mind now/sarc.
Which only means you never did before. Where in the heck did that "for the Good of the Country" language come from, been reading the DEM playbook?, always worked for them. Why are all you using the same line?
You don’t need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
The Age of Big Government is here to stay. And the Pubbies wanna play too.
Obama has destroyed the economy in four years and how did that work out? It's still Bush's fault.....
The inevitable catastrophe will still be the Republicans fault no matter what they do....Hell, they may even blame it on Republican Bunning who was the sole republican who voted for Obamacare thus giving the Democraps a filibuster proof super majority.........
I’ve got news for everybody: when you vote to raise spending above revenue levels, you are de facto voting for future tax hikes. So Rethugs have been voting for tax hikes for ages.
I’ve got news for everybody: when you vote to raise spending above revenue levels, you are de facto voting for future tax hikes. So Rethugs have been voting for tax hikes for ages.
These people are stupid. We don’t need tax increases for the “good of the country”
But Grover is stupid as well. In 2001, he supported the law which raised taxes in 2011. In 2010, he supported the law which raises taxes in 2013.
Now he wants to attack politicians who, seeing a huge tax increase coming in 2013, might vote to reduce the 2013 tax, because they might vote for something that won’t reduce taxes to their current values.
Sorry, the problem was the guys who passed the laws that allowed tax reductions to expire, not the guys who are looking at current political reality and trying to keep taxes as low as possible for as many people as is politically feasable.
Sadly, the result in any case is going to be more people who have too little skin in the game to care about how bad taxes get for the “rich”.
What we really need is tax increases for most people, so they will fight to keep taxes low. But you could never pull that off with Grover in charge.
Grover wants low taxes, and increased government spending in the form of support for massive immigration.
When did we start having freepers who do nothing but post articles, and then never comment on them?
Rat lite being Rat lite. Who would have thunk.
We won't forget about this in 2014, Saxby!
When will people realize the GOP is dead? It does not and will not ever again have conservative principles (no I am not a Paultard). Replace one (R) with another (R) and by and large they are the same. There are no (R) "in name only." What you call a "RINO" is the definition of a Republican.....traitorous, unprincipled, backstabbing, spineless sack of #h#t.
See Juan McCain, Myth Romney, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, John Boner, Eric Cantor, Chris Christie, and Scott Brown for off the top of my head examples.
1-never in the history of the world has tax increases made anything better
2-there is not a republican in congress smart enough to negotiate with the rats.
3- easy solution
just say no
Any Republican who votes for one more thin dime in taxes needs to pay with his job, preferably by getting primaried out.
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