Grover Norquist is widely respected as one of the nation’s leading taxpayer advocates. As President of Americans for Tax Reform, he has been leading the charge in Washington, D.C., and in the states against new taxes. He has penned this exclusive column for FlashReport readers in light of the current over-spending crisis in Sacramento…
IN TAX TALK, TEMPORARY MEANS PERMANENT; BUT IN CALIFORNIA THE GOP CAN STOP ANY TAX INCREASE
By Grover Norquist
The History of Americans for Tax Reform’s No Tax Hike Pledge
In 1985 president Reagan asked me to run Americans for Tax Reform — to be the grassroots lobby for what became the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that lowered marginal tax rates to 15% and 28%. We worried during this campaign that when tax deductions and credits were permanently removed the lower rates might drift upward.
So I created the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" asking all incumbents and candidates for federal office to sign the pledge promising in writing to oppose and vote against tax rate increases. We had 20 Senators and 100 Congressmen sign the pledge in 1986. President Reagan called on all candidates to sign the pledge.
In 1988, George H.W. Bush signed the pledge in the primaries and followed up by also saying "read my lips no new taxes." This helped him defeat Bob Dole who refused to sign the pledge prior to the New Hampshire primary.
But in 1990, President Bush broke his pledge working with the Democrats in Congress to broker a "compromise" that increased taxes and increased spending. This deal was worked out at Andrews Air Force Base.
The tax hikes passed. Spending increased. Some Republicans in the House and Senate voted for the tax increase "deal." Bush lost the 1992 election when Ross Perot ran as a third party candidate. Remember, tax increase advocate Bill Clinton only won 43% of the vote.
In 1993, Clinton raised taxes again. Only Democrats in the House and Senate voted for his tax hike. More than 95% of all Republican candidates for the House and Senate signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. So in 1994 voters knew who to blame for the tax hikes and knew where the GOP stood. As a result the GOP won the House and Senate and held them for 12 years.
The history of the pledge tells Republicans: Sign the pledge, win the primary. Sign the pledge, win the general. Break the pledge, lose re-election. Keep the pledge, get re-elected.
If the Democrats want to raise taxes and you are stupid enough to have your fingerprints on the deal–as in 1990–then you lose your ability to distinguish your party from the Democrats.
But if you make it clear that the Democrats are alone in wishing to raise taxes as in 1993–and Republicans stand with taxpayers–then the Republicans win the next election.
Since the 1993 Democrat tax hike and the Republican unity in signing the pledge (Bush signed it in 1990) and all but a handful of Republican Senators and Congressmen signed the pledge by 1994) there has not been a tax hike enacted in Washington, D.C. That is a fifteen year period without a national tax hike from 1993 to today. This is the longest period of American history without a tax increase going back to George Washington.
**There is more – click the link**
August 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Pray tell….a union is only in business to get all it can extract for members and the union leaders….lobbyists, they payoff and want big dollars in return from government sanctioned programs…bond holders like those billions and billions in big interest payments….teachers getting more chubby in those commercials by the day…I guess they need fed more too! The prisioners are sick and need more health care…the continued increase in population predominately poor, marginally educated…they need economic love too. And the 40% of students who never graduate fifth rate California high schools…they need a boost huh?
Get real….the modern Democrat Party is a magnet for mediocrity and the dependant classes……..they will never ever cut spending, their thirst for more taxes….only naive, dumb bunny Republicans roll over to the socialists.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
The one fact that everyone forgets is that the Tax increases by Clinton and the Congress started this country on the road to fiscal responsibility and budget surplus that Bush and the Republicans have not reversed and gotten the nation into a lot of fiscal problems.