Thank you for your sensible, pro-Obama vote and for the rescue of the Senate from the right. We have a number of nice prizes for you, voter. One of the prizes may well be the political death of Grover Norquist.
… The election was an overwhelming rejection of the the political philosophy advocated by Norquist and his allies. 24 Republican Senate incumbents and candidates signed Norquist’s anti-tax pledge and lost.
Linda McMahon (R-CT), Senator Scott Brown (R-MA), Treasurer Josh Mandel (R-OH), Secretary of State Charles Summers (R-ME), former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R-WI), considered top-tier candidates, were attacked by their Democrats opponents in face-to-face debates for signing Norquist’s pledge. They all lost.
55 Republican House incumbents or candidates who signed Norquist’s pledge also lost. …Think Progress
The numbers are working against Norquist, almost dramatically.
Fewer incoming members of the House and Senate have signed the pledge against tax increases run by Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, in a reflection not only of the seats that Democrats gained but of the success they’ve enjoyed in vilifying Norquist.
About a dozen newly elected House Republicans refused to sign the anti-tax pledge during their campaigns, and another handful of returning Republicans have disavowed their allegiance to the written commitment.
With Democrats picking up seven or eight seats, that means the pledge guides fewer than the 218 members needed for a majority. ...The Hill
But that doesn’t mean the tug-of-war over “increasing revenues” is history. The yada yada is not as close to death as the Norquist pledge is.
Legislation that increases overall federal revenue could violate the pledge, which forbids its signers from supporting increases in the marginal income tax rate or the elimination of deductions and loopholes that are not offset with tax cuts elsewhere. …The Hill
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Could MoveOn maybe organize the delivery of little bottles of White-Out to legislators with the plea that they use it on their pledge signature?
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Here’s Pew’s most recent research (one month before the election) on our attitudes towards taxes. Since tax increases appear to be inevitable, where do we think the changes should be made?
Cross posted from Prairie Weather
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