Many Republicans in elected office have taken the famed Grover Norquist Pledge. It’s a pledge based on a concept that Mr. Norquist touts he was brilliantly able to conceive of at age 12 that no conservative should ever vote to raise any taxes on anyone ever, even in regards to the top 2% of the wealthiest Americans that can afford to pay a little more, and only vote to lower taxes.

With the previous elections heavily in favor of Democratic views on taxes, and even more people than who voted for President Barack Obama’s reelection being in favor of letting the Bush tax cuts expire on the wealthiest Americans, it seems that the left has more political capital towards this goal than ever before, even to the right.

Republican Senator Bob Corker said he is “not obligated to the pledge”, despite, you know, signing the pledge that says he is obligated to never rise taxes. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Representative Peter King had similar stances on the Norquist Pledge to reveal fairly recently.

“When you’re 16 trillion dollars in debt the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece, and Republicans should put revenue on the table.”

“I will violate the [Norquist] pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if Democrats would do entitlement reform” -Senator Lindsey Graham

“A pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that congress. For instance, if I was in congress in 1941 I would have supported declaration of war against Japan. I’m not going to attack Japan today; the world has changed.” -Representative Peter King

More and more Republicans that too recently championed the cause of the Norquist Pledge are now coming to the belief they can’t be held to it. Remember, they are not making this change because they think the ideology behind the pledge is now wrong, but because they now sense that the American people have given the President a mandate to return a small percentage of Americans back to the Clinton tax rates that this nation flourished under, and sense they are on the losing side of this battle.

If this fight proceeds past the “fiscal cliff” and into the 113 Congress, America will have an even more liberal congress that will find it easier in letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich finally expire.

Be Sociable, Share!

•