A Conversation with Grover Norquist
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-07-14/conversation-grover-norquist
Time is running out for Democrats and Republicans to negotiate to raise the federal debt ceiling. The U.S. will default on its loans in nineteen days, unless politicians reach agreement. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warned the Republican brand could be “destroyed” if congress allows the government to default.. But many in his party have dug in against a compromise. And anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist is holding Republican lawmakers to the pledges his organization asked them to sign, opposing any tax increases. He joins Diane to discuss taxes, spending and debt negotiations.
Guests
Grover Norquist
president, Americans for Tax Reform
Comments
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Norquist does not mention the Wall Street, Bank, and Mortgage Fraud. As a result of regulators told "Ah, just crunch numbers, don't prosecute or investigate the Fraud". I bet Norquist will want all the Regulators to go away like Reagan's "Get the Government off our backs". What he really meant is "Get the Regulators and law enforcement of our Financial System off our backs".
I bet Norquist loves the stalling of the Financial Reform regulations and the confirmation of Elizabeth Warren and a Consumer advocate.
I watched as young and old were scammed with "Sub Prime" and NO ONE was there to see that people buying homes were not being scammed.
I will finish by saying, working with families with Financial Planning, they really have little knowledge of how guys like Norquist twist, distort, and give mis-information that is to convince the average person, no tax increases and balance budget amendments are good for the country. What he does not disclose either intentionally or unknowingly, is doing our country dis-service. People, who understand money, know how to manipulate the money to make sure a small group make a lot of money at the expense of the majority.
Norquist does not have the best interest of our country in mind, just his Rich and wealthy acquaintances. Hopefully, guys like him will be dis-credited and will go away. The 99% of us are starting to see through the balony of guys like him.
We need to stop Price Fixing of Health Care Prices, raise the Marginal Tax rate at least back to the 39.6% (CEO's paying 4.6% more) and raise the Capital Gains Taxes back to 20%.
The 1% have done quite well these past 30 years, it is time for them to show appreciation for what allowed them to gain so much at our expense and return the favor by paying 4.6% more in taxes, as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates advocate.
The reason the debate on fracking is weak is the energy companies wrote the legislation Cheney got passed and it contains no real oversight. The Halliburton Loophole lets them do anything they want anywhere they want without disclosure (sound familiar? see Golodman Sachs). These well casings have to be leak proof forever. The subject has not been studied adequately. We have earthquakes happening in Arkansas and Britain after fracking the area, and an unstoppable mud volcano in Indonesia. If natural gas is percolating up into people's well water allowing their tap water to ignite, the undisclosed chemicals can get there, too. Some of the known chemicals are certainly cancerous. Let Halliburton explain how various animals lost their hair? Everyone should watch the movie "Gasland". We need Dick Cheney, the CEOs, and their Board of Directors to show us how safe and drink the explosive well water they have certified as "safe".
Diane,
You showed great courage in presenting a contrarian view to your intolerant base.
Diane, thanks for allowing me to share my thoughts. Where I live, I have no voice either with my Republican representatives with letters or Fox News Talk Radio and Limbaugh that a simulcast on six different AM radio stations in our area who mute me in 5 seconds and spend 5 minutes calling me names like Socialist Liberal Marxist.
I am a college graduate of Business and Finance and worked as a volunteer for the Republican Party locally for 15 years until the invasion and lie of Iraq. I am also a Vietnam era Veteran.
Any tax cut when We The People are in debt is nothing but future tax increase plus interest.
I think this is as plain and undeniable a fact as in the fable when the child pointed out, “the King… (GOP)... has no clothes.”
I don’t know- maybe after we have reached level of a 3rd world nation for no other reason then the Grand Old arrogant stupidity of GOP, maybe China will “forgive” us our debt.
I must admit that I was skeptical when I heard that Diane Rehm would be facing Grover Norquist all by herself. However it turns out that I underestimated her. If you listen closely to every time she asked him what cabinet level departments that he would eliminate, the man who is named for a purple Muppet but who lacks the Muppet’s personality, started shucking and diving and tap dancing away. He would start a long speech and Diane would interrupt and repeat the question and he would continue to avoid answering it. Even after the break, she would bring it up again and again, and he would continue to take the coward's way out and duck the question. She got him to show his true colors, someone who would only say what he really believes to his buddies behind closed doors and doesn't have the courage of his own so-called convictions. I am proud of her for that.
What a Fair and Balanced show today. Diane, your talents are wasted on NPR. You should cash out, taking a job appearing on Fox as their token senior citizen. (sarcasm)
I expect better than this from NPR. The more that NPR becomes a platform for one-sided, unchallenged propaganda, the less interested I am in seeing NPR continue in its present form.
FAIL for quality news and information. "To accomplish our mission, we produce, acquire, and distribute programming that meets the highest standards of public service in journalism and cultural expression..." - NPR Mission Statement
Two points:
1.Mr. Norquist (and others who espouse a "small government" philosophy) failed to mention that U.S. industries in many private sectors exist because of government subsidies and tax breaks. Many products and services would not otherwise be viable on the open market, because they are truly unaffordable. It's hypocritical to continue to support sacred cows that are not viable (or necessary for the well-being of the country) and ones that don't need continued subsidies.
2. For those of you intent upon having the choice to use a space heater (the incandescent bulb) to light your homes, consider the many advantages of energy efficiency policies, not the least of which will be to decrease our need to send young men and women to protect oil and gas fields and pipelines in foreign countries. (In case you've never noticed, those are the places where we have an increased military presence.)
3. Oh, and one more thing, perhaps folks who desire a weak central government should consider relocating to utopian countries such as Somalia, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, and, of course, Afghanistan. (No disrespect intended to the people of those struggling countries.)
Diane is driving me crazy today! Why does she keep coming back to "which entire department would you eliminate?" It's such a dumb question.
Norquist represents the epitome of the elitist agenda. This is more of the "Starve the Beast" policy to return us to the Robber-baron days. It's the John Birch Society effort to eliminate FDR's new deal...re-branded. The Coche brothers dad Fred was a charter member in '35. This country has had a middle class less than half of it's existence and we are loosing it again. "Socialism and Fascism are at opposite ends of the spectrum with Democracy balanced precariously in the middle." Beware, as Vice President Wallace said, of those super patriots waving the flag harder and carrying a bigger cross. They are chaff...and not wheat. Delusion from the radical right could result in the "fall from within" Lincoln spoke of.
Norquist is evil to the core. He's part of the larger movement to put everything in private, corporate ownership, where the common middle class has no chance of survival. An oligarchy at it's finest where only the few super rich get steak and the remaining 95% get cake. If the conservative minions can't see that, than they're blinded by their own extreme ideology.
I would suggest that we instead put all GOP congressional members on notice that if they signed the Norquist pledge, or even ally themselves with him in anyway, they're toast in the next election. "Grover Norquist is evil. You like him? You're evil too and therefore not deserving of public service. Period."
For nearly a decade, the federal government has paid for two wars and prescription drug benefits with borrowed money. Tax needs to increase.
It is unfair that certain large companies such as General Electric pay little if any taxes (they got a 1.1B tax benefit on a profit of 10.3B) while ordinary people and small businesses pay the full amount.
And while everybody is talking about 'getting the economy going', raise the minimum wage. According to the Economic Policy Institute, every dollar increase in wages for a worker at the bottom creates more than $3,500 in new spending after one year, plus additional tax revenue.
Diane is doing us a great service presenting all sides of the issues. Unfortunately, in today's media we all tend to listen/view those outlets which reinforce our own beliefs. As much as I disagree with G. Norquist (although he did try to sound a bit more sane today, Diane brings out the best in all of us!) I don't get a chance to hear or read him in the outlets where I am most apt to get my news and opinion.
Thank you, Diane, and please keep giving us all sides of the issues. We are smart enough to figure out the truth if we take the time and effort to read, listen, and research.
I shouldn't have been surprised when Diane did indeed thoroughly pin Grover Norquist down with the kinds of questions that people like Norquist have a difficult time answering. Diane made it difficult for Norquist to evade her probing questions. She did this while giving Norquist more than ample time to present his point of view. She gave him, in other words, a very fair hearing.
By providing Norquist with a whole show devoted to him, Diane gave Norquist the opportunity to either demonstrate that he has thoroughly thought through the implications of his philosophy, or that much of his thinking is quite vacuous and naive. I suggest that he revealed the latter.
Apparently Norquist is even opposed to such utterly practical improvements in the use of a limited resource as toilets that save water. He slipped in a comment on, despite great evidence to the contrary, toilets that "don't flush well." I have one, and it (sorry, Grover) works better than the old wasteful type that I have in another part of my house.
Grover Norquist was at a loss to answer the question a caller had regarding the numerous tax increases that took place during the Reagan Administration. Interesting.
A conversation with Norquist? What a waste of public air time, to allow air time on NPR to a corrupt self-serving fraud like NorQuist to blather on and on with his snake oil offerings for our country. Why? At a time when our president is fighting for a modicum of common sense to deal with an overwhelming financial calamity, why do we need this drivel? Come on! At least give some rebuttal. You let him go all professorial as though he's something with something worthwhile to say.
Diane, bless your heart. Did Grover drive you to down a coctail as much as he did me?
While listening to the interview I was struck by the contrast between Diane Rehm's civility and the subtle but telling incivility of Mr. Norquist. Because of distractions while the show aired I went back and streamed the interview. As usual, Ms. Rehm politely insisted that her guest answer the question as posed rather than allow a canned response to a question the guest would have preferred. And, she didn't allow name calling on the part of listeners calling in. However, it struck me that only once during the interview did Mr. Norquist refer to President Obama rather than just 'Obama' or 'the president'. Referring to President Obama only as 'the president' is a means by which the speaker dehumanizes the person. Those whom Mr. Norquist favored were referred to far more often by either their titles and last names or by their first and last names which is a means by which he made them more personable. It is a trick that attorneys use with juries. It is a common courtesy to refer to our presidents, past and present, by the title and their last names regardless of party affiliation.
Repeating the same question about which dept N would eliminate, what was that? How about taking him on about how much money he's made while corrupting our democratic process with money? And letting him get away with the old public workers are making soo much more money, double the private sector! Sure, maybe we should start hiring more part timers, and temps, give no pension or benefits to workers, get more productivity out of fewer and fewer staff and just reduce the working class to subsistence, we could save a ton of money! Makes me sick that this smug know it all was allowed to go on and on. And on PUBLIC radio! Makes me almost regret the money I contributed.
Mr. Norquist's use of the use of the term "mau maued" was certainly deliberate and a not so subtle reference to President Obama's heritage. I had an immediate gut level negative reaction to the use of that term.
I would like Paul Krugman to appear.
By the first week in August, I see my retirement pay frozen and my SSN also frozen. What can I do?
Hearing the arrogance of Mr. Norquest is sickening. Many of us are suffering and it become apparent the callus disregard for people shows how immoral his views are.
Please have a strong counter view, this was by far the most depressing program I can recall.
BTW, he was also on C-Span today (14 July 11) and you can hear it at the website. What little I've heard of it, his tone on this show is toned down from that show.
I think there are some who want a free for all, which is what a number of his views could lead us to. A free for all only favors those at the top.
This was a horrible idea Mrs Rehm to give this individual a platform to spout one lie after another without enough caller participation to check him. He was given over 3/4 of the show to speak on what he believes in ( not helping America or Americans). He has gotten so rich and powerful by simply not using the common sense approach to helping move America forward but by holding up progress with ideas with strong arm tactics to enrich the very people and corporations that are quickly destroying every advantage that America/ Americans hold. He is also the same individual who does not give two shakes about your show, the tax money that goes to NPR and WAMU he would much RATHER give it to something that benefits the rich like himself. Putting your hope in a thoughtful and debateble interview with him did not serve your loyal listeners or NPR at all. I had to turn off this particular show because it was a one sided conversation without benefiting this listeners knowledge about what kind of person you had sitting with you.
Mike Sergeant wrote:
WAIT! Obama is not the decider on where the money is spent or whether to default or not. Check your Constitution, that is Congress' job
But it Congress that is in charge of the purse stings . Read the real Constitution.
I am willing to pay more in taxes (I make A LOT less than $250,000/yr.) so long as it is spent providing jobs- public sector and union jobs included. I am unwilling to pay more in taxes, or more in interest rates, to pay for endless wars, corporate welfare and tax cuts which amount to $500 to me and millions to people like Mr. Norquist.
Go right ahead nobody stopping you from make a contribution to the Treasury.
"fandango wrote:
My point is that the country is pretty evenly divided, so one party saying "it's my way or the highway" is way off base. There is going to have to be compromise, and that word is NOT in Norquist or Cantor's vocabulary"
Why should it be, so we can go through this again in 2013 and put the average taxpayer more in the hole. Enough is Enough, dude.
WillT26 wrote:
"If you give block grants without rules places like Texas will use the money to finance state tax cuts instead of using the money for the purpose intended."
I think it is a very poor idea. If a state can't follow the rules they shouldn't accept the money
These tax cuts have created a million jobs in Texas. The best in the whole continental USA.
rdb wrote
"The hedge-fund manager John Paulson (the one Goldman hired for making bets for and against their own product) earned 5 billion dollars as income in 2010 [source NPR]. He fared equally well in 2009 [again source NPR]. He pays at about 10% in tax"
I don't think so rdr. If it is income he is in the 15% bracket. Need to check your tax tables. In other words he pays whole lot more than your 20%.
oops: double post
WillT26 wrote:
"If your diet consists only of hate and greed no toilet will ever flush your waste down completely"
Sound like your leftiest poliitican. They find way to pass legislation through with gimmicks (Health Care Reform) and they have an undiserable appetite to spend somebody elses money with no concern.
90STVF wrote:
"It's so significant that GOP put a gutsy budget out with SPECIFICS..."
Specifics - notably absent from your own post.
Excellent - government transparency using Rick Perry as an example. I guess he missed the scandal from when Rick's rental of the governor's mansion ran a $600,000 tab. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/rick-perry-rental-mansion_n_578...
More garbage (HP) from a leftist newpaper that hardly has any readers.