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Showing Original Post only (View all)Bill Moyers Essay: The Truth Behind Grover Norquist’s Pledge [View all]
http://billmoyers.com/segment/bill-moyers-essay-the-truth-behind-grover-norquists-pledge/Bill Moyers Essay: The Truth Behind Grover Norquists Pledge
December 7, 2012
In an original broadcast essay, Bill says theres more to Grover Norquists anti-tax pledge than ideology or principle its also about Norquists efforts keep taxes low for his donor base of billionaires.
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BILL MOYERS: Dont you wonder just who is this Grover Norquist who has such a maniacal hold on the Republican Party? Mickey Edwards isnt the only conservative who would like to see the party free itself from his grip. Writing in the "Financial Times" last week, the conservative journalist Christopher Caldwell describes the Norquist Pledge as a partisan document, a ratchet driving taxes down to unsustainable levels, and it symbolizes a political system short on legitimacy. Norquist claims the pledge is something politicians make to their constituents, not to him. But Caldwell wonders who authorized him to collect politicians signatures on their constituents behalf.
Even this misses the main point. Norquists efforts keep taxes low for his donor base, billionaires like the Koch brothers and the plutocrats secretly clustered around Norquists comrade, Karl Rove. This past election, Norquists group, Americans for Tax Reform, spent nearly $16 million to support his favored candidates; thats according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Where did that money come from, and what did it buy? Back in the 1990s it was the tobacco industry backing Norquists fight against cigarette taxes; now its the pharmaceutical companies, among others. Not long ago, this same Grover Norquist was using his organization to launder money for the notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff. How about that for tax reform!
Check it out yourself in the documentary "Capitol Crimes" on our website BillMoyers.com. Youll see the story of how the man who has the Republican Party under his thumb came to Washington to start a revolution and wound up running a racket. Now hes the proxy for the powerful interest groups that finance him. So, not only does the Norquist Pledge symbolize a "political system short on legitimacy," as Christopher Caldwell wrote, it isnt even about principle or ideology. Conservatism my foot, its all about the money.
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