Norquist Says Democrats Caused Supercommittee Failure

While some Democrats are trying to blame the deficit-reduction supercommittee’s failure on Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, he puts the blame squarely back on the Democrats, The Hill reports.

 

It wasn’t Republicans’ loyalty to his anti-tax increase pledge that doomed supercommittee talks, but rather Democratic insistence on tax increases and reluctance to accept spending cuts, Norquist says.

 

“They could have come to an agreement, but the Democrats want to raise taxes rather than cut spending," the anti-tax activist told Fox News Monday. “The Republicans said 'no' to new taxes, we need to have spending restraint . . . and the Democrats said 'let's blow the whole thing up.’ The only fix there, the only way to solve the problem we are going deeper into, is to spend less money."

 

On Sunday, Democratic supercommittee co-chairman Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and member Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., tried to blame Norquist’s tax pledge.

 

Norquist says Democrats are merely trying to divert voters’ attention from their own unpopular stance on taxes.

 

“What they are upset about is the modern Republican Party has become since Ronald Reagan the party that will not raise your taxes,” he said. “Republicans will not be fooled to raise taxes. If you think we should have higher taxes, vote for the Democrat.”