Norquist: Steve Bannon's Idea to Raise Taxes on Rich a 'Cruel Thing'

Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist on CNN Monday criticized White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon for advocating a tax-hike on the wealthy.

"It's a particularly cruel thing for Bannon to do," Norquist said.

"Had we grown during the Obama year at Ronald Reagan rates of 4% rather than 2% as Obama did there would be 12 million more Americans working today," said Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. "That's the problem we need to fix. That's why Trump won the election. Raising taxes hurts economic growth, Obama reminded us of that."

Bannon has told colleagues he wants the highest income tax bracket to "have a 4 in front of it." The top bracket today is 39.6 percent for single Americans who bring home $418,401 or more annually and for married individuals filing jointly who make $470,701 or more.

Norquist says raising taxes on the rich makes it more likely that members of the middle-class will feel the crunch.

"The whole point of high tax rates is so that politicians can tell the middle class, "Oh, are we screwing you? Not as much as that guy over there,'" Norquist said. "High tax rates on the highest income people are the excuse they use to damage the middle class. And if somebody is in the White House and hasn't read history, that's unfortunate."

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