Norquist rebuts Coburn, says he 'stands alone' on taxes

Anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist on Monday called Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) a liar after the senator blasted him in the pages of The New York Times.

Coburn’s op-ed piece argues that Senate Republicans have already violated Norquist’s strict “interpretation” of his anti-tax pledge, and would be willing to agree to a deficit grand bargain with a “penny” of net tax increases.

Norquist told The Hill that the piece is filed with “lies” and said that Coburn is violating, and trying to get colleagues to violate, a pledge they made to voters.

He said Coburn is wrong to target him, a mere advocate, and should instead acknowledge to his constituents that he is betraying them. 

“It is like a couple that is having a fight and one of them tries to drag a third party in. Like the preacher who gave a speech last week against adultery. ‘Hey, this is your fault!’  ‘No, no, no! You promised her you would behave, you didn’t promise me. You explain to her why you get to make decisions on adultery,’” Norquist said.

He said that the idea of not raising taxes is what is powerful and pointed out that more GOP candidates have signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge than ever before. He said that presidential candidate Mitt Romney has fully embraced the pledge as written.

Norquist said the pledge is not open to “interpretation,” as Coburn insinuates, and plainly states that ending tax breaks must be accompanied by equivalent rate reductions.

He also said that Coburn’s claims about his colleagues turning their backs on the pledge are false.

“When Coburn stands up and says, 'I want to raise taxes,' he stands alone,” Norquist said.

He said that Coburn lied when he stated in the Times piece that all but six of the 41 Senate Republicans violated the pledge when they supported an amendment ending an ethanol tax break last year that did not have a corresponding tax reduction. 

Norquist said that senators had voted for it under the assumption it was tied to another bill, offered by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), that would have ended the estate tax. 

He said that Coburn is also being misleading when he says House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was willing to raise revenue in failed grand bargain talks with President Obama last year. That revenue was solely from tax rate reductions spurring growth, Norquist said.

The lobbyist said that Coburn last year had assured him publicly that he supports only growth-induced revenue increases and cited a letter in which Coburn and fellow Gang of Six deficit negotiators Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said they would work with him “to support a proposal where any increase in revenue generation will be the result of the pro-growth effects of lower individual and corporate tax rates for all Americans.”

Norquist said that Coburn since that time appears to have “gone native or developed Stockholm Syndrome” from spending too much time with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in Gang of Six meetings.

He said the example of a deficit grand bargain with entitlement reforms in exchange for a “penny” in tax increases is a “bizarre straw man” that does not exist. Instead, Democrats are seeking trillions in tax increases that must be resisted, he said.

Norquist said he is not nervous about losing his fight against tax increases. He confidently predicted the GOP will take the Senate and White House and enact Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget, which slashes $5 trillion in spending and reforms Medicare and the tax code without raising taxes.

— This story was updated on June 17 to clarify a remark from Norquist.

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