The Hill Managing Editor Bob Cusack and reporter Russell Berman spoke Thursday with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” about the growing number of GOP lawmakers who have disavowed Grover Norquist’s pledge against supporting tax increases.
“Some Republicans, they say, ‘I signed the pledge a decade ago, but I want out of it’ and Grover says, ‘No, when you sign the pledge it’s forever,’ so more and more Republicans are going after Grover,” Cusack said.
The Hill reported earlier this month that Norquist’s advocacy group, Americans for Tax Reform, lists 238 House signers of its Taxpayer Protection Pledge, but several House Republicans, and at least one Democrat, now say the anti-tax group is being deceptive and they want their names taken off the list.
Berman told MSNBC that some Republican House and Senate members said they no longer feel bound by the pledge.
“Part of the problem here is not so much the pledge, but how you define a tax increase,” Berman said. “And these members do not want one unelected official, in this case Grover Norquist, defining for them what is and what is not a tax increase.”
