Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wy.), one of the co-chairmen of the president's debt commission, joked Tuesday that he would like to see anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist drown in a bathtub.
The comment was a play on Norquist's famous statement that he wanted to shrink government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub," and came as Simpson was expressing frustration with Republicans who "didn't go to Congress to limit government, they came there to stop it."
"So how do you deal with guys who came to stop government, or Grover wandering the earth in his white robe saying you want to drown government in the bathtub?" Simpson asked during an interview on MSNBC. "I hope he slips in there with it."
Simpson added that Congress needed to "get off [their] can and do something" about the looming "fiscal cliff," which would see the Bush-era tax cuts expire for all Americans and dramatic cuts to domestic and defense budgets.
"If it's just kicking the can down the road, the can is now a 55-gallon drum filled with explosives," Simpson said. "You can't play that game anymore."
The former Wyoming lawmaker also warned that a failure to strike a grand bargain could result in the middle class getting "diddled the most" by the economy.
