{mosads}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.