In a video interview with The Daily Caller, American for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist responded to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s allegations that Norquist is leading Senate Republicans like “puppets,” saying that Reid is “losing” the debate on a millionaire tax increase to pay for the proposed $35 billion stimulus.
Norquist said President Barack Obama’s tax policies, in particular his tobacco tax increase, “screw low income people” and Democrats always offer to “loot a few rich people” then “grab your wallet.”
Watch:
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“As Harry Reid knows, the ‘Taxpayer Protection Pledge’ is a commitment that elected officials make in writing, to their voters, to their constituents. And almost all the Republicans in the House and the Senate have made that commitment in writing — not to me, not to Americans for Tax Reform but to the voters in their states. So Harry Reid’s problem is with the American people who don’t want their taxes increased,” Norquist told TheDC at the American Spectator’s annual Robert L. Bartley dinner on Tuesday.
“Harry Reid’s problem is with the House and Senate members elected by that majority of Americans who don’t want their taxes increased, but it’s a little awkward for him to stand up and say, ‘I want to steal your money and the Republicans are in the way,’ so instead he yells at me.”
“Democrats want to raise taxes, Republicans want to cut taxes,” Norquist added. “There’s not a compromise. Somebody wins, somebody loses and the reason Reid is so unhappy is he’s losing.”
Senate Democrats have proposed to pay for the new stimulus to provide states with $35 billion to hire public safety workers and teachers with a one-half of one percent tax on incomes over $1 million. (RELATED: Biden: Without millionaire tax, ‘people die and people’s homes burn to the ground’ [VIDEO])
“Democrats always offer to loot a few rich people and then as soon as they’ve distracted you with that, they grab for your wallet. Barack Obama, when he ran for president, promised that we would never raise taxes on anyone who earned less than $250,000 a year,” said Norquist.
“The first tax increase he signed, 16 days, two weeks and two days after he got into office, was a tax on cigarette smokers. Now, there’s only one cigarette smoker in the entire country who earns more than $250,000 a year and his name is Barack Obama so he ran saying I’m going to tax rich people and the first thing he did was screw low income people. So, of course Democrats always offer to tax rich people but that’s not what they do.”
