Next Thursday at 1 pm, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) and RSC Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will “host a discussion on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge with Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR),” according to an email obtained from Hill sources.
The purpose will be to discuss ATR’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge, “which has been signed by nearly every Republican serving in the House [and] often comes up as a topic of conversation.” According to the email, the event (which is closed to the media) will also provide “a unique opportunity to hear first-hand from ATR about the Pledge,” including:
– What the Pledge is and is not
– How the Pledge should be communicated
– What you need to know when answering questions about the Pledge; an
– How Congress can make the tax code simpler, fairer, flatter and easier to understand for families and job creators in a Pledge-compliant way.
Reached for comment, Norquist said his goal is to explain to Republican Members of Congress why the pledge could play a critical role in winning the tax reform argument. Even if Republicans win the White House and control Congress, Norquist avers, the public won’t trust them to do tax reform, “unless they’re certain when they come out it will be revenue neutral.” That’s where ATR’s pledge comes in. Thanks to the pledge, Norquist believes, the American people will be able to trust Republicans to do tax reform without raising taxes, because “enough guys have put in writing publicly that they’ll never let that happen.”