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Subscribe to RSSNBC's Domenico Montanaro reports that although some Republicans have changed their tone on a new-no-taxes pledge, they aren't putting tax rate increases on the table.
Some Republicans appear to be softening what was once a hard stance on their no-taxes pledge as the end-of-the-year deadline on the so-called “fiscal cliff” approaches.
But it’s not clear how far they would go – if they would raise rates on the wealthiest, as President Obama wants, or if they are simply willing to go along with eliminating some loopholes and deductions to raise revenue. And those who have been outspoken on the topic thus far are not seen as the key players in the ongoing negotiations.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Select Committee on Intelligence ranking member Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) gets on the Senate subway as he leaves after a hearing on the Benghazi attack November 16, 2012 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
“I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia told a local TV station from his home state. “If we do it his way then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that.”
Chambliss is one of several congressional Republicans who have indicated they might break with an anti-tax pledge pushed by activist Grover Norquist.
NBC's Chuck Todd tells Savannah Guthrie that House Republicans are stalling a compromise in the "fiscal cliff" debate, unlike the Senate, where members are more keen to strike a compromise.
On the Sunday shows and Monday morning TV, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bob Corker (R-TN), as well as Reps. Eric Cantor (R-VA) -- the House minority leader -- and Peter King (R-NY), joined Chambliss in downplaying the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge.” Norquist’s 58-word pledge has been a mainstay in Republican politics since 1986. In 2011, every GOP presidential hopeful, including Mitt Romney (and excluding Jon Huntsman) signed it.
NBC's Domenico Montanaro reports on the increased number of pledges that Republican presidential candidates are being asked to sign in this campaign. One pledge stands apart, a no-new-taxes pledge, whose creator has influenced day-to-day legislation and is vowing to fight any effort to get find revenue in the new congressional supercommittee charged with closing the national debt.
“I agree with Grover — we shouldn’t raise rates,” Graham said on ABC, “but I think Grover is wrong when it comes to we can’t cap deductions and buy down debt.” Graham added, “I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if Democrats will do entitlement reform.”
Corker told CBS on Monday: “I’m not obligated on the pledge. I made Tennesseans aware, I was just elected, the only thing I’m honoring is the oath I take when I serve, when I’m sworn in this January.”
King, of New York, said on Meet the Press Sunday: “I agree entirely with Saxby Chambliss -- a pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that Congress... I think everything should be on the table.”
Norquist, in fact, says the fact that no House Republican has voted for a tax increase in 22 years is directly a product of his pledge. Norquist does not just mandate that lawmakers not vote for tax increases, but also that any bill they sign onto has to be “revenue neutral.”
In other words, cutting deductions and loopholes, for example, would also be out if not offset by further tax cuts. But Republicans and Democrats face an end-of-the-year deadline to try and figure out a way to avert the steep military and domestic spending cuts and taxes going up for everyone when the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year.
USA Today's Susan Page, American Bridge 21st Century President Rodell Mollineau, and YG Action Fund Senior Adviser Brad Dayspring join Chuck Todd to talk about the impending fiscal cliff.
That some senators appear ready to talk revenue is not as significant as what House members say. It is widely believed that a deal would be struck between the White House and the House GOP, not with the Senate.
House Speaker John Boehner has said that “revenue” is on the table, but the president wants to raise rates for the wealthiest. Obama campaigned on the idea, but it’s not at all clear whether the House Republican rank-and-file would sign on to any rate increase.
Cantor, who wields some influence with the GOP conference’s more conservative members, is seen as more of a keystone, and he, too, seemed willing to go along with at least some revenue increases.
“There has been a lot said about this pledge,” Cantor said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday. “When I go to the constituents, it’s not about that pledge. It’s about trying to solve problems. House Speaker John Boehner went to the White House and said, ‘Hey, Republicans in the House are willing to put revenues on the table.’ That’s a big move.”
House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., sits down with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, John Heilemann, and Mike Barnicle to talk about Israel, Egypt, the Grover Norquist tax pledge, the future of fiscal cliff negotiations, and why not everything is on the table in tax talks.
“We were elected to fix problems,” Cantor said, before adding, “Even if you raise all those taxes, it doesn’t fix your problem.”
In a follow-up interview, Cantor’s office stressed that he remains against raising tax rates.
“Republicans aren't against tax rate hikes because of any one man or pledge,” spokeswoman Megan Whittemore said. “We are against hiking rates, because they're bad for the economy and hurt jobs. We've put ideas on the table that bring more money in while keeping tax rates where they are to produce job growth. It's now time for President Obama to put his ideas on the table for spending cuts and entitlement reform if he truly embraces a balanced approach.”
For his part, Norquist isn’t backing down. In a statement to NBC News, he took shots at the GOP senators and expressed confidence that no one would violate the pledge.
"Chambliss has been pushing this line since he joined the Gang of Six,” Norquist said. “Lindsey Graham has for two years said he would raise taxes if he got a 10:1 ratio of spending cuts through entitlement reform that could not be undone. There is no news in these two 'changing.'”
And he added, “They have not voted for a tax hike. They have had impure thoughts on present. Their impure thoughts did not change a single GOP vote in the 2011 fight over the debt ceiling which had a real deadline looming. One might have argued that the pledge died in 1990 when a sitting president and many in House leadership broke the pledge. However, the opposite happened, the pledge became more powerful when breaking it was seen to have very real consequence in 1992. After the 1994 election a majority of the House and Senate had signed the pledge."
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Just the fact the GOP even listens to a person named Grover makes me laugh.
GOP is playing this exactly as I would. Give the king everything he wants and when the poop hits the fan (and it will left unbridled), it won't be any skin off his nose. He can't run again. His last term will surely be the legacy he has to live with. Bush let Congress do the same thing in his last two years. "They want it, they will own it." And what did it get them then? The supposed Bush driven recession. Funny, Congress was lib for his last two years and what did they do to make a stop and reverse course action? Nothing. They were reveling in their "victory" and went off like drunken sailors and never saw the writing on the wall.
Yes because we all know economic policies put in to place have immediate effects, and legislation doesn't usually take AT LEAST 2 years before it even starts to go into effect, let alone have an effect on things.
Are you truly this ignorant? The "supposed Bush recession"? Under GWB job growth in America was the WORST since WWII. Under GWB, the United States, with a compliant Congress that was controlled by Republicans from 1994 until 2006 ran up MASSIVE DEBTS. While literally hiding funding for two wars which cost and continue to cost America literally trillions of dollars. Under GWB the United States was in a MASSIVE bubble economy based on a deregulated housing market, a deregulated financial industry and deregulated corporations that were AND STILL ARE, literally allowed to steal from everyday lower, lower middle and middle class Americans. The current financial crisis in America is a DIRECT RESULT of 30+ years of Supply Side/Neoliberal economic policies. Policies that GWB not only embraced, but expanded. And policies that were OVERWHELMINGLY pushed by Republicans and their followers. Such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Heritage Foundation, Karl Rove and our far right leaning corporation loving Supreme Court. But I blame spineless Democrats as well, who did not have the guts to stand up against the conservative economic onslaught that is destroying America.
My point exactly. Two years from now all of you lib/progressives will be asking what happened when he gets his way. Just as you are when Obamacare fully kicks in.
And PfA, they (dems) had at least two years to at least turn it around or make an attempt to. I guess that's what you meant by you "blame spineless democrats as well".
ScommG VoR is simply uninformed, period. I just posted a response to that one citing a Congressional Research study done on tax rates and impacts on jobs, etc. It's a lie that's been debunked and in typical right wing fashion, they repeat and repeat and repeat for the sof-monded out there that absorb it as gospel if they hear it enough.
I am sorry but Norquist is a domestic terrorist..... He is more dangerous than any foreign terrorist since he has the inside track on how to bring this country down..... It is time for the Tea Party to do what is right for the country..... Support what the President is ask for, after all if they would have done that 4 years ago this country would not be in such a screwed up shape..... Hey it ain't perfect but it is a hell of a lot better then what the other side is offering.....
Should be an interesting month. Let's see if the GOP can honor their pledge to the American people instead of an unelected Wingnut.
Speaking of unelected.......what about these unelected bureaucrats in Obamacare?
Independent Payment Advisory Board in 2012, with 15 members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Speaking of uninformed...
You're darn skippy that raised taxes needs to be on the table
Can't just cut our way of the problems
Grover is rapidly becoming irrevelant.....and so are the GOP
Republicans- PLEASE show us the jobs that the rich are creating that will be effected? They do not exist because the rich are selfish and do not reinvest in America. Tax the hell out of the rich!
Look in china and honduras...plenty of american jobs created by wealthy republicans in those places
Respectfully, "plenty of american jobs created by" BOTH Republicans AND Democrats who have embraced so called "Free Trade", the "Global Market Place", lower tariffs, tax breaks for companies that take jobs OUT OF AMERICA and the list goes on and on. Again respectfully, my point is BOTH parties are directly resonsible for the mess we have today. And as of today, BOTH parties literally refuse to put into place legislation that will stop the destruction of this once great nation.
GROVER YOUR OVER!!!!!!!!
Red Rover,Red Rover send Grover right over?
Red rover, red rover, nicely punch grover hard in the mouth.
GROVER, GROVER YOU HAVE BEEN BENT OVER!!!!
Yes, I am Chicago Politics Educated. Vote
early Vote often and Vote Dead. The street I was raised on is a great place to
be. I dare anyone of the "Obamanians" to buy there now. Even walk
down 55th Kedzie Avenue. 5700 block of Whipple Avenue. Stand on the
intersection of Kedzie and Garfield. Chicago will be the example for the rest
on the nation. "Obamanomics" is the law of the land. When those who
proprogated "Obamanomics" are splitting a package of ramen noodles
with "Wally World" Great Value Turkey Noodle soup for future
Thanksgivings they got what they paid for. Something for nothing gets exactly
what you paid.
Here's as thought for all those who believe that a tax hike on the wealty is not going to have any significant impact: for every 1 billion dollars of additional tax paid by the top tax bracket 1 million lower tax bracket families pay $1000 LESS in taxes.
That is a very significant impact and I don't want to hear any "class warfare" or "wealth distribution" crap. The wealthy have gotten a very big favor for a long time with the hopes that they would "make jobs". They haven't.
Now it is time to give the majority of the productive population their fair share and see what they can do. This is not "socialism" it is clear headed encouragement to the working man to feed the economy and to raise themselves up to a higher standard of living and productivity. That is as capitalistic as you can be.
There’s class warfare, all right … but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.
—WARREN BUFFETT
Speaking of those deficit drivers...how come no medicare card carrying teabaggers never give up their taxpayer healthcare? They certainly did not pay for or earn it so why do they complain while collecting?
Same thing with the socialist security benefits...no tough talking conservatgive ever refuses their SS benefit either to save their country...
The military retireees who have been taxpayer supported from the age of 17 though their career and then though 60 years of taxpayer paid retirement...how about ehy wait until the rest of us retire at 65 or so...for their country...
NO MORE GROVER!!
I think we should take all the money from the rich--every last cent. If the IRS grabbed 100 percent of income over $1 million, the take would be $616 billion. That would power the government for a few months. Then we need to tax their income under 1,000,000 to run the government for a few weeks more--then all will be well!
Grover may not be over but he's on his way out. I look forward to the tantrums he'll throw when the agreement is reached.
I wonder if Grover even pays taxes. Has he ever had a real job or does he make a living having silly people sign silly pledges. He probably lives off superpac money and avoids taxes all together.
The only good Grover is a dead Grover.
Taxes need to raised so Michelle can have a new 747. Evil republicans wold like to see Michelle entertain dignitaries the likes of The Oprah in a old 747, how barbaric.
Thank you, The entitled, the Gen Y and the 47% ers. You ain't seen
"nuttin" yet. Keep bailing out all of the entitlement babies and all
of the non workers and all of the non citizens. Reagan broke the USSR by
forcing it to spend what it did not have. "Obamanomics" will break
the USA by spending what it no longer has.
A worth ethic. "Obamanomic's" is spend what you don't have.
Tax those who are not Gen Y, 47% ers and Entitled out of existence. Go for it. I'm gonna go get in line for my
free handouts, my food stamps, my unemployment, my forgiven student loan, my section 8 housing. my and the list goes on and on. Gen Y, Y work, Y care about anyone but
"Y"ourself, Y study because the government will make a job for me, Y
pay my bills because the government will forgive my debt, Y be in business
because the government punishes business, Y have any work ethic because “free
stuff” , Y finish college, Y do anything when “Y”ou can get it from everyone else. “Y”ou
who wanted something for nothing, with the government debt load there will soon
be nothing left. There is no one left to pull the wagon when “The entitled, the Gen Y and the 47% ers” are all riding in it. Believe it or not, I am not upset to say the least. Actually this a hilarious to see, hear and read. I voted so this would continue.
Yeah that's rich. Blame the generation with absolutely no power and no say for bringing the country where it is today. Don't ever blame your generation. The one who, you know, has been in power for the past 20 years or so. Defaulting on blame is what psychopaths do. Are you a psychopath working?
yes, and forgot the now tax dollar funded free sex change operation so you have it your way.
STOP SPENDING YOU IDIOTS! Good grief, this is NOT rocket science. Act Your Wage, live within your means, spend less than the revenue you take in for Pete's sake! If I KNEW every red cent of my taxes would go 100% toward paying down the national debt, hence, saving my children's futures, I'd be tickled to pay $1 per gallon more in just taxes to get us out of this gawd-awful nightmare staring us all in the face. But NOooooo..raise taxes (revenue) and you can bet your sweet bippy government gets their greasy paws on it and it'll go to unions, buddies, turtle crossings, green energy programs doom to go bankrupt...(hey, so far the energy companies that have gotten BILLIONS from who else....the taxpayer...have been pretty consistent; they all have gone belly up. God, we have a nation of complete and utter economic numbskulls. They have sold their soul/principles to the almighty "voter." LET THEM ALL EAT CAKE! Nanny State of America. Free everything, just when Big Brother tells you to bow, or bend over...you better like it even when no KY is being used. I will die a free man before being government's bitch.
Feel free to move if you hate America too much to pay taxes here.
You seem to forget that everything was humming along nicely with our economy until taxes were cut during the Bush years for political reasons. We had enough income to pay for our programs and responsibilities. Just as if you quit your job and didn't go back to work, you cannot dramatically decrease revenues and expect to pay your bills. What happens then? You go into debt. And we all agree that we can't keep piling up debt and paying the interest on it. We are responsible for paying for the things we said we would when we setup Medicare and Social Security taxes. I paid into these programs and need to be paid back now. I am not willing to have these things cut so that the rich can get even richer - which they have dramatically been doing. Understand?
wow... the country held hostage by norquist.... is he a god? coz he should be
We now have some new phrases and pledges for Americans: I pledge allegiance to Grover Norquist and the Republic for which He stands......In Grover We Trust....the song, God Bless Grover Norquist....Amendment 28-No tax shall be passed unless approved by Grover Norquist. WHO has allowed this fool, Grover Norquist, to have the power to strangle and or destroy the USA?
Who elected Grover Norquist to public office? This man is not interested in the good of the country. Nor are Republicans and Teabuggers who adhere to his tax pledge. What explanation is even possible other than that they signed this pledge in order to get votes. It's obvious that any house needs to bring in money in order to pay it's bills, and the GWB tax cuts simply do not bring in enough money to pay the bills. Entitlements are called that for a very good reason - because the people receiving them are entitled to them. You pay into Social Security and Medicaid during your working life, and you expect to get that money back in later years - that's the whole point of the programs. We were not told "well, you pay money in but if the government needs it, they won't repay you".
It's obvious also that these Republican senators, like Saxby Chambliss, now realize that if and when the country takes a huge hit from the fiscal cliff (just as when someone's home is foreclosed when they don't pay their mortgage) Republicans will take the blame from the electorate.
So it comes down to this - if Republicans want to keep their jobs, they have to compromise.
pity the Republican! They are elected by the people, and yet is willing to succumb to threat of dirty rats grover, limbaugh.
Do they have any spine?
So, the republican pledge is on table for amendment:
Mr. Chairman, I ask to add in "I pledge allegiance to Grover Norquist, not the United States of America", the words, "so long as he continues to guarantee my victory in the next election."