Coburn on Grover Norquist: ‘Old news..doesn’t matter what he says’

Seattle PI ^ | 6/14/2011 | Chris Grygiel

[Bigtom67]

Coburn on Grover Norquist: ‘Old news..doesn’t matter what he says’

Coburn talks with reporters before their caucus luncheon on Capitol Hill Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

An intra-GOP feud played out in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

[Bigtom67]

An intra-GOP feud played out in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

The dispute is between Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist insists – and many Republican politicans have agreed – that policy makers sign a “no new taxes” pledge. But Norquist’s definition of taxes is broad. For instance, he says eliminating the multi-billion dollar subsidy for ethanol is a tax increase, something Coburn has publicly said is absurb, especially if Republicans are going to be effective in cutting the federal deficit.

There was a complicated procedural vote in the Senate in which 43 Republicans sided with Coburn and against Norquist. (Check out Ezra Klein’s post on the subject if you want to go deeper into the weeds). The practical upshot is Coburn took a big chink out of Norquists’s armor.

Speaking later Tuesday on ”The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” on MSNBC, Coburn said: “Grover’s old news, it doesn’t matter what he says.”

[RexBeach]

Thanks, Senator Coburn. I guess taxes don’t matter to you any more than they do to the Democrats.

Gee, how reassuring for the nation.

Ugh.

[LowTaxesEqualsProsperity]

If the GOP votes to raise taxes even $1, they are dead as a party.

[SoConPubbie]

Senator Tom Coburn has flipped from being a reliable small-government Republican to being a moderate.

[Arm_Bears]

Tom “Tax-hike” Coburn, MD has succumbed to Potomac fever.

[rottndog]

For instance, he says eliminating the multi-billion dollar subsidy for ethanol is a tax increase,

If Norquist really believes this, then he's an idiot and I agree with Coburn.

[Tex-Con-Man]

Real conservatives don't defend ethanol subsidies. Coburn is correct on this.

[9YearLurker]

So you’re for keeping the ethanol subsidies?

[jospehm20]

Me too and I thought Norquist was an idiot before this anyways.

[Tex-Con-Man]

A fan of ethanol subsidies are you?

[RexBeach]

Nope. Cut the dadgummed subsidies.

[apillar]

I generally agree with Norquist, but I think he's drifted a bit off the reservation on this one. He seems to have defined a tax increase as any government action that will cost anybody, anywhere, anything. If he views eliminating any farm subsidies as raising taxes, then by the same argument cutting any entitlement spending or virtually any spending cuts anywhere would equal a tax increase.

[9YearLurker]

Tricky Grover’s pledge wouldn’t allow ethanol subsidies to be cut.

[ElectionInspector]

Me too and I thought Norquist was an idiot before this anyways.

... not only is he an idiot, he is an Arabist sucking at the Saudi tit in DC. He is not on America’s side, it’s all about Grover and his power! Can’t trust him as far as you could chuck him... not good when “conservative” leaders are pitching for the dark side...

ymmv

[Sonny M]

He seems to have defined a tax increase as any government action that will cost anybody, anywhere, anything. If he views eliminating any farm subsidies as raising taxes, then by the same argument cutting any entitlement spending or virtually any spending cuts anywhere would equal a tax increase.

Thats pretty much it.

Any device that either eliminates spending on subsides is considered a tax hike. Under his definition, it will be impossible, to ever rein in long term spending programs via the knife.

For a guy who is supposed to support (and use to, quite vigilantly), small government, he is self defeating.

This is my opinion, and my opinion only, but I think he views any flow of money that goes from the government to any person, or special interest, to be a sort of given, and anything that reduces that, is the equal of a tax hike.I.E. In this view, wiping out or reducing welfare would or could be construed as a tax hike.

[green iguana]

Did you read the article?

Norquist includes the elimination of free-market distorting subsidies as tax increases. Eliminating a stupid, wasteful tax break is not a tax increase.

[HonestConservative]

This story is not really about taxes, but about Norquist who has been exposed as a freind of the Muslem Brotherhood and FINALLY is getting the cold shoulder from the DC types.

Amen.

By the way, a tax is a tax. Removing a subsidy is hardly a tax increase, but getting rid of something that never should be done in a capitalist society to begin with. Coburn is right.

Norquist is now the Black Plague of the Hill and rightfully so.

[bobby.223]

Agree with old Grover do you? You mean the Grover Norquist who is an agenda setter, lobbyist, policy maker, fund raiser, adviser and overall heavy hitter for the insidious muslim islamic terrorist front group, C.A.I.R., the group who operates within our borders and is actively seeking America’s destruction from within? Married to a muslim and up to his ears in islamic attempts to completely destroy our Country? That Grover? Nice.

[SoConPubbie]

A fan of ethanol subsidies are you?

No, are you a fan of removing other Tax Deductions that Coburn is for?