From Majority FM: Jonathan Alter On His Calls For Democrats To Embrace Entitlement Cuts:

Blommberg View Jonathan Alter, argued that cutting entitlements will guard investment in discretionary spending, guess how Sam felt about that argument? Sam and Jonathan debated whether or not CPI was a cut and agreed that the wealthy should pay more taxes...

You can read Alter's article here: Why Democrats Must Get Smart on Entitlements.

It's a long and pretty infuriating interview for anyone who has time to listen to all of it. Alter pretty much personifies everything we've seen wrong with our beltway Villagers who want to insist that liberals are being unreasonable and don't want to do anything about the long term sustainability of our social safety nets, which is not true. Seder did a nice job of taking apart his arguments and the constant false equivalency game he played throughout the interview, which was bad enough that at one point he was comparing liberals who want to protect those programs to Grover Norquist.

Alter based most of his arguments during this interview off of the assumption that if Democrats just agree to cut these programs now, that will stop Republicans from trying to make more cuts in discretionary spending in the future and that if President Obama finally agreed to some "grand bargain" that it would keep Republicans from demagoguing the issue in upcoming elections. As Sam rightfully noted, it didn't stop them from doing it in past elections and there is no reason to believe that Republicans still won't be demanding more cuts.

I also thought Alter was going to blow a gasket when heaven forbid Seder suggested lowering the Social Security retirement age and increasing benefits to take care of our unemployment problem in the United States. It would really be nice to see Alter have to face this same type of scrutiny every time he comes on the air and is portrayed as representing the left side of the aisle.

And I'm sure it will come up here again, but I hate the use of the word "entitlements" but that's what Alter called them in his article and in the segment above. They're earned benefits and social insurance programs and they are designed to keep people out of poverty, but it's not ridiculous to take note of the fact that if you turn any of them into a poverty program only, they won't have a political constituency left to fight to keep them in place and they'll wind up being demonized like welfare has been.

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Anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist on Monday insisted that Republicans in Congress would hold the debt ceiling hostage to ensure that there would be no tax increases on even the wealthiest Americans as part of a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

During an interview with the founder of Americans for Tax Reform on CNN, host Ali Velshi noted that many viewers were outraged that the media continued to give Norquist so much airtime to campaign against a balanced fiscal cliff deal.

"All I get from people is tweets about, 'Why do you keep putting Grover Norquist, who is a big part of this problem, on TV?'" Velshi explained. "Because we have to have this conversation because you have great deal of influence over these members of Congress."

"You're right," Norquist agreed. "And some folks on the left are not big on the First Amendment for other people, but we can set that aside right now."

"We should take as many of the tax cuts off the table as possible," he continued. "And then because Republicans have the clout of the debt ceiling increase -- which they effectively used a year and a half ago -- and the continuing resolution where they could dole out money slowly to Obama and the Democrats to spend while reining it in, those are two very powerful tools."

"I'm not sure how effectively they used it," Velshi pointed out. "That was 517 days ago and that's why we're in the mess we are now."

As for any deal that lawmakers may reach on Monday, Norquist said he was "working with all the folks that are trying to defend taxpayers here in Congress."

"The leadership of the House have all made the commitment in writing to their constituents to oppose all efforts to raise taxes."

"I don't think you're going to see something that actually raises taxes," he added. "We may get some tax cuts now and have to fight for others later. Watch for the leverage the Republicans have on the debt ceiling and the continuing resolution. That allows us to come back and actually fight for spending cuts, but also for further tax reduction."

(h/t: Politico)

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I'm not sure what poll Grover Norquist is talking about here, but I am sure there's no way to magically turn the NRA's 4.3 million members into 20 percent of the population of the United States, which is over 300 million. But that's exactly what he did on ABC's This Week in response to The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel pointing out that the NRA isn't even representing the interest of their members, but the gun manufacturers instead.

There have been recent polls taken like this one, which reported that of those surveyed, 22 percent said they owned gun and about 7 percent said they belonged to the NRA, which is still a lot higher than the number the NRA itself claims to have as members. I guess it's not surprising that Norquist would like to overstate their influence since he's one of their board members.

VANDEN HEUVEL: This is the importance, the NRA is built on myths at this point in many ways. The NRA has 4 million members. It is essentially a lobby for gun manufacturers, not for its members, the majority of them, according to a poll commissioned by Frank Luntz, Republican pollster, do not agree with the NRA's positions on background checks, on ban on assault weapons. I think that's very important, because the NRA's myth has put us in a stranglehold in this country.

The other thing I'd say is I respect the noble sentiments about the need to treat mental illness, the need to deal with the video games in our culture, but other western industrialized countries have mental illness problems, have video culture. Japan is at the cutting edge. They don't allow access to military assault-style -- this is not about freedom, this is about tyranny and destruction.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The thing is, it's about all of this, this is what frustrates me...

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: ...I mean, you can't say it's got to be about one thing and not the other it's go to be about...

(CROSSTALK)

VANDEN HEUVEL: The mental illness argument has been used to evade action. More guns and bullets, more dead children. We must, must regulate guns. And I do think it's a tipping point moment, not just The Daily News and The New York Post, but you're seeing pro-NRA senators like Senator Manchin, Senator Warner, Governor Hickenlooper in Colorado, others saying we must move, speed is of the essence.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I agree with that. And I think we're just saying that Senator Manchin did say we have to consider everything comprehensively. We should give Grover a chance to respond to some of this now.

NORQUIST: I think -- look, the National Rifle Association represents a great number of Americans and 20 percent will tell you in polls that they belong to the NRA. And so one, there's a very important issue, one is we should support the First Amendment as well as the Second Amendment. I'm not quite sure -- some people's suggestions of censorship there worry me.

But look, one, we have got to calm down and not take tragedies like this, crimes like this, and use them for political purposes. President Obama has been president for four years. If he thought that some gun control would solve this problem he should have been pushing it four years ago. He didn't.

Democrats had a majority in the House and a super majority in the House and the Senate for the first two years that they were in office. If they thought that this was really an important issue, they might have done something then. They didn't. So what they're now doing is politicizing a tragedy rather than trying to do something that might...

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On this Sunday's Meet the Press, Grover Norquist repeated his claim that the so-called "tea party" is going to come back stronger than ever now that President Obama has been re-elected: Grover Norquist's Fascinating Theory:

Grover Norquist, despite what some might construe as recent evidence to the contrary, is nothing if not bullish on the future of his brand of radical anti-tax ideology:

“We are about to have a Tea Party second wave that will dwarf the first wave and that is because while ‘spend too much’ brought the Tea Party into existence, we’re about to walk into ‘spend too much, regulate too much, and tax too much,’ all together. It’s going to be a perfect storm of annoying government behavior, which is devastating to the economy, and I think the small business community which is particularly hit by Obama’s tax increases are going to lead the fight bigger, stronger, tougher than the last Tea Party.”

Yes! And then this will happen.

Look out everybody! Grover's coming with another army of angry seniors playing dress-up again! Be afraid... be very afraid! Who needs Fox when we've got Meet the Press, with two CNBC hacks, an anti-tax zealot lobbyist, and a moderator who parrots Republican talking points at every opportunity, balanced out by one Democrat.

And as a reminder, there is no "tea party." It's an AstroTurf rebranding effort designed to try to get the Bush-stink off of the word Republican.

Continue reading »

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From this Tuesday's The Colbert Report, Stephen took on the so-called "fiscal cliff" and the Republicans who are at least pretending they're going to go back on the their anti-tax pledge to Grover Norquist. Colbert: Only Words As Terrifying To GOP As Grover Norquist Are ‘Buenos Días’:

“Obama’s answer to this budget crisis is to raise taxes on the wealthy just because he ran on the ‘promise’ and ‘won the election.’ It’s like he’s totally disregarding my ‘dismissive finger finger quotes,’” Colbert said.

What’s really scary, Colbert added, is that Republicans might let the President do just that, even though most congressional Republicans have signed Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge.

That name is the “two most terrifying words a Republican can hear other than ‘buenos días,’” Colbert said.

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It seems this ongoing feud between former Sen. Alan Simpson and anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist isn't going to end any time soon. Simpson went after Norquist again on Hardball this Tuesday while doing his usual fearmongering over the "fiscal cliff."

Alan Simpson on fiscal cliff: ‘Go big or go home’:

Piecemeal measures won’t save us from the fiscal cliff, former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), told Hardball’s Chris Matthews on Tuesday. His advice for his former colleagues: “Go big or go home.”

“On Dec. 31st there’s a mess floating around right now, about $7.2 trillion bucks worth of stuff…[we’ve] got to do something,” Simpson said. [...]

Simpson said some lawmakers “love their party more than they love their country,” and that they would wait until the last minute to strike a deal. “They’re going to react right down to the last point when there’s going to be blood and hair and eyeballs all over the floor and they’re going to come up with something, but let me tell you, if it’s just kicking the can down the road, the can is now a 55 gallon drum filled with explosives. You can’t play that game anymore,” said Simpson.

If there’s no real deal, he said, “the markets are going to chop us up and it will be an unknown day.”

The former lawmaker also took a hit at conservative activist Grover Norquist’s crusade to get members of Congress to vow never to raise taxes.

“So how do you deal with guys who came to stop government, or Grover wandering the Earth in his white robe saying you want to drown government in the bathtub. I hope he slips in there with it,” Simpson said.

Of course Matthews let him get away with the typical false equivalency game they've been playing, where they pretend that the likes of Norquist is the equivalent of those on the left who don't want to see our social safety nets destroyed and calls everyone "loons." There's nothing "looney" about wanting to protect the poor, the elderly and the middle class and allowing people to retire with dignity, instead of having to work until they drop dead.

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Anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist predicts that none of the Republican who are having "impure thoughts" about taxes will actually break their pledge and vote for additional revenue.

Since singing defeats by their party in the November elections, several Republicans who signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge -- including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) -- have said they would compromise with Democrats in return for cuts to earned benefits like Medicare and Social Security.

"No pledge-taker has voted for a tax increase," Norquist explained to CNN's Soledad O'Brien on Monday. "They've had some people discussing impure thoughts on national television."

"However, Lindsey Graham, if you listen to him, he would support higher taxes if it was used to pay down the debt -- of course, it wont be, it will be spent -- if ten-to-one ratios on entitlement reform. I've had long conversations with Lindsey Graham and he says, 'I would raise taxes if...' and then he lists this incredible lists of reforms and entitlements that the Democrats would never give him."

Norquist added: "And as I suggested to him, I said, 'Senator, you're offering to trade a tax increase for a pink unicorn that doesn't exist.'"

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When you hear diehard conservatives like Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss talk about raising taxes on the wealthy you know things are getting interesting in Washington. The so-called "fiscal cliff" gives Republicans a golden opportunity to strike a deal which will also include cutting entitlements. The smarter among them realize this and are making their moves. Now, no one has ever accused Saxby Chamblliss of being all that smart but he is at least shrewd enough to figure this out, despite the threat of later being primaried by someone like Karen Handel, disgraced former vp at the Susan G. Komen foundation and a former Georgia Sec of State.

Via WMAZ, in Macon, GA.

Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said solving the nation's fiscal woes may mean breaking the anti-tax pledge he signed years ago.

Chambliss signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, penned by conservative activist Grover Norquist.

"I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge," Chambliss says. "If we do it his way then we'll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that." [...]

Now Chambliss says he wants to do what it takes to right the U.S. fiscal ship, even if that means findings ways to raise revenue, which Norquist strongly opposes.

Does Chambliss think Norquist will hold the anti-tax pledge against him during his next re-election bid in 2014? Yes.

"But I don't worry about that because I care too much about my country. I care a lot more about it than I do Grover Norquist," Chambliss says.

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Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist says that President Barack Obama did not win re-election because of his promise to raise taxes on the wealthy, but it was because attack ads made voters thing that Mitt Romney was a "poopy-head."

During a Monday interview on CBS, Norquist suggested that Republicans had a mandate not to raise taxes, even it meant going off the so-called "fiscal cliff."

"The House of Representatives was elected, committed to keeping taxes low," the Americans for Tax Reform president explained. "The president was elected on the basis that he was not Romney and that Romney was a poopy-head and you should vote against Romney. And he won by two points. But he didn't make the case that we should have higher taxes and higher spending, he kind of sounded like the opposite."

"Well, I'm not sure that's what the president called Mitt Romney," CBS host Norah O'Donnell pointed out. "The debate that was had -- and I listened very closely to it -- he said very clearly throughout the debate that the wealthiest Americans should pay more. And he won eight of the nine battleground states. And Republicans failed to reclaim the White House or the Senate. What about the exit polls that show a broad support on raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans? Are you wrong?"

"Again, you saw those ads that suggested Romney gave people cancer in Ohio for months and months unanswered," Norquist insisted. "You can trash an individual and get them to vote against him. Again where we have an election, there are 30 Republican governors, okay? And they're running campaigns against raising taxes and in favor of, frankly, phasing out the income tax in North Carolina and Kansas and Oklahoma."

O'Donnell pointed out that even House Speaker John Boehner had said that Republicans were willing to accept new revenue as part of a compromise.

"In 2011, Obama said the world would end and we should pass around smelling salts because he wanted to raise the debt ceiling," Norquist opined. "We got a debt ceiling agreement. It was a great compromise. We cut spending. We didn't raise taxes. We didn't cut spending as much as the Republicans wanted. The [Paul] Ryan plan would have reduced Obama's overspending by $6 trillion, we only got two and a half trillion in restraint."

"That's a compromise, it's not as much as the Republicans wanted. The Republicans have already compromised."

In exit polls released on Tuesday, six in ten voters said they supported raising taxes. Almost half wanted to see tax hikes specifically on those making more than $250,000 a year.

“On this particular issue, it wasn’t close,” Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod told CBS News on Sunday.

“You need new revenues, and every objective person who has looked at this agrees on that, so the question is where is that revenue going to come from?” he pointed out. “The president believes it is more equitable to get that from the wealthiest Americans who have done very well and frankly don’t need those tax cuts and who benefited disproportionately from the tax cuts in the last decade. Most Americans agree with that.”

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After discussing the Democrats' plan to finally free Republicans from their pledge to anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist and the possibility that they might take America off of the fiscal cliff in the beginning of the year for that to finally happen, Stephen Colbert found himself still haunted by "the Norquist."

In order to "appease him," Colbert ended up having to sacrifice a human baby to Grover, who he assured us all would be just fine once this was all over.

All of which was almost as frightening as the fact that this man has the actual stranglehold he does over our members of Congress these days.