Patrick called anti-tax pledge signed by Congressional Republicans a "gimmick," urging Congress to consider tax revenues in spending negotiations.
Left, Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform and Gov. Deval Patrick, right. Gov. Deval Patrick penned an op-ed in The Washington Post Thursday, criticizing Congressional Republicans for their refusal to put taxes on the table in spending negotiations and taking on Washington's biggest anti-tax advocate, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist.
Calling Norquist the "brain and able spokesman for the radical right" but dismissed Norquist's anti-tax pledge, which was signed by a majority of Congressional Republicans, as a "gimmick."
Patrick has spent a fair amount of time in Washington, D.C. recently, first at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on health care reform last week and then at a conference on biotechnology — one of Massachusetts' growth industries — earlier this week.
In his remarks at the Senate hearing, which focused on the cost of health care entitlements, Patrick previewed what he'd urge in Thursday's op-ed.
"Put revenues on the table," he said. "I know this is the point where most politicians run for cover, but it's time we faced up to this."
In his Washington Post op-ed, Patrick said that a spending agreement must be a combination of spending reductions and tax increases. He wrote:
If the deficit is reduced by spending cuts alone and there is no deal to raise the debt ceiling, here's a sampling of what happens: We stop paying our soldiers or supporting our veterans. We stop feeding the neediest children and families. We stop providing nursing-home care to seniors. We stop inoculating schoolchildren. We stop helping young people go to college. The unemployed are on their own. Roads and bridges continue to crumble. And we jeopardize the creditworthiness of our economy at one of the most fragile moments in history. All to protect the marginal benefits of the most fortunate and the political purity of the radical right. Read the entire column »
This isn't the first time Patrick has criticized Norquist, his former Harvard classmate. In 2006, then-candidate Deval Patrick wrote in The Providence Journal that Norquist was using his conservative clout to influence Gov. Mitt Romney's role in state health-care reform. Norquist is a Massachusetts native who founded Americans for Tax Reform at the request of former Republican President Ronald Reagan, according to the organizations website.
In a Q&A on The Washington Post's website in April, Norquist described himself as "an advocate of limiting spending."
"Democrats focus on the deficit rather than total spending so that tax hikes can be seen as part of the solution rather than enabling the problem," Norquist said. "The problem is not the deficit, but total government spending. That is the metric to watch."
Patrick's criticism of Norquist's stance lends support to those made by President Barack Obama, the Governor's friend and political ally. Obama has insisted that the nation's deficit reduction plan must include eliminating some tax breaks for oil companies and the wealthiest Americans. The Associated Press reported that Republican leaders have resisted any effort to raise taxes during deficit reduction talks, and were not receptive to his remarks Wednesday. The AP reports:
Republicans in Congress have been insistent in recent days that any deficit reduction be limited to spending cuts, including reductions in benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and exclude additional revenues.
In remarks made during the day, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Obama "said as recently as six months ago that keeping taxes where they are enables businesses to hire more workers. In other words, that raising taxes leads to fewer jobs. So he can call for tax hikes. But he can't call for tax hikes and job creation. It's one or the other. "
The Senate has cut short its week-long recess next week in order to continue spending negotiations. The Obama administration rejected an invitation from Sen. McConnell to meet with Congressional Republicans Thursday, saying through spokesman Jay Carney that the GOP intended only to “restate their maximalist position.”
According to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Congress must pass a measure raising the debt ceiling by Aug. 2, before the U.S. can no longer meet its financial obligations.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this post. Hat tip to the Massterlist for Gov. Patrick's column.