Low-tax crusader and Republican strategist Grover Norquist tells
Newsmax that Republicans should seek a one-year delay in the
implementation of the healthcare reform bill as a first step toward
abolishing the "disaster" of Obamacare.
He also asserts that President Barack Obama's tax reform plan is a "Trojan horse" hiding a trillion-dollar tax increase.
Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform, whose Taxpayer
Protection Pledge asks candidates to commit themselves in writing to
oppose all tax increases.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV on Monday, Norquist discusses efforts to delay Obamacare.
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"The good news is, we have dozens and dozens of conservative groups from
the Repeal Coalition, the effort to repeal Obamacare, that sent a
letter to the Republican leaders. And there are now 50 Republicans in
the House who have co-sponsored Marsha Blackburn's legislation to delay
the implementation of Obamacare for a year," he says.
"Our goal is to get rid of Obamacare and to replace it with a
pro-consumer, pro-healthcare effort. But what can we do now as long as
Obama is president and you have Harry Reid, left-wing Democrat, running
the U.S. Senate? We could get a one-year delay, just as in 2011 we got
an agreement that Obama signed to cut $2.5 trillion in spending out of
the next decade's budget.
"If we delay it one year, we could go back and delay it again. Why might
the president sign a bill that delays his signature effort? Because he
could look you in the eye and say 'I delayed it, I didn't end it.'
"And he also has to worry that the plan is so flawed and so not ready
for prime-time, that trying to get it pushed before 2014 might blow up
in his face and cost him more Senate and House seats in 2014. We would
like to spare the country that kind of disaster, of putting in a plan
that's not ready and destructive when it is ready."
Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Marco Rubio of
Florida are among the Republicans threatening to allow a government
shutdown unless Obamacare is defunded.
Norquist comments: "Some people have said that we should ask the
president to sign a bill to abolish Obamacare overnight, or we should
let the government shut down. It's unlikely the president would sign a
deal like that. This is the central piece of his presidency. He could
allow a year's delay and maintain his dignity.
"We should ask for abolition. We should ask to defund it. We should pass
it in the House. My sense is it's unlikely to pass in the Senate, and
while we push for that, we should look at what's plan B if our first
request isn't met. If we had the House, Senate, and the presidency, we
could just do plan A. Obama's the president of the United States. He has
the veto, unfortunately."
Asked if a government shutdown would hurt the GOP, Norquist responds:
"Well, who would explain why the government is being shut down? CBS,
ABC, NBC, Time magazine, and The Washington Post. So it's a toss-up.
"Could we convince the country that we were trying to reform things and
the president wouldn't? Maybe. It's more likely that if we're announcing
we're looking to close the government down that we'll get the blame for
closing it down.
"The reason why doing a one-year delay is a powerful message is that the
president has already conceded that his plan is not ready and he has a
one-year delay for big businesses. So we have a populist message, which
is that if it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander. If big
business should get exempt, then so should small businesses and
individuals.
"The president has admitted that much of his plan is not ready. We have a
country ready to understand we should delay it a year. The country
isn't quite there yet on abolition."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently said Obamacare is absolutely a step toward a single-payer system.
Norquist says Reid "spoke accurately and honestly, but I thought they were trying to keep that a secret.
"Obamacare was set up to fail, to fail into single-payer. They had hoped
to have a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate so that every time
something broke, it would get fixed in a way that drove us into
single-payer. But a Republican House and a stronger Republican vote in
the Senate has made it impossible. Every time there's been a failure,
we've moved it in the opposite direction and that's why delay is
something that Obama might do to try to save Obamacare. But it sets the
stage for permanent delays in the future."
A Gallup poll over the weekend showed Obama with an approval rating of just 41 percent.
"One of the things that's interesting is you see some polls that say
Congress has a 10 percent approval rating," Norquist tells Newsmax.
"So people are unhappy that Congress isn't able to accomplish more, but
there's a reason why there's a stalemate in Washington. You have a
left-wing Democrat [as president], a left-wing Senate, and a
conservative Reagan-Republican House. Of course they're not going to
agree. That's progress from when the Democrats had all three and were
able to do what they wanted to.
"So I'm pleased that the Reagan Republicans run the House. The challenge
for all of us is, how do we win a Senate committed to Reagan's
Republican values and a president?"
Obama recently offered Republicans a so-called grand bargain which would
lower the corporate tax rate from 35 to 28 percent and close some
loopholes in return for supposed investments in jobs.
That "wouldn't help," Norquist maintains. "The president's plan is, he
says tax reform but he views tax reform as a Trojan horse inside of
which he has a trillion-dollar tax increase. So his plan is a tax hike
over the next decade and massive stimulus spending.
"This is a man who's learned nothing in five years. He wants another
stimulus package and another tax increase and thinks that you'll get a
different answer. People have seen him fail, learn nothing, fail, learn
nothing, and he's back with the same tired, failed, discredited
tax-and-spend programs. He thinks Detroit is the way to run the country.
The country doesn't agree."
Turning to another issue, Norquist declares: "I'm in favor of
immigration reform. I'm not necessarily in favor of the Senate bill. The
House is talking about greatly improving the direction that the Senate
was going in. They're going to have more serious border security, a more
serious guest-worker program so that agriculture can get people and we
don't leave crops rotting in the fields. We need more guest workers for
construction as well," he maintains.
"We also need high-tech immigration. When people come here and get
skilled degrees in computers and science, I want them to stay. I don't
want them going back to China or India and setting up companies to
compete with the United States. ... Let's have more talent come here and
stay here as well. And that's where this House bill is going to be an
improvement over the Senate bill."
Norquist predicts there will be an immigration bill passed within the next seven or eight months.
"Perhaps this year, perhaps early spring," he says.
"A lot of these reforms Republicans have been trying to do for many,
many years. It was the Democrats who stopped them. Remember, President
Obama was president for two years in all of 2009, all of 2010. He had a
Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and he did nothing on immigration
reform.
"He's not for immigration reform. When Bush put forward immigration
reform in 2007, the guy who killed it was named Barack Obama. It was his
vote which passed a poison pill amendment to kill the whole thing. So
he tries to use this for political purposes. But Obama's not for
immigration reform – not a pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-secure border
immigration reform, which is what the House, led by Republicans, will
pass and will eventually be agreed to. The president is following on
this. He's certainly not leading."
Norquist also comments on Obama's exorbitantly expensive trips while the
White House remains closed to Americans due to budget cuts: "The
president's being very hypocritical. He's like Louis the XVI and Marie
Antoinette. They're living high on the hog.
"As long as Washington and the White House are fat and happy, they're
fat and happy. They love going on vacations. The fact that other people
are unemployed obviously doesn't bother them."