he s wicked smart. and he s able to take his public relations and tactical skills to say that people in the republican party, if you want to get elected, you have to toe the line on this one issue that s important. it s not about his whim, it s about him capturing that strong belief, you should never raise taxes. and it also is about a guy that has results. you look at the last fight, the big fight about raising the debt ceiling. if there were not the gofer norquist pledge, you better believe there would have been tax increases in that package. did you sign the pledge when you were a member? yep, i did. never voted to raise taxes and i m proud of it. and guess what? we balanced the budget. would you have raised your hand four times. when the candidates were asked, would you take $10 in cuts oh, i would take in 2011, i d take a 3 to 1, 4 to 1 cut. i would do the tax reform the tax reforms we re talking about,
average americans who may not know who he is to see the influence he does have in a lot of these debates. one thing to keep an eye on for as you were saying in the last segment. could this be a point where a lot of people do buck grover norquist? and if they do, what does that mean for the future of grover norquist? i do think, you know, it s very unlikely that s going to happen. john boehner has signed that taxpayer pledge and grover does carry a lot of influence. and he will hold it against anybody who sort of breaks the pledge in the next election season. and that really i think is what john boehner is worried about and other folks on capitol hill are worried about, as well. can you help viewers understand the influence of grover norquist? a lot of people hearing his name for the first time over the last several months. why would congressmen sign a pledge to this guy who is not in new government or representative of anyone? hep represents a dominant view within the conservative
it s a part of the equation. now, for the left, it is all encompassing, it s all they talk about. they are as crazy about raising taxes as people who sign grover s tax pledges about cutting taxes. it s an obsession by both sides. hmm. mika s biting her tongue. yeah, i am. because she s one of them obsessed with raising taxes. i think that takes two to make an argument. and when one side digs in completely and doesn t look at the big picture, you say it s all ideological and bringing in revenue and math of it and how do you fix the problem, and you ve got to look at our society and look at what s happening and the trends. and i m sorry, sometimes you have to change course. sometimes perhaps you have to go back on an extreme pledge and i don t think it s an extreme pledge at all. negotiate to take i don t think it s an extreme pledge. i think when the federal government goes from spending 19% of gdp when i was there to
it becomes intractable when the democrats come out and say, hey, this is what we re going to do. no, when the republicans sign a pledge that they will not do anything with taxes at all and they have to stick to a point where they can t negotiate. you re a couple of days behind. no, i m not. there are 100 republicans, many of whom who signed grover s pledge who said they were backing off on it. it put a wedge in the conversation. and i don t have any problem with tax on millionaires. does anyone have a problem? no. any millionaires at the table have a problem with that? i m not worried about that, mika. what i want to do, and what democrats want and what a lot of republicans want. and this is middle ground if people will stop talking in ideological sound bites. they want to figure out a way to bring more tax revenue to washington, d.c. and there is a way to do that without raising the top tax code. if your goal is to win a political ideological fight, then go ahead and f