Grover Norquist, lobbyist for Americans for Tax Reform/The Most Powerful Man In American Who Does Not Hold Public Office, appeared on The Colbert Report last night. The frequent star of The Last Word Rewrite told Stephen Colbert he would rather let his grandmother die at the hands of terrorists (and their menacing fireants) than raise taxes of any kind. He laughs about it in the video, but we're not sure if he was kidding.
Norquist picks taxes over grandmas
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Tue Jun 28, 2011 5:50 PM EDT
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There are liars, cheats, and frauds in Washington D.C.
Not everyone is a saint or even mildly good. We all like to have a positive view of human nature, but lets be realistic. Some people don't give a d#$% about others. Some people are very insensitive, uncaring, blah blah, etc. and only care about themselves and their family and circles of friends. Be real. Not everyone in politics is honest Abe or George Washington saying "I chopped down the cherry tree." There are liars, cheats, and frauds in Washington D.C.
I don't understand why the show does not point out the obvious flaw in the Grover Norquist philosophy.
The first place to save money is to stop funding law enforcement and release prisoners involved with the following.
The second place to save money is to stop funding cold-war military assets. AEGIS Combat System was created to defend the free world from the USSR and Peoples Republic of China, and those are no longer a threat. The real threats are from Iran, Pakistan and North Korea, and DoD cannot solve those problems.
This is a mater of priority. If government funding is no longer a priority, then incarceration for victimless and moral crimes no longer adds value to society. This leaves more room in jail/prison for rapists, murderers, burglars, and armed robbers, which should remain behind bars as long as possible.
Likewise, nuclear missiles and military invasions do not make the US a better place to raise your children.
If a criminal has been convicted but has not been involved in any violence or theft, they they do not represent a threat to other people, and incarceration does not make society better (i.e.: no value added in exchange for money spent).
Moral crimes are committed mostly by uneducated and unemployed people to make money. Cannabis sells for approximately $3,000 per pound, which is because criminalization made dandylions almost as valuable as gold. These are poverty crimes, and the outcome is a criminal record that blocks access to a job, so criminals must continue to commit crimes once released from jail/prison.
Cutting school funding makes no sense because that
Law enforcement, court, jail, and prison costs easily exceed 1/3 of all state and federal spending, so de-criminalization and regulation represents a huge untapped source of revenue that would satisfy all of the requirements of the Grover Norquist plan.
If you sign this pledge, it dose not allow the congressman to have an independent thought. How about the good of the people? Oh, just republican agenda is important. Do republicans understand that there are Americans who do not agree with them, and having such a pledge does not give the rest of reason to trust them? Norquist is into just controling people, and that is the way republicans think. Good bye Freedom!
re: the new mantra that we must go back to the founding fathers...wouldn't it be nice if those who say that actually knew and read what the founding fathers thought? I really don't think they want the "reading" public to get the word out that the founding fathers were against what they are trying to do to America.
from Thomas Jefferson:
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited by a thousand millions of people. That these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion. That ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the 999 wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves?