The man behind the clog in government

     THE WEEK, magazine, July 15, page 9, carries an article about Grover Norquist under the headline, "The man who killed tax increases".  The Carroll County Times, in a column by Reg Henry on the editorial page on Saturday, July 16, carries a headline, "GOP pledges fealty to Norquist, not U.S."
     You never voted for Grover Norquist, but if you want to trace the logjam in Congress, or Annapolis, or Carroll County, back to a primary source, you need to read up on this individual.
     Political parties talk about serving the people, but the truth is, they serve the people who influence campaign spending.
     Combine the reading of the two articles -- both can be found on line -- and you get a profile of the man of considerable personal wealth who is quoted as saying, "I don't want to abolish government. I just want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathtub and drown it in the bathtub."  And, "My ideal citizen is the self-employed, homeschooling, individual retirement account owning guy with a concealed carry (gun) permit  . . . because that person doesn't need the GD government for anything."
     Nice. So, to paraphrase, to Hell with people who work all their lives and  collect Social Security and Medicare, and who send their kids to public schools, or who worked all their lives for a pension that has been stolen by the big investors getting rich on hedge funds and inside trading in the stock market. Forget about paying for better roads, parks, social programs to keep people alive or sheltered. It's about money --  your pocket.
     Norquist is a creature of the Reagan administration, and the founder of Americans for Tax Reform, which devised and pressured every person running for public office to sign a pledge that they would never, under any circumstance, vote for a increase in taxes. Many, if not most, of your county Republican office holders in Maryland have signed it.
     According to the The Week, 235 Congressmen and 41 Senators have signed it. "Only seven Republican Senators and seven congressmen have not."
     If any of them break the pledge, Norquist unleashes his dogs in primary elections. He brags that he denied President George H.W. Bush another term in office for breaking the pledge. He helped Newt Gingrich with the so-called "contract with America," which eventually ticked off enough Americans that the Republicans took a hit in the following election, and Newt Gingrich is now showing a poor last in a pathetic attempt to regain credibility as a leader.
     I was pressured to sign the pledge when I ran for commissioner -- first term and second -- but I refused, explaining that a refusal to find the means to fund programs important to voters would be like a business refusing to ever raise prices, or a private citizen taking the position that if gas rose above $3 a gallon, we'd stop driving.
     Those who took Norquist's pledge now have to decide which pledge they will keep: The one to uphold the U.S. Constitution, including the 14th amendment establishing that the full faith and solvency of the government shall not be denied, or Norquist's short-sighted threat to any elected official who is willing to make tough choices.