Grover Norquist: Deficit Hypocrite (Updated)

Bruce Bartlett points to an article in The Hill and makes his own point about Grover Norquist's demands of the Congressional GOP.  Apparently, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have both pledged to Norquist and his nonsensical organization, Americans for Tax Reform, that they will not agree to any legislation that increases any taxes.  This shows two things very clearly.  First, no matter what they may say now or at any point in the future, the GOP absolutely, positively does not care about and cannot be trusted deal with our budget deficit.  Second, the Republicans are absolutely negotiating in bad faith and have no intention of compromising with the Democrats at all.

I really had hoped that tax reform could be done on a bipartisan basis in the near future.  Revenue neutral reform that eliminated many of the corporate and individual tax breaks, deductions, etc. while lowering the headline tax rates would be a great policy move.  It would make paying and filing taxes easier; it would make our economy much more efficient; and it would reduce the number of people like accountants and attorneys that have made a living off of the tax code.  Such a policy would have given both liberals and conservatives a number of things that they want.  Liberals would have gotten an end to corporate tax breaks for companies like Exxon.  Conservatives would get lower rates and a smaller IRS.

But the demands from Americans for Tax Reform don't just stipulate that legislators should vote against any net increase in tax revenue.  It demands that they not vote for any tax increases.  Full stop.  And, typical of GOP thinking, the elimination of any existing tax break or credit is considered a tax increase.  Therefore, any Republican who signed on, including the GOP leaders in both houses, is absolutely lying if they suggest they want to work on tax reform or compromise with Democrats.

The Hill's article makes an interesting reference to something Mitch McConnell said while on MSNBC.  He apparently mentioned that given the people's message in the last election, there will be no tax increases.  I have trouble not laughing at McConnell making a statement like that after the people did not make him the Senate Majority Leader.

UPDATE:

Matt Yglesias agrees with me.  There is no point in hoping for bipartisan solutions when one party is coming to the table in bad faith and with no intention of actually compromising.