Grover Norquist's Pledge and Plan Live On

If you haven't heard of Grover Norquist before that's OK. He is a fringe, far-right wack job that no one in their right mind should pay attention too. And no one in their right mind does, but 258 Republican members of congress do (including one of my Senators, Marco Rubio, and my Congressman, John Mica). These members of congress have forsaken the constitutional purposes of the United States government:

We the people of the United States, in order to [1] form a more perfect union, [2] establish justice, [3] insure domestic tranquility, [4] provide for the common defense, [5] promote the general welfare, and [6] secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 And have pledged their allegiance to Grover Norquist's agenda:

I, ____________________, pledge to the taxpayers of the state of ____________________, and to the American people, that I will:
ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal tax rates for individuals and/or businesses, and,
TWO, oppose any net reduction, or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

Reports of the death of this pledge have been greatly exaggerated. The January 3 "fiscal cliff" did not raise anyone's taxes. The Bush Income tax cuts and President Obama's payroll tax cuts both expired as of January 1, 2013. On January 3, Congress allowed President Obama's payroll tax cuts to remain expired, but reinstated the Bush tax cuts for everyone making less that $400-450K per year.

Because the January 3 tax cuts were not as comprehensive as the previous President Obama/Bush tax cuts combined, this serves as pretense for Republicans to now claim that their have already increased taxes to reduce the deficit, and only spending cuts should now be implemented.

With the brief exception of the 1999-2000 Clinton boom years, the United States has been falling short on revenues ever since President Reagan reduced the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 28% during his two terms in the 1980s. Despite reductions in safety-net programs that have led to increased poverty, hunger, and homeless, the national debt has increased sixteen-fold since the Reagan tax cuts: from less than a $1 Trillion when President Reagan took office to over $16 trillion now.

The current sequester and opposition to raising tax revenue is all part of Grover Norquist's plan:

My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.

To illustrate this drowning in the bathtub metaphor, just picture the way the United States was unable to help the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and imagine the same disaster happening to the U.S. government today. This is Norquist's plan and pledge all along.