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Last Friday I attended John Stephen's public signing of the No New Tax pledge. In every way imaginable, this event signaled that Mr. Stephen will run a campaign based on the same public policy gimmicks that have turned us into a debtor nation and significantly weakened the American middle class.
The promise is small government and low taxes. The reality is deficits and debt, a decaying infrastructure, a banking crisis and a middle class that too often must chose between gasoline and health care.
Mr. Stephen stood alongside Grover Norquist the conservative lobbyist and founder of Americans for Tax Reform. Mr. Norquist symbolizes many things to many people. The right sees him as the number one crusader for small government and low taxes, the left sees him as a ruthless shill for special interests.
Former NH Republican Senator Warren Rudman has said this about Mr. Norquist: "Americans for Tax Reform is a wonderful-sounding name. As far as I'm concerned, it's a front organization for Grover Norquist' lobbying activities."
Senator Rudman knows what he is talking about-he has dedicated many years to the Concord Coalition-a prestigious group of Americans dedicated to fiscal sanity and sustainable budgets.
Senator Rudman is right on the money about Grover Norquist. Mr. Norquist is the king of special interests and K street power politics.
Unfortunately, Mr. Norquist was the chief architect of George Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. The scary part is that as the ultra rich get ultra richer and the middle class stagnates, Mr. Norquist considers the past eight years a rousing success.
True fiscal conservatives don't turn the country they love into a debtor nation with a straight face.
Mr. Stephen has now saddled himself with the Norquist/Bush world view.
He not only wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, he is parroting Norquist, Limbaugh and Bush in claiming that failure to make them permanent amounts to the "Largest tax hike in history."
Since when does the end of a temporary tax break become a tax hike? If someone told me I would get huge tax break for the next eight years, I think I'd be pretty grateful and use my time wisely.
Give somebody else a chance? Not this crowd.
Thematically too the event was telling. It took place in a boardroom high above the Merrimack River. I stepped out onto a balcony and it really was breathtaking. There's nothing wrong with boardrooms per se, I've served on boards that met in comfortable rooms. But there was no mention of the middle class whatsoever. Not even a touch of lip service. There was no mention of recession, the national debt, the huge Bush Deficits or the healthcare crisis. And there was no mention of Iraq and the price to America in blood and treasure.
In fairness to Mr. Stephen he was very cordial to me. He and I talked both before and after the public part of the event. I enjoyed talking with him. I had a very nice chat with his wife too. I wish the three of us could have talked longer.
So this isn't personal. What is personal though, is the lives that Americans live.
We've squandered too much of our precious time. We've squandered too much of our money. We've weakened our military's effectiveness. In short, Bush Norquist policies have created problems that will haunt the next five generations of Americans.
The policies that have failed us so badly have no place in our future.
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