Drolet stays true to Norquist, his anti-tax guru

Now that anti-tax leader Grover Norquist has earned the label of a maniacal political powerbroker — the chief roadblock to budget progress in Washington — perhaps one of his disciples, former state representative Leon Drolet, is backing away from Norquist.

Well, no. Not at all.

Drolet happily recites the Norquist view that no tax hike of any kind — even the reduction or elimination of a tax break or credit — can be tolerated. Not at the congressional level, not at the state level, not at the county level.
Norquist, founder of the Americans for Tax Reform, is famous for his anti-tax pledge. He insists that all Republican incumbents and candidates must sign the pledge to prove their conservative credentials.

In 2002, Drolet teamed up with Norquist at a time when the anti-tax guru was spreading his wings, hoping to exert the ATR’s influence in all 50 state legislatures. Drolet, a Macomb Township Republican, stepped up at the time to create the Taxpayer Protection Caucus in the Michigan Legislature.
That led Drolet, once he left office, to establish the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, which includes Norquist on its board of directors. Much like Norquist, Drolet has shown a willingness to be targeted for harsh criticism, even hatred, by his detractors in government.

And, like Norquist, yes, he is feared. The recent special education millage proposed for the Macomb Intermediate School District was opposed by Drolet’s group, causing some in the education community to accuse Drolet of taking a heartless approach toward kids with “special needs.”
In the end, the MISD was afraid to participate in a debate with Drolet. And the millage proposal went down to defeat.

Years later, the anti-tax caucus created by Drolet in the state Capitol no longer exists, and the anti-tax pledge rarely emerges as a significant issue in state House or Senate campaigns.
But in Washington the pledge has become so dominant in GOP politics that one former Republican senator, Alan Simpson, derisively called Norquist “the most powerful man in America.” Simpson is dismayed that Republicans won’t consider any revenue increases of any kind to secure a long-term reduction in budget deficits. 

Nearly all of the House Republicans — 237 — have signed the pledge, putting them in the good graces of conservative and tea party types. But it also means they are labeled by pundits as obstructionists in the floundering congressional attempt to reach a deficit reduction agreement.

And once you sign, there’s no going back.

A group of about three dozen House Republicans who signed the Norquist pledge 10 or more years ago say circumstances have changed. Norquist says if those GOP lawmakers break the pledge, the ATR will happily recruit and help finance a challenger to defeat them in the 2012 primary elections.

“You’re not breaking a pledge to Grover Norquist, you’re breaking your pledge to the taxpayers,” Drolet said. “You don’t make a promise to Grover Norquist; you make a promise to your constituents.”

Norquist, a scowling, stubble-faced lobbyist who began his quest during the Reagan administration, once famously said that restricting taxes is a means to meet his ultimate goal: “I simply want to reduce (government) to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

Here’s the problem: the Republicans have a rare opportunity to take control of Congress and the White House in 2012 and Norquist may be flushing it all down the drain.
The fact is that no one in America wants to drown government in a bathtub except for Norquist and his disciples such as Drolet. And, of course, Ron Paul’s minions.

Polls show that a majority of Americans oppose cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, highway construction, education, and relatively small things like the border patrol and national parks.
Numerous other polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans want to solve the ongoing federal budget crisis with a balanced, centrist approach — a mix of tax increases and spending cuts. A recent Gallup poll revealed that only 26 percent of Republican voters favor freezing taxes under all circumstances. And the most popular proposal in the nation is the plan to increase taxes on millionaires. Huge majorities in surveys support that approach — Democrats, independents and Republicans.

But congressional Republicans are staunchly opposed. At the same time, those same GOP lawmakers won’t support an extension of President Obama’s middle class tax cut on payrolls unless the lost revenue is offset in the budget. That’s a distinct change in direction from  Republican protection of the Bush tax cuts over the past decade.