Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist appeared on the Comedy Central program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday night to promote his new book, Debacle: Obama’s War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do to Regain Our Future. Norquist has become sort of a regular guest on the show or late, appearing on the show as recently as the end of February in a Samantha Bee segment.
Not everyone knows Grover Norquist is funny. But he is. The became a viral video star back in January after he appeared in the Onion’s “Secret Affair With Taxes”, where he “admitted” to having a secret affair for 28 years with taxes. He’s been a regular participant in Washington’s Funniest Celebrities, even placing second in 2009.
Jon Stewart was clearly excited to be talking with him again, as he gushed, “My kids are going to be so excited I got to interview Grover!”
I suppose he was probably talking about the furry blue monster on Sesame Street with the same name, but he could have been talking about Norquist, providing his children are fans of tax reform.
Stewart jokingly (I hope) referred to Norquist as “the Evil Grover Norquist,” when Norquist entered the set, reminding viewers there are a lot lefities who are not fans of the non-proft’s President.
Stewart, who has been accused of hating on the Tea Party and biased toward the left, was basically fair to Norquist in the short interview. Rather than discussing the new book, Stewart wanted to discuss Norquist’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge, the document Norquist and his group encourage candidates and elected officials to sign.
The basic premise of the pledge is that by signing candidates and members make a pledge to their constituents they will not raise taxes.
When asked why it works, Norquist was blunt. “It’s simple,” he said, “It’s not twelve moving parts. It’s ‘I’m not going to raise taxes.’ ”
Norquist went further, explaining how the pledge is really just the first step. Step two is getting officials to stop spending money. Norquist pointed out this is where George W. Bush failed and where the Tea Party has come in to hold officials accountable.
Stewart tried get Norquist to admit that asking electeds to never raise taxes is a bit unrealistic. But Norquist was undeterred.
He explained pledge-signers don’t raise taxes because of the pledge, rather, they sign the pledge because they don’t want to raise taxes. The pledge is really something tangible they can show people to give them credibility.
After Stewart tried to get Norquist to say he would have wanted to run someone against Ronald Reagan in 1984 (Norquist was adamant he wouldn’t), he explained that the pledge and the goal of not raising taxes is just the first part of reforming government. Politicians raises taxes instead of making hard decisions about what to cut.
Norquist held his own against Stewart, who often uses the front of being a comedian to ask difficult questions (oftentimes to his more conservative guests). While this appearance wasn’t as funny as his sit-down with Samantha Bee, it didn’t need to be. Refusing to kowtow to Jon Stewart is just as good.
To see the full interview visit The Daily Show website.
