Retiring GOP Rep. (OH) Calls Grover Norquist Tax Views 'Crap,' Congress 'An Alcoholic'

Steve LaTourette Calls Grover Norquist Tax Views 'Crap,' Congress 'An Alcoholic'

WASHINGTON -- Retiring Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) offered scathing assessments Thursday of Congress and of the tax policy pushed on his party by anti-tax hardliner Grover Norquist.

Congress, LaTourette said, is like a drunk who needs to hit bottom in order to straighten out. While Republicans and Democrats share blame for that, he especially singled out the arguments of Norquist and his group Americans for Tax Reform, calling them "crap."

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The congressman was even less impressed with Norquist's reasoning when it came to closing tax loopholes, thereby raising the effective rates of corporations, such as General Electric, to 25 percent. GE has reportedly paid no net federal income taxes in recent years.

Norquist answered that Americans for Tax Reform "don't look at the individual tax rates. We look at the aggregate of tax revenue versus GDP."

"And I said, 'Crap,'" LaTourette continued. "Nobody where I grew up understands that kind of baloney. They understand that you pay what you pay, and you're either paying 25 percent or you're paying nothing."

Props to retiring GOP Rep. LaTourette...Unfortunate the moderates are being exiled by thier party.

Also see here...
LaTourette Is Latest Moderate to Plan Congressional Exit
www.businessweek.com...

One of the few things a Bush has said that I agree with...

Jeb Bush:
I ran for office three times. The pledge was presented to me three times. I never signed the pledge,” he said. “I cut taxes every year I was governor. I don’t believe you outsource your principles and convictions to people.

Read more: www.politico.com...

reply to post by Indigo5


Republicans need to get it through their frikin heads. We. Don't. Care. About. The. Rich. We don't. We want a party to protect the Middle Class.. but instead we have two parties hell bent on destroying the Middle Class. One wants to rob us blind and pour money to freeloaders. The other wants to watch us drown in taxes while giving more to those that have everything.

!@$! em all.

LaTourette is a bit of a hard ass. At times I can agree and others I simply can't. Case in point. He was 1 of only 2 Reps. who voted against the measure to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. I simply cannot back him on that stance. We need to get to the bottom of Fast and Furious.

He also dumped his wife in favor of an affair with a lobbyist. Can't respect him for that either on a personal level.

He does speak a little truth about how Congress behaves like an alcoholic. He should know he's been part of the game since 1994.

Originally posted by jibeho
LaTourette is a bit of a hard ass. At times I can agree and others I simply can't. Case in point. He was 1 of only 2 Reps. who voted against the measure to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. I simply cannot back him on that stance. We need to get to the bottom of Fast and Furious.

He didn't vote for the contempt charge because he knew it was BS. We do need to get tot he bottom of fast and Furious but the docs that congress asked for were internal communications after the scandal had hit the airwaves. Holder already provided over 7,000 docs and communications for the time period the operation was active, if there damning evidence that the white house knew, it would have been in those docs.

What Issa was looking for was email communications that might embarass holder or the POTUS as sh*& hit the fan...not conspiracy proof. Issa would have found it in the docs already provided.

LaTourette, having the luxury of not needing to follow orders anymore, stood up and did the right thing in not voting for the contempt charge. It was political BS,

Yes we do need to get to the "bottom" of F&F. If we had a less political man heading the inquirey that would have happened a year ago. What we are left with is few answers and a political witch-hunt during an election year.

reply to post by jibeho


Any comment on his view of Norquist?

reply to post by Indigo5


Let's just say, when I look for answers, Norquist is not on the top of reference list. That being said, we certainly cannot tax our way out of trouble either and Latourette is free to say what he wants about Grover Like you said, he answers to no one until his retirement and it appears that the bitterness in DC has gotten the better of him..

I do however support serious and thorough tax reform in this nation. A flat tax or FAIR tax would be a great boon for our nation at a time when we could certainly use it. I also encourage fiscal accountablity and transparency throughout our bloated govt. entities.