Brown Vs. Norquist on Taxes

John Seiler:

It’s amusing to see Gov. Jerry attacking national anti-tax activist Grover Norquist. Jerry is frustrated that almost all GOP legislators have taken the anti-tax pledge of Norquist’s Americans for Tax reform. Norquist Tuesday flew out from Washington, D.C. to our state Capitol. Reports the Bee:

“Can Norquist spook the legislators?” Brown told reporters after speaking with California State University presidents. “I don’t believe so. I think he’s going to come out here to California and meet his match.”…

“There are millions of people who are devotees of the Norquist view of life,” Brown said. “I’m not one of them.”

Norquist’s “view of life,” of course, is keeping greedy politicians like Brown from grabbing more of the citizens’ hard-earned tax money to splurge on the government-employee unions that put Brown in office last November.

Just a week ago, Brown’s May Revise to his budget proposal used a $6.6 billion of an unexpected tax windfall to blow $3 billion on even more spending. That’s why he wants to jack up taxes $5,000 per family across five years. He’s a spendaholic and a taxaholic.

And Brown himself embraced the Norquist “view of life” back in 1978, when he backed the Proposition 13 tax cuts after they passed; and when he ran for the presidency in 1992 on a flat-tax platform.

What’s changed is that, where Jerry once was quirky and innovative, now he’s a wholly owned subsidiary of the government worker unions.

He refuses to concede that his tax increases would further harm the California middle class, whose wallets already have been emptied by among of the highest tax rates in the nation.