Grover Norquist is attacking Jeb Bush not just for saying Saint Ronald Reagan would be too moderate for today's GOP, but also because he said he would accept a 10:1 compromise on spending-cuts and tax-increases. You know, because 10:1 is just too liberal, and as soon as you walk down the dark path of raising taxes, forever will it dominate your destiny.
I'm paraphrasing. Barely.
“That’s foolish,” Grover Norquist, the architect of the bedrock never-raise-taxes pledge that nearly every Republican has signed, told TPM in an interview. “It’s stup—it’s bizarre.”
“There’s a guy who watched his father throw away his presidency on a 2:1 [ratio of spending cuts to tax increases] promise,” Norquist said of Bush. “And he thinks he’s sophisticated by saying that he’d take a 10:1 promise. He doesn’t understand — he’s just agreed to walk down the same alley his dad did with the same gang. And he thinks he’s smart. You walk down that alley, you don’t come out. You certainly don’t come out with 2:1 or 10:1.”[...]
“He didn’t have a Republican House committed to not raising taxes as president. And he had a pre-Reagan Senate. This is the Republican Party that Reagan created — that he envisioned,” said Norquist, who leads Americans For Tax Reform. “He didn’t get everything he wanted. But to argue that having moved the ball down the field as he did, and having created in his wake a Republican Party that represents his vision …”
What you're witnessing is the beatification of Ronald Reagan in real-time. He raised taxes 11 times and then died for our sins, according to Norquist. And pointing out that Reagan raised taxes, a man who Norquist and the entire right-wing idolizes, is blasphemy.
It's not unprecedented. Millions of Republicans worship Jesus, a man who supposedly handed out free healthcare, fed the poor, and told his followers to love thy neighbor. Jesus didn't have a Republican House committed to repealing Obamacare either.