Boehner Downplays Norquist's Influence On GOP

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that the attitude surrounding the “super committee” and congressional leadership is “one of nervousness,” once again urging members of the 12-member panel to find common ground before a fast-approaching Thanksgiving deadline.

“I think the mood is one of nervousness,” Boehner told reporters during a Thursday press conference. “This is hard, and everybody knows it’s hard. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the work of all the members of the committee and their effort to try and come to an agreement. “

A bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter Wednesday recommending that both entitlement cuts and new revenues be included in a grand bargain deal that would make a significant dent in the nation’s debt. The letter seemed to have instilled a sense of hope in Congress that a deal was not as improbable as many had thought.

However, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist offered his skepticism of 40 Republican signatures attached to the letter, saying “there’s nothing wrong with considering all options. Consider anything. Just don’t vote for a tax increase,” according to reports.

Norquist, who heads the group Americans for Tax Reform has collected signatures from nearly every Republican in Congress - including Boehner - pledging to oppose the inclusion of any tax increase in a potential “super committee” deal.

During his remarks, Boehner side-stepped questions regarding Norquist’s influence on the Republican conference. Boehner, who signed Norquist’s pledge opposing tax increases, referred to the anti-tax activist as “some random person” and shied away from acknowledging his clout among rank-and-file Republicans.

“Our focus here is on jobs. We’re getting everything we can to get our economy moving again and get people back to work. It’s not often I’m asked about some random person in America,” Boehner answered. “Our conference is opposed to tax hikes because we believe that tax hikes will hurt our economy and put Americans out of work.”

Bachmann: Tax Day? More Like 'April Fools' Day

By Sofia Sanchez
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

On the eve of Tax Day, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) called then-candidate Barack Obama's campaign pledge to not raise taxes on Americans an 'April Fools' joke.

“One piece of legislation we may want to be considering is combining April Fools Day with April 15th,” said Bachmann during a meeting with a handful of House Republicans and tax reform advocates on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

According to the much-maligned conservative, the American people were "fooled" by the Obama administration and House Democrats with their promises of no tax increases for families making under $250,000 a year.

The group Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) put out a statement saying that “Obamacare” is taxing American families that make under the set income of exclusion from tax hikes with seven violations.

Some of these tax increases include the medicine cabinet tax, which exempts Americans from using health savings accounts (HSA), as well as health reimbursement (HRA) and flexible spending accounts (FSA). Also, the group claims taxing Americans who use indoor tanning salons is also in violation of the earlier pledge.

“We were told that if we passed health care reform we’re going to save boat loads of money...how ironic in saving trillions of dollars we have to increase taxes trillions of dollars in order to quote ‘save that money’,” said Bachmann.

RNC chairman candidates debate

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is poised to elect a new chairman to serve as their master strategist following two elections that have proved disastrous for the party.

Michael Steele, GOPAC Chairman; Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State; Chip Saltsman, former Chairman of Tennessee’s Republican party; Katon Dawson, chairman of South Carolina’s Republican party; Saul Anuziz, Chairman of Michigan’s Republican party; and current RNC Chairman Mike Duncan met in a debate sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform to make their case for the position.

The candidates agreed on most of the issues, including reaching out to more Ron Paul supporters, young conservatives, and minorities, but the majority of the debate rested on the specific steps each candidate would take.

Steele, who dismissed allegations that the Republican party was dead as “bunk,” said that in order to increase the party’s influence, the chairman would have to rally state leaders behind the cause.

“How long have we been talking about this? When are we going to start doing it, for goodness sakes? This isn’t anything any of us can do individually as chairman of this party. The state organizations are where the rubber meets the road…. They’re the ones with the courage and leadership at the national level to get it done,” said Steele.

Blackwell touched upon how the RNC could reach out to more voters by increasing the committee’s technological reach, complete with the recruitment of a Chief Technology Officer.

Anuziz suggested using the technological capabilities to do more than just campaign, claiming that it could be a key networking tool.

“We need this to be part of everything we do. And not just a certain section of what we do. And I think the way we do that is make it part of everything we run as a party because that is the best way to network every single grass roots activist that wants to be part of the system,” said Anuziz.

The candidates were asked if they had Twitter, and if so, how many followers they had. Steele and Dawson replied that they have around 300-400 followers and Anuziz claimed that he had just under 3,000. Blackwell responded that he used twitter, but also noted he had an impressive 4,000 friends on Facebook. Duncan explained that he did not have a twitter account himself, but understood how the website worked.

The candidates touched upon the notion that the party had deviated from its general values in recent years and discussed the need to be return to their roots.

“People come to Washington as rat killers, and a couple years later they’re rodent control officers and the rats are their constituents,” said Saltsman.

“We’ve got to make sure we elect people across this country … that know who they are and will stand up during the hard times, just like the folks have done in Florida, where they’re sitting with a budget deficits like they are in many states but have decided not to raise taxes but rather go after spending restraints.”