Bomb Threat Evacuates Norquist Headquarters

A bomb threat against Americans for Tax Reform forced the evacuation of Grover Norquist’s staff from the group’s Washington, D.C., headquarters this morning. Police could not find any explosives, and the staff returned to work after a short while, according to talkingpointsmemo.com.

Norquist, the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, is a high-profile figure in the D.C. debate over raising the country’s debt ceiling. More than 230 House Republicans have signed the group’s anti-tax pledge, and Norquist is a point man for the conservative view on the tax issue.

Controversy arose last week over a Washington Post editorial involving Norquist comments on the Bush tax cuts as part of the debt debate.

But Norquist later clarified his view during an interview with Newsmax,  saying, “Bottom line is if Congress changes tax law reducing or limiting or delaying or ending the Bush tax cuts, that would clearly be a significant tax increase and would need to be counted as such.

“There was an effort by some to suggest that if Congress voted to get rid of the Bush tax cuts as part of a deal, the increased revenue from that wouldn’t count. Well, that just doesn’t pass the laugh test.

“People can play games with things like that, but if taxes are going up, taxes have been raised.

“Hopefully there will be little or no tax changes in the budget deal because the effort to increase the debt ceiling should focus on reducing spending. The problem we’re trying to solve is spending too much. Raising taxes is not part of fixing the overspending problem.”