Tax reform advocate Grover Norquist told
Newsmax TV on Monday that Republicans in Congress are increasingly united against tax hikes and big government, and will have the chance to prove it with their votes once the GOP has majorities in both chambers beginning in January.
Norquist, author of the famous no-tax-hike pledge signed by hundreds of GOP candidates and officeholders, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner that a focus on taxes and spending has helped transform the party nationally.
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"The Republican Party has become a united Reagan Republican Party," said Norquist, noting, "Not a single Republican voted for Obamacare."
He compared that unanimity against the Affordable Care Act to "previous increases in the welfare state, the entitlement state," which he said many Republicans either voted for or declined to oppose under past presidents.
Under President Barack Obama, by contrast, "Every single Republican voted against Obamacare and every single Republican elected is committed to repealing and replacing it as soon as possible.
"It's a much improved Republican Party in the House and the Senate," said Norquist.
"We have a long way to go in state legislatures," he added. "There, you have some governors and some legislators who never got the memo that we're the Reagan Republican Party."
Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, said that he and his Taxpayer Protection Pledge aren't the reason for the party's transformation — it's the tax issue itself that has made the difference.
"In point of fact, the tax issue is the most powerful issue in the United States throughout American history," he said. "It's how we got founded with the [1773 Boston] Tea Party. At every point in the American history, the tax issue has been decisive in terms of moving the American electorate."
He said his pledge simply "lets voters know who will raise their taxes and who won't."
"My role is just holding up a mirror to let the American people see where elected officials and candidates really stand," he said.
Norquist predicted "dozens and hundreds" of congressional votes to cut taxes and spending beginning in January, with Republicans controlling the legislative agenda in both chambers after their resounding victories in the Nov. 4 midterm elections.
"The Republicans in the House and the Senate can now say we're going to have votes on repealing Obamacare — replacing Obamacare with consumer-friendly, bottom-up healthcare, not top-down, bureaucratized, government-run healthcare," he said.
"And then there are about 46 votes to expand economic growth to create jobs that have been passed in the House often with bipartisan support," he said. "Those will now be voted on in the Senate.
"And the president can either veto them, or the Democrats can filibuster them, but we are going to have dozens and hundreds of votes," he said, adding, "We'll be able to separate out those Democrats who actually do vote their districts, and how many just slavishly follow the Democratic Party and do what Obama tells them to.
"And when we have a presidential election, we'll have a series of votes on economic growth, on tort reform, on spending restraint, on entitlement reform, and the Republicans will be on one side and most Democrats will be on another," said Norquist. "It will clarify what's going on."