Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are the first two 2016 Republican presidential candidates to sign a pledge promising to oppose or veto any proposal to raise taxes if they win the White House.
The Taxpayer Protection Pledge is sponsored by Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, and the anti-tax advocate first announced Paul's pledge Friday on Twitter:
He followed with a tweet about Cruz's signing:
According to
NBC News, the pledge dates to 1986 and has long been a fixture in Republican political campaigns, even though it has caused trouble for some once they got into office.
The Hill notes the pledge could help the candidates differentiate themselves from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who's expected to launch a presidential bid and is considered a leading candidate for the GOP nomination.
Bush has said he won't sign on,
CNN reports.
"If Gov. Bush decides to move forward, he will not sign any pledges circulated by lobbying groups," spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said in March, according to CNN.
"His record on tax cuts is clear. He didn't raise taxes."
Norquist ripped Bush on Twitter after he rebuffed the pledge, noting that his father, President George H.W. Bush, famously broke his "read my lips" promise against tax hikes before losing re-election in 1992, The Hill reports.
"If my dad threw away a perfectly good presidency, I would honor him by learning to avoid that mistake," Norquist tweeted.
The only other Republican candidate in the race, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, has not yet signed the pledge. He did sign it when he was running for the Senate in 2009, NBC News reports.
According to The Hill, 49 senators and 218 members of the House in the current Congress signed the anti-tax pledge. Paul had previously signed it when he ran for Senate in 2010. Cruz signed it when he ran for Senate in 2012, the group said.
In 2012, ATR says, every GOP presidential candidate signed the pledge except former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.
Paul's and Cruz's decisions come in the wake of their support to amend the Constitution to require the government to balance its budget, The Hill notes.
Their positions also reflect
budgets proposed by congressional Republicans, which would not raise taxes and instead would cut spending by at least $5 trillion over the next decade.
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