Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist tells
Newsmax TV he is not compromising his principles by backing GOP presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Responding to charges by columnist Al Hunt that he is compromising, Norquist told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner that Trump has called for tax cuts, and that's his organization's main concern.
"Al Hunt is a liberal Democrat, and he likes tax increases," Norquist said. "Al Hunt doesn't like Donald Trump's tax cut because he doesn't like any tax cuts. He likes tax increases, so he accuses the head of a taxpayer group for endorsing a tax cut of being unprincipled. No, I'm not with [Hunt's] principles, I'm with conservative principles, which are taxes down."
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Democrat Hillary Clinton, on the other had, has proposed a trillion dollars worth of tax increases over the next decade, and there are more that she doesn't admit to, Norquist said.
They include six different capital gains taxes, an exit tax and a stock trading tax that will make people more likely to trade on the Singapore, Hong Kong or London exchanges, he said. Clinton says she wants to help lower-income Americans, but
just endorsed Philadelphia's soda tax, he said.
As for his areas of disagreement with Trump, Norquist said he has confidence House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can rein Trump in.
"We're not electing a king, and we're not electing somebody who gets to make all the decisions," he said. "The president is a co-equal part of the government with the speaker of the House and the Senate leader."
Still, Norquist joined others on the right who said they want to see Trump stop focusing on personal issues, such as his spat with the Indiana-born judge presiding over his Trump University lawsuit, whom he recently referred to as a "Mexican."
"Donald Trump was winning when he talked about jobs, jobs, jobs," Norquist said.
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