The anti-tax advocate believes in never raising business taxes -- which can be a problem when trying to get rid of wasteful ethanol subsidies
You'd think that every fiscal conservative not subject to a corn belt electorate would thrill at the chance to cut $6 billion in ethanol subsidies. But not Grover Norquist. He knows they're bad policy -- that they distort the economy, raise food prices, and redistribute money to a special interest based on the political clout it wields. But Norquist is an anti-tax zealot. That isn't someone who opposes most tax hikes, or even someone who opposes almost every proposed tax hike. An anti-tax zealot is someone who specifically opposed efforts to end a costly boondoggle because doing so would have ended tax breaks for producers of corn-based ethanol, thereby constituting a tax increase. And tax increases aren't okay under any circumstances.
For the uninitiated, Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform, and has long wielded a lot of clout in GOP politics and the conservative movement. The weekly meeting he hosts for right-leaning activists, politicians, and journalists is a DC institution. The Wall Street Journal's John Fund once called him the "Grand Central Station of conservatism." And he's the man behind The Pledge.