If you thought Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) dropped out of the Gang of Six deficit talks because of all the heat he’s taken from anti-tax zealots in the conservative movement, think again. The Oklahoma Republican — and one of the only Republicans with enough credibility among conservatives to sell the idea of higher revenues to rank and file members of his party — still says higher revenues have to be part of any consensus package to reduce deficits and debt over the long term.
“[R]ealistically we cannot solve our problems unless we generate growth in this country, and the only way we’re going to do that is back off on a lot of regulations, create a tax structure that’s going to cause investment to happen, and get dynamic returns that actually increase the revenues coming to the federal government,” Coubrn said on CNBC Thursday evening. “We can’t do it all by eliminating large sections and duplicate spending and waste. We can do a large portion of it, but there has to be some revenue component to that, and anybody that says that’s not the case, I think they’re just wrong and they’re not thinking about the long-term health of our country.”
Coburn has entered into a public battle with influential anti-tax conservative Grover Norquist about this point. Norquist — and, for now, members of the House and Senate Republican leadership — want to basically keep tax revenues frozen. Tax reforms must be revenue neutral, they say, unless revenue growth is entirely attributable to growth in the economy.
Coburn’s views are at odds with those of many congressional Republicans. Those Republicans may budge at the last moment when it comes time to cut a deal. But Coburn’s saying their bargaining position is unhelpful — or at least unrealistic. And that’s why he poses such a danger to them.
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