Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, predicted on Friday that an upcoming “Tea Party second wave” will “dwarf” the first wave that propelled Republicans into the majority in the House during the historic 2010 midterm elections.
In an interview with “The Victoria Taft Show,” Norquist said the fiscal cliff negotiations and President Barack Obama’s second term will lead to a movement that will revolt against a government that spends, regulates, and taxes too much.
“We are about to have a Tea Party second wave that will dwarf the first wave and that is because while ‘spend too much’ brought the Tea Party into existence, we’re about to walk into ‘spend too much, regulate too much, and tax too much, all together,'” he speculated.
During the fiscal cliff negotiations, Republicans like Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss and Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole have expressed a willingness to raise taxes in violation of their pledge to Americans that they would not do so.
In addition, more Americans will be impacted by Obama’s regulations during the second term, especially those dealing with Obamacare that will force business to cut back on hours to avoid being hit by Obamacare’s taxes, risk paying fines if they refuse to cover contraceptives or the “morning after” abortion bill in their healthcare plans, or put up nutritional information for every product they sell, as Domino’s Pizza and other companies with 20 or more chain stores are realizing.
“It’s going to be a perfect storm of annoying government behavior, which is devastating to the economy, and I think the small business community which is particularly hit by Obama’s tax increases are going to lead the fight,” Norquist said, claiming the second Tea Party wave would be “bigger, stronger, tougher than the last Tea Party.”
If this second Tea Party wave emerges because of Obama’s overreach and the cowardice of the Republican establishment, it may first clear out enough Republicans who are more than willing to raise taxes and accomodate Democrats, which would enable conservative Republicans to more effectively battle Democrats inside Washington.