Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) has joined the list Republican presidential candidates who've signed Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge.
If you're curious what the federal budget would look like under the Rubio administration (Ha!) this should give you a fairly good idea.
“Senator Rubio is a longtime leader in the taxpayer movement. He signed and kept the Pledge as a Florida state House representative and as a United States Senator. By signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to the American people, Senator Rubio continues to protect American taxpayers against higher taxes,” Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said in a statement.
We don't see Norquist's name thrown around as much today as we did a few years ago, but he's still neck deep in all manner of policy snafus.
In Kansas, for example, Governor Sam Brownback has consulted Norquist a number of times to seek his approval for any measure taken to dig the state out of it's man-made fiscal hole. Most recently, Brownback sought Norquist's approval for a plan that allowed certain tax credits to expire. A number of state legislators have also signed Norquist's pledge and because of it they oppose the governor's plan to raise consumption taxes.
I don't believe a governor, or any other elected official (especially the president), should require the approval of a third party ideologue before doing what needs to be done.