Who is Grover Norquist?
The United States is suffering a ballooning budget deficit that threatens the stability of the world’s largest economy and therefore the global economy itself. In the face of such a challenge, most countries would see the obvious solution as a mixture of cuts in public expenditure and increases in taxes with tax hikes focused on those most able to pay.
That’s not the way it works in the bitterly divided Congress where a special super committee on the national deficit has failed to reach agreement in large part because all six Republicans have signed a pledge to oppose any tax increase.
The pledge was organised by an individual with the unlikely name Grover Norquist. He heads a powerful lobbying group called Americans For Tax Reform, but his influence in the Congressional deadlock has been such that he has been dubbed the 13th member of the super committee.
You can read more about his efforts here.