Liberal group challenges Norquist to lobbying duel

{mosads}The challenge will center on a new tax reform website set up by the heads of Congress’s tax writing committees. Taxreform.gov invites the public to weigh in on the tax reform debate, inviting them to fill out a form with their suggestions for how to alter the code.

Americans for Tax Fairness insist they can flood that site with comments favoring changes that increase taxes on the wealthy and close loopholes for large corporations, and using new revenue to fund entitlement programs like Social Security and new government projects in infrastructure, education and research.

In contrast, Norquist’s group has maintained that any savings created by changing the tax code, such as closing loopholes, be offset by lower tax rates.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) launched the website earlier this month, in an effort to ensure the public has a voice in the tax reform debate, as opposed to just lobbyists and corporations.

“The public has a huge role to play, because they’re the ones who have to suffer under this nightmare of a tax code, and its complexity,” Camp said in a joint interview with Baucus on NPR.

Americans for Tax Reform did not immediately respond to a request for comment.