Heh.

Are taxes the central issue?

 No. The Norquist strategy is called "Starve the Beast." The purpose is to severely restrict revenue to the Federal Government. The operating theory here is that the degree of undue power the government has over us is causally linked to the amount of money it spends, and that the debt burden is the only instance where the government is bound to the laws of the free market and therefore the only truly effective restraint on governmental overreach.  

This fight is not about "paying a fair share" or shifting the tax burden onto the wealthy even more than it already is. Everyone who knows this battle intimately knows that our current effective tax rates are still well below the maximal revenue tipping point where diminishing returns start kicking in.

My view is that Congress should impose a single unified tax system across the entire country, collected by the states, and a single unified social welfare system, in the form of personal vouchers, entirely administered by the states, with no federal involvement save Congressional oversight.  Both starving the Beast AND maintaining the safety net.