Sen. John Thune confirmed the obvious today; you know those Republican pledges not to increase taxes that all the presidential candidates have signed? They’re worthless: Sen. John Thune: Tax pledges can be broken.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday that members of Congress shouldn’t be “bound by” taxpayer pledges, and suggested that such vows would need to be broken in order to achieve broad-based tax reform.

Thune told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that pledges stood in the way of tax reform.

“We shouldn’t be bound by something that could be interpreted different ways if what we’re trying to accomplish is broad-based tax reform,” Thune said. “I think broad-based tax reform ought to be part of our agenda up here. I hope that outside groups that have pledges in the past will recognize that. It’s important that we do something on tax reform.”

Thune, himself a signatory of Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform pledge to not increase taxes, suggested that those who signed taxpayer pledges should rethink their worth.

Nothing but meaningless pandering to the right wing base; they all know they’ll be breaking their “pledges” as soon as they’re elected.