In a recent lobby report of 22 pages of various lobby activities including Agriculture, Banking, Budget appropriations, Communications/Broadcasting/Radio/TV, Computer Industry, Defense, Energy/Nuclear, Financial Institutions/Investments/Sec, Health Issues, Labor Issues/Anti- trust/Workplace, Pharmacy, Small Business, Taxation/ Internal Revenue Code, and strangely Postal, Grover Norquist is listed as a paid lobbyist. These are all areas that Grover Norquist is being paid as a professional lobbyist.It boggles the mind to accept the fact he is involved in every aspect of our lives.
Who the hell is he? He is the founder of Americans for Tax Reform who is responsible for the “shrink government until you can drown it in a bathtub” adage. He opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle. As stated by former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, co-chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Norquists’ position is “no taxes, under any situation, even if our country goes to hell”!
As a nonprofit organization, Americans for Tax Reform is not required to disclose the identity of its contributors. ATR is financed by direct mail and other grassroots fundraising efforts. According to CBS News, "a significant portion appears to come from wealthy individuals, foundations and corporate interests.
As of late 2011, 238 of 242 House Republicans and 41 out of 47 Senate Republicans had signed ATR's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", in which the pledger promises to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.
Norquist has connections into the dark side of politics. According to a 2011 memoir by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Norquist was one of Abramoff's first major Republican party contacts. Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform were also mentioned in Senate testimony relating to the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal which resulted in a 2006 guilty plea by Abramoff to three criminal felony counts of defrauding of American Indian tribes and corrupting public officials. Records released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee allege that ATR served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to surreptitiously finance grass-roots lobbying campaigns.
So, how does an anti-tax organization fit into the dismantling of the Postal Service by being a paid lobbyist in support of S. 1789, a senate bill that will destroy the Postal Service in two years when the Postal Service in fact uses no tax payer money. What’s Grover’s skin in this game? Uh, lemme guess, he is a paid shill by Corporate America to take down this Governments infrastructure piece by piece including any regulation that would be a hindrance to the Corporations “bottom line”. Oh, that explains it. It’s all so painfully clear now.
Originally posted at NH Labor News