Am for Tax Reform ATR GNorq

in on Davis hit:

see also norquist tag

see other node ATR, also Norquist node

10 tags here

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enforcer, dictators

gang of 5

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MPU LONG INTERVIEW

Oct 21, 2026

We sat down with Grover Norquist, Ronald Reagan’s anti-tax warrior and the man behind the GOP’s pledge to never raise taxes. We asked why he calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme, and why Elon Musk pays a lower tax rate than you. Producers: Faiz Shakir

WELFARE DEPENDENCY ; FREEDOM LIBERTY; DEREG BURDEN; LIBTARD, FREE MKT; POOR PPL HAVE NO SAVINGS FOR RETIRE BC SSN TAKES IT AWAY? BETTER PUT IN STOCK MKT; GUBMINT WASTEFUL IF NOT DANGEROUS

We Found The Man Who Shaped How You Pay Taxes (And Why The Rich Don't)

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/the-coronavirus-pandemic-has-exposed-what-the-gops-anti-tax-rhetoric-is-really-all-about/

ewt Gingrich is usually, and rightly, blamed for destroying American politics, even more than Donald Trump. The former House Speaker didn’t go to Washington in the 1970s to strike deals. He went there to wage soft civil war against the United States.

But if there’s a close second to the title of America’s Worst Person, it probably goes to someone you never heard of. He’s not a politician. He’s not a pundit or bureaucrat. When it comes to influencing the GOP’s attitude toward taxing, spending and budgets, however, it would be hard to find someone more influential than Grover Norquist.

Norquist is the head of Americans for Tax Reform. The name is a misnomer. It doesn’t want to “reform” taxes so much as get rid of taxes on the very, very rich. Norquist is probably most famous for saying, in 2001, that he doesn’t want to abolish government per se. “I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can … drown it in the bathtub."

while Gingrich was on the front lines of the soft civil war, armed with lies, slander and disinformation as his weapons of choice, Norquist was in the backrooms, pulling strings, pressing Republicans to pledge to never ever—never ever ever—raise taxes or be punished. The last Republican to raise taxes for the purpose of balancing responsibly the federal budget was George H.W. Bush, the last one-term president.

At some point, it’s hard to say when, Gingrich’s focus on language and Norquist’s focus on policy merged so that the Republicans always sounded like they were being responsible when calling for balanced budgets, but they were in fact being reckless. Why? Responsible budgets consider expenses as well as revenues. You can’t just ignore one if you’re being serious or responsible. Thanks to pressure from Norquist, however, the Republicans pretended revenues didn’t exist. And, alas, the Democratic Party usually went along. The result has been that for years most debates over budgets turned on the question of how much to starve a government of, by and for the people.

To be sure, this pretending was collective. Norquist’s group doesn’t care about the size of government. What it cares about is shoving the tax burden off the shoulders of the very, very rich while at the same time seeing the rich enriched with lucrative contracts. If that means huge deficits, so be it. Similarly, the Republican don’t care about deficits when Republicans are president. (Yes, Ronald Reagan raised taxes but he left office with the books well in the red.) Deficits only matter when Democrats are in charge.

All of this was clear to anyone paying close attention. Even so, Norquist in particular had plausible deniability on his side. Though budgets were swollen to bursting on account of irresponsible Republican attitudes, he and others could always say, well, we’re spending too much on wasteful expenditures. If we didn’t spend so much of what people don’t need—or on what people have grown dependent on—budgets and the government would be smaller and better. Plausible deniability meant his group always seemed to be at least somewhat principled, even to people paying close attention.

It seems to me the age of plausible deniability is over. Americans for Tax Reform, which was at the center the tea party movement that took over the Republican Party, applied for and received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan as part of an effort to stimulate the economy as it reels from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The guy who wanted to drown the government in a bathtub cried to help while drowning.

You could say, well, that’s OK. Everyone’s facing hard times. But everyone faced hard times during thefinancial panic of 2007-2008, too. Indeed, Barack Obama, after winning reelection, wanted George W. Bush-era tax cuts on the rich to expire in order to fund a multi-billion dollar jobs program. After 2012, when the GOP lost seats in the Senate, some Republicans felt pressure to play along—until Norquist stepped in. “We’ve got some people,” he said, “discussing impure thoughts on national television.”

The jobs program was shelved, almost certainly prolonging the Great Recession.Yet amid another historic crisis, here we see Grover Norquist of all people with his hand out. It’s not a lot, just $350,000 in forgivable loans. It’s the principle of the thing in that there are no and never have been principles guiding the fiscal conservative project. Only the idea that government is for the very, very rich, not of, by and for the people.

Norquist isn’t alone, of course. The Republicans were so hostile toward Obama’s economic agenda that they brought the country to the brink of insolvency by refusing to lift the debt limit. And yet Republican members of Congress and the president’s family business got access this month to $660 billion in forgivable PPP money, as did 90,000 well-connected businesses that promised to save zero jobs in the bargain.

Sabotage was good politics when Obama was in charge. With Trump, it’s belly up to the trough. This should matter to white swing voters after the election. The Republicans will try reupping the con. They will say they fight for them. They don’t. They are waging soft civil war. While that was never obvious, it should be clear now.

John Stoehr is the editor and publisher of the Editorial Board, a newsletter about politics in plain English for normal people and the common good. He’s a visiting assistant professor of public policy at Wesleyan University, a fellow at the Yale Journalism Initiative, a contributing writer for the Washington Monthly, and a contributing editor for Religion Dispatches.

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net neutral 818:

• Americans for Tax Reformalso signed the letter. They are best known for their ties to prominent conservative figures like founder Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, and the Koch brothers, but they also have financial ties to the telecom industry. The NCTA gave them $50,000 per year for general support from 2011 to 2015 according to tax records. The CTIA (via MyWireless) chipped in another $165,000 from 2010-2016. They are also a member of the State Policy Network.
• The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)signed the letter through their 501(c)(4) affiliate ALEC Action. ALEC is well known for their work with corporations and interest groups on crafting model legislation for state legislatures, and among those corporate partners are major net neutrality opponents like AT&T, Comcast, Charter, and Verizon. ALEC has also received at least $10,000 from MyWireless, tax records show.

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A gas and oil representative lamented that all the public hears about is when something goes wrong, like the “Firestone event.”  Turns out the “Firestone event” was a deadly house explosion that recently occurred in Firestone, Colorado where two people were killed.  The conflagration was caused when a well owned by Anadarko Petroleum was still attached to an abandoned, leaking gas line. Anadarko, a big fracking company, is a sponsor of the ALEC conference.What a nuisance that the public remembers such an event and that the state would step in to require additional safety precautions!

Renewable energy technologies are the enemy at ALEC. The Colorado Senator stated that renewable energies can’t even be considered an industry because of thesubsidies needed and because “we can’t afford charities.”  Totally ignored are the massive public subsidies handed out to the gas and oil industry.  Even one of the presenters had to remind the audience that the fracking industry had received billions of dollars in public subsidies. You could hear a pin drop in response.

And on the docket today is the consideration by the Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force of a model policy resolution condemning Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs, pushed by **Americans for Tax Reform**.  PACE programs allow property owners to receive low-cost commercial loans to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with long-term repayment options.

Sigh.  So much for the free market.

Learn more about what’s on the agenda at this ALEC conference at ExposedbyCMD.org.

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2/14 billboards to keep VW union

tenn http://www.newsmax.com/US/grover-norquist-union-volkswaqen-tennessee/2014/02/07/id/551465

Americans for Tax Reform, the politically active nonprofit headed by longtime antitax activitst Grover Norquist, raised and spent nearly $31 million in 2012, according to its tax filing for the year -- a new record for the group.

Because ATR separately had reported to the Federal Election Commission that it spent nearly $15.8 million on independent expenditures in the last election cycle -- ads that explicitly ask the public to vote for or against a candidate -- the 501(c)(4) social welfare organization appears to be testing the IRS guideline that such a group's political spending can't amount to a majority of its activity. In this case, the amount reported to the FEC comes to more than 51 percent of ATR's total spending.

ATR told the IRS that it spent just $9.8 million on politics for the year, seeming to contradict what it reported to the FEC. The tax agency has no cut-and-dried test for what it counts as "political" spending, as OpenSecrets Blog has noted in the past. However, it has always been clear that expenditures directly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate, as reported to the FEC, fit what the IRS considers to be political activity. 

"I cannot think of a definition where express advocacy would not be considered political intervention" under IRS rules, said Donald Tobin, a law professor at Ohio State University's Moritz School of Law.

Frances Hill, an expert on nonprofits at the University of Miami's law school, agreed. She said the only way the figure ATR reported to the IRS could be correct was if the group overreported its spending to the election agency, due to error or out of a desire to show it was spending more than it did. 

Repeated efforts today to get comment from ATR were unsuccessful by the time of this post.

In addition, the vast majority of ATR's funds -- $26.4 million, or 85 percent -- came fromCrossroads GPS, the 800-pound-gorilla among conservative dark money nonprofits that are highly politically active and don't disclose their donors. That means that ATR used at least a sizable portion of the Crossroads grant to fund its political ads, even given the fact that it is difficult to trace how any single donated dollar is spent.

Crossroads, which was cofounded by GOP strategist Karl Rove, made $35.1 million in grants to other nonprofits last year, including the large grant to ATR, according to its own tax forms, also filed on Friday but not available until today. Rove's group counts its grants to other 501(c)(4) groups toward its social welfare spending, which must be a majority of what it does, the IRS says.

On the tax form, Crossroads says, "Grants are accompanied by a letter of transmittal, stating that the funds are to be used only for 501(c)(4) [tax] exempt purposes, and not for political expenditures, consistent with the organization's tax-exempt mission" (emphasis ours).

Crossroads may be arguing "that when it makes the grants, it has made them conditional" on the money not being used for politics, Tobin said. But he noted that this is another imprecise area at the IRS: There are no requirements that an organization follow up on how its funds were used, nor any standard ways of doing so. "We haven't had a lot of cases or guidance," Tobin said.

The use of millions of dollars in Crossroads funds by ATR for advertising for or against candidates and for other campaign-related purposes raises further questions about the burgeoning role of nondisclosing 501(c) organizations in politics. Such groups aren't supposed to operate in concert with candidates but can have a huge impact raising and spending unlimited amounts of money on their own, and can strategize with similar groups and with super PACs, among others. Tax filings show that in any number of cases, conservative groups have networked to give money to each other and back again. 

In the 2012 election cycle, nondisclosing 501(c) organizations spent more than $300 million, according to forms they filed with the FEC, and that doesn't include any money spent on issue ads unless they were aired within weeks of an election (the only circumstance in which they must be reported). 

Aside from Crossroads GPS, ATR brought in only $4.6 million in grants from other organizations and individuals, some of which have been identified by OpenSecrets Blog.  

Americans for Tax Reform has been circulating and promoting its Taxpayer Protection Pledge for decades.  Getting lawmakers to sign this pledge, which calls on lawmakers to promise that they will neither raise taxes nor end deductions during their time in office, is the centerpiece of the ATR mission.

For the last seven years for which IRS filings are available, ATR has reported spending an average of $759,085 promoting the pledge each year. In 2012, however, ATR claims to have spent nearly $28 million on the project.     

Given that it only spent $31 overall, and $15.8 was laid out trying to either elect or defeat candidates running for Congress, according to FEC reports, that means ATR counted at least some of its ads as pledge promotion.

This is not the first time that Americans for Tax Reform's IRS filings have raised questions about discrepancies and rule bending.  In 2010, ATR received more than $8 million from Crossroads GPS and the Center to Protect Patient Rights. That same year, after reporting to the FEC that it spent $4.1 million on independent expenditures in the midterm elections, it reported to the IRS that it only had spent $1.9 million on politics, while also spending $8 million on "election related advertisements."

Discrepancies are not new for ATR.  The critical issue this year, though, is that if it did spend the $15.8 million it reported to the FEC, then it spent more than half of its 2012 outlays on politics.

Crossroads' other activity

Crossroads reported spending $188.9 million during the election year -- more than eight times what it spent in 2011, it said on its tax documents. Of that, $74.1 went for direct or indirect political activity, according to the forms; that's more than the almost $71 million that it told the FEC it spent on politics. 

In addition, it reported making $35.1 million in grants. Besides the large sum to ATR, Crossroads GPS gave $2 million to Americans for Job Security, a dark money group to which it hadn't previously donated but with which it coordinates strategy.

More than $128 million was sent to Crossroads' five highest-paid contractors, all of which provided either media services, database services or phone communication services. Most of that -- $118 million -- went to Crossroads Media LLC, a firm that is technically not affiliated with the 501(c)(4) group. The head of the media firm, Mike Dubke, was a founding member of Americans for Job Security -- which itself paid Crossroads Media nearly $15 million from late 2011 to late 2012, FEC reports show.

The Wall Street Journal first wrote about some of the elements reported on Crossroads' Form 990 when it was given an advance look last week. Together, Crossroads GPS and its super PAC affiliate, American Crossroads, laid out more than $176 million in the 2012 cycle for political ads and other activity that had to be reported to the FEC.

Tags:

• 501(c)(4),
• americans for job security,
• americans for tax reform,
• crossroads gps,
• crossroads media,
• dark money,
• donald tobin,
• frances hill,
• grover norquist,
• karl rove,
• mike dubke,
• outside spending,
• robert maguire,
• shadow money trail,
• social welfare,
• taxpayer protection pledge

Grand Total: $15,794,552

Total For Democrats: $457,352

Total Against Democrats: $13,925,653

Total For Republicans: $1,408,000

Total Against Republicans: $3,547

 Why don't the numbers add up?

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targets green energy

http://grist.org/wind-power/anti-wind-activists-want-to-create-fake-grassroots-campaign-against-industry/

oct 2012

Dark money group Americans for Tax Reform just dropped close to $2 million to influence competitive House races. 

Victories for the 501(c)4 non-profit lobbying organization, founded by conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist in 1985, would undoubtedly complicate efforts to reach a deal to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff" because the group "opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle." ATR's central tenet -- the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which requires lawmakers to  "solemnly bind themselves to oppose any and all tax increases," enjoys the backing most Republicans in Congress and all but one of this year's GOP presidential candidates. But there have been some notable dissenters.

Norquist's influential group has reported spending a total $3.9 million on House and Senate races, almost all in the last two weeks.In the last 24 hours alone, ATR clocked $1.97 million in independent expenditures in reports to the the Federal Election Commission. All were for negative television ads, like the one seen above, against Democrats in six House races, three of them involving Republican freshmen:

• $414,000 to oppose Scott Peters in effort to unseat veteran Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray for California's 52nd Congressional District, a race that nonpartisan political handicapper Charlie Cook rates a tossup.
• $185,000 to oppose the reelection of rookie Democratic Rep. Mark Critz in Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District, another tossup, according to the Cook Political Report. ATR's latest expenditures are in addition to $495,000 the group dumped into the race earlier this month.
• $136,000 against incumbent Democratic Rep. John Barrow Georgia's 12th Congressional District. Cook gives Republicans a better-than even chance to take Barrow's seat.
• $374,000 to boost freshman Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., against state Rep. Sal Pace in Colorado's 3rd district. Before this weekend, the race had seen less than $90,000 in total outside spending, but Tipton has received strong support from GOP insiders. While Cook still rates Tipton the favorite to win a second term, he has moved the contest from "likely" to "lean" Republican.
• $344,000 to oppose Sean Maloney, a one-time aide to former President Bill Clinton, in his race against freshman Republican Rep. Nan Hayworth in New York's redrawn 18th Congressional District. Cook also rates this contest a tossup.
• $519,000 in Ohio's 6th Congressional District, where former Democratic Rep. Charlie Wilson is trying to snatch the seat back from the freshman Republican who unseated him two years ago, Rep. Bill Johnson. While Cook gives Republicans the edge to keep this seat, he cautions that polls show the race is "quite tight."

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sponsor of bogus climate conf see wars 33 march 2008

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is ostensibly a group that pushes for lower taxes. It has close ties to the Republican Party and has frequently allied itself with the tobacco industry.

Contents

[hide]

   * 1 Special Projects

         o 1.1 Monthly radio program

         o 1.2 Nationalization of Virginia state tax issues

   * 2 KStreetProject.com

   * 3 Ronald Reagan Legacy Project

   * 4 Property Rights Alliance

   * 5 Alliance for Worker Freedom

   * 6 The Media Freedom Project

   * 7 The American Shareholders Project

         o 7.1 Conservative Movement Maps

         o 7.2 Action Alerts

               + 7.2.1 End the Estate Tax

               + 7.2.2 Fight Net Neutrality

               + 7.2.3 Oppose any limitations on "Grassroots" Internet Lobbying

               + 7.2.4 Extend lower taxes on capital gains and dividends

               + 7.2.5 Suport Alito for the Supreme Court

               + 7.2.6 Support the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)

   * 8 Personnel

   * 9 Funding

   * 10 History

   * 11 Wining and dining with Norquist

   * 12 Tax and spend ... for war

   * 13 Contact information

   * 14 Articles and resources

         o 14.1 Related SourceWatch articles

         o 14.2 References

         o 14.3 External resources

         o 14.4 External articles

Special Projects

The website provides links to the following projects:[1]

Monthly radio program

Grover Norquist's Radio Show, "Leave Us Alone" broadcasts on the internet every fourth Thursday on Rightalk. The organizational website maintains an archive of the programs. [2]

Nationalization of Virginia state tax issues

Starting in 2004, ATF launched a national letterwriting campaign to persuade Virginia legislators to fight Democratic Governor Mark Warner's plan to raise taxes to maintain the state's AAA bond raising and meet commitments to K-12 and higher education funding, among other purposes. Warner had inherited budget shortfalls from his predecessor, Republican George Allen and had already cut spending to avoid a deficit. [3]

When 34 Republican legislators worked with Virginia’s Democratic governor to secure passage, they issued a "Virginia's Least Wanted" poster targeting those Republicans. On April 24, 2005, ATF issued a press release touting those legislators that had signed a pledge not to increase taxes.[4]

On June 15, 2005, after the state primary, ATR issued a press release claiming that "Taxpayer advocates believe the two scalps they claimed last night – those of Gary Reese (H-67), who was defeated by newcomer Chris Craddock, and James Dillard (H-41), who retired rather than face a strong challenge from Michael Golden – are only their latest wins against the pro-tax 'Republicans.' Last September, Sen. Ken Stolle (S-8) was denied a seat in Congress because of his pro-tax vote; anti-tax Delegate Thelma Drake took the seat in Congress instead. In the special election to succeed Thelma Drake, Republican Michael Ball lost by less than 100 votes because he tried to finesse the tax issue."[5]

However, the strategy may have backfired. Both the Dillard and Reese seats, which had been Republican, ended up as Democratic seats in the general election. In fact in the Craddock-Caputo race in Virginia's 67th District, Norquist became a target in the campaign.

KStreetProject.com

K Street Project is "non-partisan research of political affiliation, employment background, and political donations of members in Washington DC's premier lobbying firms, trade associations, and industries." Ironically, it shares its name with the project by the Republican Party to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials. That projects was launched in 1995, by Republican strategist and ATF founder Grover Norquist working with former House majority leader Tom DeLay.

While many of the resources on this site appear non-partisan, there is also a prominent link to Daniel J. Flynn's report on liberal bias in higher education. [6]

Author of Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas (Crown Forum, 2004) and Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness (Prima Forum, 2002). The latter is a Crown imprint which publishes conservative, current event titles. [7] such as Flynn, Ann Coulter and L. Brent Bozell III, founder and president of the Media Research Center. Flynn served from 1994-1997 as program officer for Young America's Foundation, from 1997-2003 as executive director of Accuracy in Academia, and from 2004-2005 as director of the Campus Leadership Program at the Leadership Institute.[8]

Ronald Reagan Legacy Project

The Ronald Reagan Legacy Project is a project of Americans for Tax Reform. It is a project to put Reagan's image on U.S. ten dollar bill and to "dedicate more things after Reagan." It promotes a Ronald Reagan Day and naming landmarks after Reagan.

Property Rights Alliance

This group works to influence legislation in opposition to the estate tax,[9] environmental protection, licensing restrictions, Federal purchase of land for national parks and wildlife areas, broadcast requirements for multicssting and drug importation, as well as seizure by eminent domain. [10]

Alliance for Worker Freedom

The "Alliance for Worker Freedom" is a "special project" of Americans for Tax Reform. The name is really a misnomer, as the Alliance opposes unions. At the Web site of the AWF, it says "AWF works to raise awareness of labor union abuses within the political system by educating movement conservatives on the threats to liberty posed by labor unions." AWF opposes collective bargaining.[1] AWF opposes the Employee Free Choice Act.[2] [11]

The Media Freedom Project

Advocating free market solutions to media, technology and telecommunications policy issues http://www.mediafreedomproject.org/index.php?content=aboutus

The American Shareholders Project

This project has the mission of providing a "voice to people...in the public policy debates that impact" savings and investments. [12] This includes opposition to the estate tax and a "fairer, simpler", e.g. less progressive tax rate.[13]

Conservative Movement Maps

"As a resource to our friends and supporters, we have provided issue maps that describe the 50 states in terms of where they are in the issues that most affect Conservatives" such as voting trends, but also government pensions, home schooling and official English laws.[14]

Action Alerts

[15]

End the Estate Tax

Fight Net Neutrality

Oppose any limitations on "Grassroots" Internet Lobbying

Extend lower taxes on capital gains and dividends

Suport Alitofor the Supreme Court

Support the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)

"Approving CAFTA will reward the democracies in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic for rejecting the Communists, and will send the message to the region and the world that those who adopt free market policies will prosper, and those who adopt Leftist anti-American protectionist policies will fail."[16]

Personnel

ATR is headed by Grover Norquist, one of the most connected members of the new right-wing movement. He has close ties to the Republican Party, large U.S. business interests, and both the subsidized and regular U.S. media. Norquist helped the Heritage Foundation write the Republican's 1994 Contract With America.

Shortly thereafter, Norquist led a right wing charge to"de-fund" the left,declaring that "We will hunt [these liberal groups] down one by one and extinguish their funding sources." Norquist has also worked as a lobbyist for clients including Microsoft, American Business for Legal Immigration, Distilled Spirits Council, Edison Electric Institute, Interactive Gaming Council, and British Petroleum.

Funding

   * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

   * Carthage Foundation; see Scaife Foundations

   * JM Foundation

   * John M. Olin Foundation

   * Sarah Scaife Foundation; see Scaife Foundations

   * R.J. Reynolds

   * Philip Morris

   * Tobacco Institute

   * Jack Abramoff's clients, the Chiefs of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and the Coushattas tribe of Louisiana both gave $25,000 in 2001 and AATF received a cut of funds for laudering the emoney [17]

History

In a May 25, 1989, memo to the Steering Committee of Americans for Tax Reform – a document that was curiously found in the files of the now defunct Tobacco Institute – Grover Norquist excitedly reported progress on the ‘anti-tax front’. Not only had a swag of member of Congress promised to veto any tax increase, Norquist reported, there had been “three Wall Street Journal editorials highlighting the importance of ATR’s pledge campaign in stopping tax hikes”.

He also reported that an article in the Washington Times “which kindly quotes an agreement that I will have input into the question of what is a ‘duck’ – ie tax increase, and what is not”. [18]

Gingrich, as Republican whip in the House of Representatives, negotiated an agreement with the then President George Bush to vet any budget proposals. Under the deal, Gingrich would advise on whether proposed revenue raising proposals were in fact tax increases, or 'ducks' as Gingrich termed them. “It is fair to say, in dealing with Darman [White House Budget Director] and the administration in general on what is and isn’t a duck, I would lean very heavily on Richard Rahn (chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), Jeff Eisenach and Grover Norquist … They have a very good sense of the distinction between ducks and geese”, Gingrich said.

“The president has agreed the administration team will consult with the House Republicans and that for my part I will, as whip, in turn consult with these three people regarding the duck test,” he said. [19]

Wining and dining with Norquist

While corporate funding for ATR may have been volatile, Norquist had success on another front. In a letter to invitation to PM’s Washington-based Legislative Council, Ms Beverley McKittrick, Norquist reported that during 1997, 1997 and 1998 a series ofATR hosted dinner discussions on tax issues had all been sold out. The earlier dinners had featured speakers such as former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, Congressman John Kasich and Congressman Bill Thomas.

Norquist offered McKittrick a subscription to the 1999 series of six dinners – with Congressmen Armey, Chairman Archer and the Speaker of the House Denny Hastert amongst the invited speakers – “for a modest contribution of $10,000”.

“Only 24 business leaders will be in attendance,” Norquist assured McKittrick. The series of dinners, Norquist wrote, were chaired by Bill Roesing of Seagram & Sons and co-chaired by Chuck Crowders of Lucent Technologies.[20]

By 1999 PM’s contribution to ATR had grown to $160,000. [21] The Tobacco Institute contributed another $10,000 in 1999. [22]

In March 1999, Norquist was active lobbying members of the Senate Budget Committee in defence of the tobacco industry. “The Tobacco industry is a lawful industry subject to an excessive tax burden, already 41 cents per packet to state governments for re-imbursement of smoking related illness and over a dollar per pack taxes (depending on the state, some taxes are much higher0. That is already one-third tax burden on a legal product. Furthermore they employ thousands of Americans, which educates, feeds and clothes families across this nation”, Norquist wrote. [23]

The following week ATR was claiming to legislators that a Senate Budget resolution seeking to remove the tax-deductibility of payments made by the tobacco industry to settle the legal actions taken against it by State Attorney General’s would breach ATR’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge. The second paragraph of the pledge, ATR said, required supporters to “oppose any further reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar further reducing tax rates”.[24]

ATR’s role also extended to facilitating the introduction of one Republican political aspirant to RJR. “Bethany Noble from Americans for Tax Reform will be bringing Kevin Kellems (republican candidate to oppose Baron Hill in Ind. 9) by for a brief visit at 3.00 today. Kellems is a tobacco farmer, and has a pretty fair shot at unseating Hill,” Donald Foreman, an RJR staffer, wrote in an e-mail to his colleagues.

There was potential for embarrassment however, as RJR had donated $500 to Hill. Despite this, Foreman suggested “this is a race we may want to keep an eye on and see how it look [sic] in a few months”. [25]

A 1999 RJR Corporate Affairs plan identified one of the key strategies as being to “mobilize key third party groups (such as Americans for Tax reform, CART, NSA and others) to ensure that RJR’s message is effectively communicated, reinforced and understood by key opinion leaders”.

“We seek forums, in the media or with third parties who help us fight onerous legislation/regulation, to balance hyperbolic accusations of well financed critics whose credibility with key audiences is greater than hours”, the document stated. [26]

Tax and spend ... for war

Shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City, the New Republic reported that Norquist had been working to broker a "strange alliance" between the Republican Party and radical Islam.[27] In February 2003, however, ATR weighed in to support the Bush administration's war drive against Iraq. According to the New York Times, "Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said his organization had sent every state legislature a proposed measure for adoption the day fighting starts that supports Mr. Bush's actions."[28]

Contact information

Americans for Tax Reform

1920 L Street NW

Suite 200

Washington, DC 20036

Phone: (202) 785-0266

Fax: (202) 785-0261

Email: friends AT atr.org

Press contact: John Kartch, jkartch AT atr.org

Website: http://www.atr.org/

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

   * Americans for Tax Reform and Jack Abramoff

   * Americans for Tax Reform and Big Tobacco

   * In Defense of Freedom Coalition

   * Media Freedom Project

   * Peter Roff

* Global Climate Science Communications Plan (1998)

   * Peter Cleary

References

  1. ↑ Alliance for Worker Freedom Collective Bargaining, organizational Web site, accessed August 27, 2010

  2. ↑ Alliance for Worker Freedom The Employee Free Choice Act, organizational Web site, accessed August 27, 2010

External resources

External articles

   * BBC News, Why does Taxing the rich make ordinary voters angry, Feb. 3, 2010.

   * Reuters, "Tea Party Warriors Take aim at Florida Senate Race, Feb. 2, 2010.

   * Ken Bode, "Florida Tea Party in Full Swing", Indianapolis Star, Jan. 29, 2010.

   * Peter Roff, "Obama Spending Freeze is Simply not Credible", U.S. News and World Report, January 26, 2010.

   * Americans for Tax Reform, "ATR Launches Media Freedom Project, Web site; Grassroots Organization Will Advocate for Media Deregulation", Media Release, U.S. Newswire, May 4, 2005.

   * Washington Post, "Virginia's Money Plans" chart of February 25, 2005.

   * Shenon, Philip, "$25,000 to Lobby Group Is Tied to Access to Bush," New York Times, March 10, 2006.

   * Americans for Tax Reform,"[29] "Leave Us Alone]" accessed June 8, 2006. All footnotes in the special projects section link to the ATR website on the page noted, as accessed on that same date.

   * Americans for Tax Reform, "Virginia signers of the taxpayer protection pledge" Release of April 4, 2005.

   * Americans for Tax Reform, "Taxpayers win in Virginia Primaries" release of June 14, 2005.

   * James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt, "Senate Report: Five Nonprofit Groups Sold Clout to Abramoff," Washington Post, October 12, 2006.

   * Press release, "Survey: 7 in 10 Americans Urge FCC to Cap Out-Of-Control Spending on 'High Cost' Portion of Universal Service Fund Phone Bill Tax," Cap The Fund (a project of The Senior Coalition, Americans for Tax Reform, the Maryland Taxpayers Association and The Media Freedom Project) via PR Newswire, November 14, 2007.

   * Press release, "As Federal Phone Tax Heads Higher, 'Cap The Fund' Web Site To Help Consumers Support FCC Curbs on Universal Service Fund (USF) Waste," Cap The Fund via PR Newswire, March 18, 2008.

   * John Eggerton, "Boehner, Conservative Groups Weigh In on Localism: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin Hears from Rep. John Boehner, Americans for Tax Reform, Christian Coalition, Citizens United," Broadcasting & Cable, June 13, 2008.

   * Glen Dickson, "Microsoft Presses for White Spaces Vote: Microsoft's Craig Mundie tells reporters 'no justifiable reason' to delay FCC vote on proposed devices," Broadcasting & Cable, October 27, 2008.

   * David Hogberg, "Conservatives Admit Mistakes As They Plot Return To Power," Investor's Business Daily, November 6, 2008.

   * Mike Allen, "Exclusive: Conservative group offers support for $2M", Politico, July 17, 2009.

   * Dennis Whitfield, ACU Executive Vice President, "Statement from ACU regarding false headline by Washington publication POLITICO ", Media Release, July 17, 2009.

   * Tom Hamburger and James Oliphant, [30], "Court Ruling on Campaign Spending could Pay off for GOP."

   * Tea Party movement gains steam across the country, [31], January 23, 2010.

Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Tax_Reform"

Categories: Tobaccowiki | Front groups portal | United States | Health | Politics (US)

2x for links

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is ostensibly a group that pushes for lower taxes. It has close ties to the Republican Party and has frequently allied itself with the tobacco industry.

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Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

ATR is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).[1]

ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) They fund almost all of ALEC's operations. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. It might be right. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. Learn more at ALECexposed.org.

Special Projects

The website provides links to the following projects:[1]

Monthly radio program

Grover Norquist's Radio Show, "Leave Us Alone" broadcasts on the internet every fourth Thursday on Rightalk. The organizational website maintains an archive of the programs. [2]

Nationalization of Virginia state tax issues

Starting in 2004, ATF launched a national letterwriting campaign to persuade Virginia legislators to fight Democratic Governor Mark Warner's plan to raise taxes to maintain the state's AAA bond raising and meet commitments to K-12 and higher education funding, among other purposes. Warner had inherited budget shortfalls from his predecessor, Republican George Allen and had already cut spending to avoid a deficit. [3]

When 34 Republican legislators worked with Virginia’s Democratic governor to secure passage, they issued a "Virginia's Least Wanted" poster targeting those Republicans. On April 24, 2005, ATF issued a press release touting those legislators that had signed a pledge not to increase taxes.[4]

On June 15, 2005, after the state primary, ATR issued a press release claiming that "Taxpayer advocates believe the two scalps they claimed last night – those of Gary Reese (H-67), who was defeated by newcomer Chris Craddock, and James Dillard (H-41), who retired rather than face a strong challenge from Michael Golden – are only their latest wins against the pro-tax 'Republicans.' Last September, Sen. Ken Stolle (S-8) was denied a seat in Congress because of his pro-tax vote; anti-tax Delegate Thelma Drake took the seat in Congress instead. In the special election to succeed Thelma Drake, Republican Michael Ball lost by less than 100 votes because he tried to finesse the tax issue."[5]

However, the strategy may have backfired. Both the Dillard and Reese seats, which had been Republican, ended up as Democratic seats in the general election. In fact in the Craddock-Caputo race in Virginia's 67th District, Norquist became a target in the campaign.

KStreetProject.com

K Street Project is "non-partisan research of political affiliation, employment background, and political donations of members in Washington DC's premier lobbying firms, trade associations, and industries." Ironically, it shares its name with the project by the Republican Party to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials. That projects was launched in 1995, by Republican strategist and ATF founder Grover Norquist working with former House majority leader Tom DeLay.

While many of the resources on this site appear non-partisan, there is also a prominent link to Daniel J. Flynn's report on liberal bias in higher education. [6]

Author of Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas (Crown Forum, 2004) and Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness (Prima Forum, 2002). The latter is a Crown imprint which publishes conservative, current event titles. [7] such as Flynn, Ann Coulter and L. Brent Bozell III, founder and president of the Media Research Center. Flynn served from 1994-1997 as program officer for Young America's Foundation, from 1997-2003 as executive director of Accuracy in Academia, and from 2004-2005 as director of the Campus Leadership Program at the Leadership Institute.[8]

Ronald Reagan Legacy Project

The Ronald Reagan Legacy Project is a project of Americans for Tax Reform. It is a project to put Reagan's image on U.S. ten dollar bill and to "dedicate more things after Reagan." It promotes a Ronald Reagan Day and naming landmarks after Reagan.Cite error: Closing missing for tag

Property Rights Alliance

This group works to influence legislation in opposition to the estate tax,[9] environmental protection, licensing restrictions, Federal purchase of land for national parks and wildlife areas, broadcast requirements for multicssting and drug importation, as well as seizure by eminent domain. [10]

Alliance for Worker Freedom

The "Alliance for Worker Freedom" is a "special project" of Americans for Tax Reform. The name is really a misnomer, as the Alliance opposes unions. At the Web site of the AWF, it says "AWF works to raise awareness of labor union abuses within the political system by educating movement conservatives on the threats to liberty posed by labor unions." AWF opposes collective bargaining.[2] AWF opposes the Employee Free Choice Act.[3] [11]

The Media Freedom Project

Advocating free market solutions to media, technology and telecommunications policy issues http://www.mediafreedomproject.org/index.php?content=aboutus

The American Shareholders Project

This project has the mission of providing a "voice to people...in the public policy debates that impact" savings and investments. [12] This includes opposition to the estate tax and a "fairer, simpler", e.g. less progressive tax rate.[13]

Conservative Movement Maps

"As a resource to our friends and supporters, we have provided issue maps that describe the 50 states in terms of where they are in the issues that most affect Conservatives" such as voting trends, but also government pensions, home schooling and official English laws.[14]

Action Alerts

[15]

End the Estate Tax

Fight Net Neutrality

Oppose any limitations on "Grassroots" Internet Lobbying

Extend lower taxes on capital gains and dividends

Suport Alito for the Supreme Court

Support the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)

"Approving CAFTA will reward the democracies in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic for rejecting the Communists, and will send the message to the region and the world that those who adopt free market policies will prosper, and those who adopt Leftist anti-American protectionist policies will fail."[16]

Personnel

ATR is headed by Grover Norquist, one of the most connected members of the new right-wing movement. He has close ties to the Republican Party, large U.S. business interests, and both the subsidized and regular U.S. media. Norquist helped the Heritage Foundation write the Republican's 1994 Contract With America.

Shortly thereafter, Norquist led a right wing charge to "de-fund" the left, declaring that "We will hunt [these liberal groups] down one by one and extinguish their funding sources." Norquist has also worked as a lobbyist for clients including Microsoft, American Business for Legal Immigration, Distilled Spirits Council, Edison Electric Institute, Interactive Gaming Council, and British Petroleum.

Funding

• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• Carthage Foundation; see Scaife Foundations
• JM Foundation
• John M. Olin Foundation
• Sarah Scaife Foundation; see Scaife Foundations
• R.J. Reynolds
• Philip Morris
• Tobacco Institute
• Jack Abramoff's clients, the Chiefs of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and the Coushattas tribe of Louisiana both gave $25,000 in 2001 and AATF received a cut of funds for laudering the emoney [17]

History

In a May 25, 1989, memo to the Steering Committee of Americans for Tax Reform – a document that was curiously found in the files of the now defunct Tobacco Institute – Grover Norquist excitedly reported progress on the ‘anti-tax front’. Not only had a swag of member of Congress promised to veto any tax increase, Norquist reported, there had been “three Wall Street Journal editorials highlighting the importance of ATR’s pledge campaign in stopping tax hikes”.

He also reported that an article in the Washington Times “which kindly quotes an agreement that I will have input into the question of what is a ‘duck’ – ie tax increase, and what is not”. [18]

Gingrich, as Republican whip in the House of Representatives, negotiated an agreement with the then President George Bush to vet any budget proposals. Under the deal, Gingrich would advise on whether proposed revenue raising proposals were in fact tax increases, or 'ducks' as Gingrich termed them. “It is fair to say, in dealing with Darman [White House Budget Director] and the administration in general on what is and isn’t a duck, I would lean very heavily on Richard Rahn (chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), Jeff Eisenach and Grover Norquist … They have a very good sense of the distinction between ducks and geese”, Gingrich said.

“The president has agreed the administration team will consult with the House Republicans and that for my part I will, as whip, in turn consult with these three people regarding the duck test,” he said. [19]

Wining and dining with Norquist

While corporate funding for ATR may have been volatile, Norquist had success on another front. In a letter to invitation to PM’s Washington-based Legislative Council, Ms Beverley McKittrick, Norquist reported that during 1997, 1997 and 1998 a series of ATR hosted dinner discussions on tax issues had all been sold out. The earlier dinners had featured speakers such as former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, Congressman John Kasich and Congressman Bill Thomas.

Norquist offered McKittricka subscription to the 1999 series of six dinners – with Congressmen Armey, Chairman Archer and the Speaker of the House Denny Hastert amongst the invited speakers – “for a modest contribution of $10,000”.

“Only 24 business leaders will be in attendance,” Norquist assured McKittrick. The series of dinners, Norquist wrote, were chaired by Bill Roesing of Seagram & Sons and co-chaired by Chuck Crowders of Lucent Technologies.[20]

By 1999 PM’s contribution to ATR had grown to $160,000. [21] The Tobacco Institute contributed another $10,000 in 1999. [22]

In March 1999, Norquist was active lobbying members of the Senate Budget Committee in defence of the tobacco industry. “The Tobacco industry is a lawful industry subject to an excessive tax burden, already 41 cents per packet to state governments for re-imbursement of smoking related illness and over a dollar per pack taxes (depending on the state, some taxes are much higher0. That is already one-third tax burden on a legal product. Furthermore they employ thousands of Americans, which educates, feeds and clothes families across this nation”, Norquist wrote. [23]

The following week ATR was claiming to legislators that a Senate Budget resolution seeking to remove the tax-deductibility of payments made by the tobacco industry to settle the legal actions taken against it by State Attorney General’s would breach ATR’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge. The second paragraph of the pledge, ATR said, required supporters to “oppose any further reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar further reducing tax rates”.[24]

ATR’s role also extended to facilitating the introduction of one Republican political aspirant to RJR. “Bethany Noble from Americans for Tax Reform will be bringing Kevin Kellems (republican candidate to oppose Baron Hill in Ind. 9) by for a brief visit at 3.00 today. Kellems is a tobacco farmer, and has a pretty fair shot at unseating Hill,” Donald Foreman, an RJR staffer, wrote in an e-mail to his colleagues.

There was potential for embarrassment however, as RJR had donated $500 to Hill. Despite this, Foreman suggested “this is a race we may want to keep an eye on and see how it look [sic] in a few months”. [25]

A 1999 RJR Corporate Affairs plan identified one of the key strategies as being to “mobilize key third party groups (such as Americans for Tax reform, CART, NSA and others) to ensure that RJR’s message is effectively communicated, reinforced and understood by key opinion leaders”.

“We seek forums, in the media or with third parties who help us fight onerous legislation/regulation, to balance hyperbolic accusations of well financed critics whose credibility with key audiences is greater than hours”, the document stated. [26]

Tax and spend ... for war

Shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City, the New Republic reported that Norquist had been working to broker a "strange alliance" between the Republican Party and radical Islam.[27] In February 2003, however, ATR weighed in to support the Bush administration's war drive against Iraq. According to the New York Times, "Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said his organization had sent every state legislature a proposed measure for adoption the day fighting starts that supports Mr. Bush's actions."[28]

Contact information

Americans for Tax Reform

1920 L Street NW

Suite 200

Washington, DC 20036

Phone: (202) 785-0266

Fax: (202) 785-0261

Email: friends AT atr.org

Press contact: John Kartch, jkartch AT atr.org

Website: http://www.atr.org/

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Americans for Tax Reform and Jack Abramoff
• Americans for Tax Reform and Big Tobacco
• In Defense of Freedom Coalition
• Media Freedom Project
• Peter Roff
• Global Climate Science Communications Plan (1998)
• Peter Cleary

References

1. ↑ Noble Ellington, National Chairman Of ALEC Responds To Report, "Fresh Air" Interview with Terry Gross, NPR, July 21, 2011
2. ↑ Alliance for Worker Freedom Collective Bargaining, organizational Web site, accessed August 27, 2010
3. ↑ Alliance for Worker Freedom The Employee Free Choice Act, organizational Web site, accessed August 27, 2010

External resources

External articles

• BBC News, Why does Taxing the rich make ordinary voters angry, Feb. 3, 2010.
• Reuters, "Tea Party Warriors Take aim at Florida Senate Race, Feb. 2, 2010.
• Ken Bode, "Florida Tea Party in Full Swing", Indianapolis Star, Jan. 29, 2010.
• Peter Roff, "Obama Spending Freeze is Simply not Credible", U.S. News and World Report, January 26, 2010.
• Americans for Tax Reform, "ATR Launches Media Freedom Project, Web site; Grassroots Organization Will Advocate for Media Deregulation", Media Release, U.S. Newswire, May 4, 2005.
• Washington Post, "Virginia's Money Plans" chart of February 25, 2005.
• Shenon, Philip, "$25,000 to Lobby Group Is Tied to Access to Bush," New York Times, March 10, 2006.
• Americans for Tax Reform,"[29] "Leave Us Alone]" accessed June 8, 2006. All footnotes in the special projects section link to the ATR website on the page noted, as accessed on that same date.
• Americans for Tax Reform, "Virginia signers of the taxpayer protection pledge" Release of April 4, 2005.
• Americans for Tax Reform, "Taxpayers win in Virginia Primaries" release of June 14, 2005.
• James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt, "Senate Report: Five Nonprofit Groups Sold Clout to Abramoff," Washington Post, October 12, 2006.
• Press release, "Survey: 7 in 10 Americans Urge FCC to Cap Out-Of-Control Spending on 'High Cost' Portion of Universal Service Fund Phone Bill Tax," Cap The Fund (a project of The Senior Coalition, Americans for Tax Reform, the Maryland Taxpayers Association and The Media Freedom Project) via PR Newswire, November 14, 2007.
• Press release, "As Federal Phone Tax Heads Higher, 'Cap The Fund' Web Site To Help Consumers Support FCC Curbs on Universal Service Fund (USF) Waste," Cap The Fund via PR Newswire, March 18, 2008.
• John Eggerton, "Boehner, Conservative Groups Weigh In on Localism: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin Hears from Rep. John Boehner, Americans for Tax Reform, Christian Coalition, Citizens United," Broadcasting & Cable, June 13, 2008.
• Glen Dickson, "Microsoft Presses for White Spaces Vote: Microsoft's Craig Mundie tells reporters 'no justifiable reason' to delay FCC vote on proposed devices," Broadcasting & Cable, October 27, 2008.
• David Hogberg, "Conservatives Admit Mistakes As They Plot Return To Power," Investor's Business Daily, November 6, 2008.
• Mike Allen, "Exclusive: Conservative group offers support for $2M", Politico, July 17, 2009.
• Dennis Whitfield, ACU Executive Vice President, "Statement from ACU regarding false headline by Washington publication POLITICO ", Media Release, July 17, 2009.
• Tom Hamburger and James Oliphant, [30], "Court Ruling on Campaign Spending could Pay off for GOP."
• Tea Party movement gains steam across the country, [31], January 23, 2010.

Categories: ALEC Exposed | Water | Energy | Tobaccowiki | Front groups portal | United States | Health | Politics (US)