There are 100 different doors to come into the conservative movement. You can disagree with 99 of them, as long as you agree on one: more-limited government. – Grover Norquist
If you feel the government should leave you alone, you’re a Republican. If you think the job of the government is to go push people around and take things for you, then you’re a Democrat. – Grover Norquist
Government should enforce rule of law. It should enforce contracts, it should protect people bodily from being attacked by criminals. And when the government does those things, it is facilitating liberty. When it goes beyond those things, it becomes destructive to both human happiness and human liberty. – Grover Norquist
The welfare state creates its own victim/client constituency. By making individuals free and independent, we reduce the need for ‘charity’ to those truly needy citizens what we can certainly afford to help through real charity. – Grover Norquist
We have to have a conversation about whether Obama’s plan to increase spending to occupy Afghanistan helps make America a safer country, or not. I think at some point, we may decide that we don’t have to have that size military and cost footprint in the country. You look at what you want to accomplish, how many soldiers you need. – Grover Norquist
I know the activists I deal with, we sort of try and check each other to make sure that we haven’t gone native, that you come to Washington thinking it’s a cesspool, you don’t want to end up thinking it’s really a hot tub and getting used to it. So that’s something one has to keep an eye on all the time. – Grover Norquist
Twenty-five years ago, I created the Taxpayer Protection Pledge at the federal level. Then I brought it to the state and local level. About 97 percent of the Republicans in the House and 85 percent in the Senate have signed on, and the number of candidates who have taken the pledge is even higher. It’s become a party position. – Grover Norquist
Historically, opposition to immigration in the United States has been racially and religiously motivated in the ugliest, nastiest way possible. – Grover Norquist
A 20-pound weight on the back of a small horse is more damaging than a 20-pound weight on a very big horse. – Grover Norquist
Being married is kind of like being a Ken-doll; you don’t get to dress yourself anymore. – Grover Norquist
I think it’s very important to always make sure that you’re talking to the entire coalition and to as many Americans as possible; not to go chasing after one little group or another. The Democrats would bring new groups into their party and not notice that larger groups are going out the back door. – Grover Norquist
We should reduce total government spending as a percentage of the economy. The left wants to focus on the deficit so they can take us away from the focus on spending as a percentage of the economy. – Grover Norquist
We want to reduce the size of government in half as a percentage of GNP over the next 25 years. We want to reduce the number of people depending on government so there is more autonomy and more free citizens. – Grover Norquist
I run a taxpayer group – the most powerful guy in D.C., nonsense. OK? There are buildings with thousands of people in them, all lobbying for more spending and higher levels of spending and more government commitments. And there are a handful – a handful of groups that fight for less spending. – Grover Norquist
The tax issue is the most powerful issue in American politics going back to the Tea Party. – Grover Norquist
There are several reasons to oppose tax increases. First, every dollar of tax increase is a dollar you didn’t get in spending restraint. Two, if you walk into the Democrats’ Andrews-Air-Force-Base, Lucy-with-the-Football trick for the third time in a row – they don’t have have a saying for being fooled three times! – Grover Norquist
As more and more Americans own shares of stock, more and more Americans understand that taxing businesses is taxing them. Regulating businesses is taxing them. They ought to be thinking long-term about their ownership, not just their income, and that they should pay taxes on capital, as well as taxes on labor. – Grover Norquist
If you’re so committed to liberty that you see the Soviet Union as a threat, you’re a Republican. If you’re kind of indifferent to freedom and the level of the lack of freedom in the Soviet Union is just a question of extent and not really threatening to anybody, then you’re a Democrat. – Grover Norquist
Spending an extra dollar on the D.C. public school system isn’t spending an extra dollar on education. Spending an extra dollar with the Pentagon doesn’t buy you an extra dollar on defense. Republicans need to look skeptically at military spending. – Grover Norquist
Democrats are people who raise your taxes and spend your money on weird stuff. They steal your guns, and they spit on your faith. – Grover Norquist
I read murder mysteries. I exercise 40 minutes a day. I watch videotapes while I exercise. I listen to audiotapes when I am in my car. And I try to stay in three different centuries. – Grover Norquist
Taxation is not charity. It is not voluntary. As we shrink the state and make government smaller, we will find that more and more people are able to take care of themselves. – Grover Norquist
Obama has been perhaps the most partisan President since Truman. He hasn’t learned to be civil – note his insulting speech to Paul Ryan, who did us the courtesy of scoring a budget. The president has to talk to Republicans when it comes to the debt ceiling. He has reached the debt ceiling before anyone expected. – Grover Norquist
Well, certainly the Democrats have been arguing to raise the capital gains tax on all Americans. Obama says he wants to do that. That would slow down economic growth. It’s not necessarily helpful to the economy. Every time we’ve cut the capital gains tax, the economy has grown. Whenever we raise the capital gains tax, it’s been damaged. – Grover Norquist
We plan to pick up another five seats in the Senate and hold the House through redistricting through 2012. And rather than negotiate with the teachers’ unions and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them. – Grover Norquist
My ideal citizen is the self-employed, homeschooling, IRA-owning guy with a concealed-carry permit. – Grover Norquist
