In a July 21, 2023 interview with the Hill, Norquist addressed calls by President Barack Obama to restore tax rates for the top 1% of American earners to the levels they were at prior to the administration of President George W. Bush. Norquist stated, “Last time Republicans won the House [in the 2010 elections] and [were] a little strengthened in the Senate and Obama folded completely. We’re going to be stronger this time than after last time; our hostages are the 20 Democrats up in ’14. We’ll send them either piece by piece or one at a time over to the White House to negotiate.”

In a June 15, 2023 speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual summit, Norquist stated, “The left is not made up of friends and allies; the left is made up of competing parasites … Our job is to stop feeding them so that they turn on the guy next to them and start chewing on their ankles so that when we meet them in two and four years in the next election, there are fewer of them and they’re shorter.”

In a February 28, 2023 interview with the Daily Show’s Samantha Bee, Norquist claimed to have come up with the idea for the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge" (in which elected officials promise 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”) at age 12. He stated, “Some things are simple. At 12, basically the thought was this, if one of the party’s would brand itself as the party that wouldn’t raise taxes, that that I thought would be a way for the Republican Party to succeed … The goal is to make it easier for people, they know what they’re going to get … If you want to know who you’re voting for, it’s helpful if there’s some sort of brand identification … One party wants to raise your taxes, one won’t. It makes it easier for you to choose.”

In a May 19, 2023 interview with The Hill, Norquist commented on legislation designed to penalize Americans who renounce their citizenship in order to evade taxes, comparing it to a departure tax the Nazis imposed on Jews seeking to flee Germany before World War II. Norquist stated, “I think [the legislation’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Chuck] Schumer can probably find the legislation to do this. It existed in Germany in the 1930s and Rhodesia in the ’70s and in South Africa as well. He probably just plagiarized it and translated it from the original German.” Senator Schumer is Jewish. Norquist remarked that the communist East German government after World War II implemented a similar plan as well, stating, “The East Germans had the position that if you wanted to leave the country you had to pay them back for all the wonderful Communist education they gave you K through 12. Schumer’s effort has a really distinguished history.”

During a February 2012 appearance on The Daily Show Norquist stated that there was no scenario under which he would advocate for any tax increase. Norquist went on to claim that he came up with the idea for his “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” —which calls on lawmakers to swear to never vote for any legislation that would raises taxes—in 1968 when he was 12 years old, stating, “At 12, basically the thought was this: If one of the parties would brand itself as the party that wouldn’t raise taxes, that I thought would be a way for the Republican party to succeed.”

In a November 9, 2023 article in Rolling Stone, David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s budget director from 1981 to 1985, described Norquist as a “fiscal terrorist” for his role in the debt ceiling crisis of 2011. Norquist was able to veto any resolution to the crisis that raised the marginal tax rate because nearly every Republican member of Congress was a signatory to his Americans for Tax Reform organization’s pledge to never raise taxes. Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, also criticized Norquist, calling him “a good guy with a very bad idea" who “should be examined into.” Simpson went on to ask, “Where does he get his money? ... Who is he slave to? ... How does he terrify people?” Paul O’Neill, who served as Treasury Secretary in the administration of Republican George W. Bush, also commented on the debt ceiling debacle, stating, “Congress was willing to cause severe economic damage to the entire population simply because they were slaves to an idiot's idea of how the world works.”

Reacting to President Barack Obama’s call for the wealthiest Americans to “pay their fair share” of taxes, Norquist compared Obama’s economic policies to former Soviet Union dictator Joseph Stalin by tweeting, “ Obamas [sic] ‘new’ strategy to divide America: Get the Kulaks.” The Kulaks, a group of relatively affluent peasants who owned land, were the “class enemy” of the poorer peasants under Stalin’s totalitarian regime. Beginning in 1930, Stalin called for the elimination of Kulaks, endorsing methods including execution and deportation to unpopulated areas of Siberia. MSNBC host Chris Matthews called Norquist’s tweet, “Another far right attempt to frame the president as some type of foreigner who doesn’t really know America.”

In 2011, Norquist lobbied the U.S. State Department to approve the Keystone XL project, an extension to the controversial Keystone Pipeline that brings oil from Canada into the United States. The Natural Resources Defense Council has said the Keystone XL extension would “lock the United States into a dependence on hard-to-extract oil and generate a massive expansion of the destructive tar sands oil operations in Canada. In addition to the damage that would be caused by the increased tar sands extraction, the pipeline threatens to pollute freshwater supplies in America’s agricultural heartland and increase emissions in already-polluted communities of the Gulf Coast.”

In a 2011 article in Rolling Stone, Norquist was quoted as saying that he is “not focused on the [federal government] deficit. The metric that matters is keeping spending down.”

In 2008, Norquist described then-Senator Barack Obama as “John Kerry with a tan.”

When disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy in 2006, it was revealed in an investigative report released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that Norquist used his tax-exempt Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) organization to help Abramoff funnel money from his clients to conservative causes (ATR kept a small cut of the funds). The Senate Finance Committee reported that, in doing so, ATR “appear[ed] to have perpetrated a fraud on other taxpayers” by “profit-seeking and private benefit behavior inconsistent with their tax-exempt status. And by virtue of the tax benefits, other taxpayers implicitly subsidized this behavior.” Additionally, clients of Abramoff were also directed to give Norquist’s organization money. In an e-mail to colleagues, Abramoff wrote, “I spoke this evening with Grover. He said that, if [the Choctaw Indian tribe] want the taxpayer movement, including him, involved on this issue and anything else which will come up over the course of the year or so, they need to become a major player with ATR. He recommended that they make a $50,000 contribution to ATR.” According to Mark Salter, a top aide to Senator John McCain (R-AZ), “By his own admission, Grover couldn’t be any closer to Abramoff if they moved to Massachusetts and got married.”

Prior to the downfall of corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Norquist promoted the Northern Mariana Islands as a positive example of free enterprise. A 1998 Department of Interior report, however, documented widespread human rights abuses associated with a booming sweatshop industry on the islands (clothing made on the islands carries a “Made in USA” label). The report found that women and children immigrant workers were subjected to forced abortions, sex slavery, and substandard pay and working conditions. The Mariana Islands were one of Abramoff’s biggest clients, paying him over $9 million during the course of their relationship. Abramoff charged his client thousands of dollars for “discussions” with Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform staffers.

In a February 2001 article for The American Spectator, Norquist wrote, “[President George W.] Bush now has the incentive to level the playing field by stripping the Democrats of their ill-gotten gains. To do that he'll have to shake the Democrats' five pillars.” Norquist identified these five pillars as; “labor unions,” “taxpayer funded lobbies,” “greedy trial lawyers,” Big City political machines,” and “voter fraud.” Labor unions, Norquist explained, use money from government contracts and give “political kickbacks to Democrats.” He also complained that “funding earmarked to promote hunting and outdoor sports has been redirected to animal rights groups.” Trial lawyers need to be targeted, Norquist explained, because “in some states trial lawyers give more to Democrats than union leaders do.” Norquist proposed tort reform, which would deprive trial lawyers of “billions of dollars from American consumers,” as a solution. Norquist asserted that mayors and precinct workers who handle federal funds to help the poor comprise a Democratic machine to “deliver the votes in Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and St. Louis.” Finally, Norquist stated, “The whole 36-day circus in Florida was designed to give the local politicians in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties a chance to manufacture or find enough Gore votes, or lose or damage enough Bush votes, to overcome Bush's margin. Although the effort failed, it is estimated that 5,000 felons, mostly Democrats, voted illegally in Florida, and we may never know how many illegal aliens voted.” He is referring to the voter recount in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. The results of that recount were controversial and several irregularities are thought to have favored George W. Bush, including, the "butterfly ballot," which produced an unexpectedly large number of votes for third-party candidate Patrick Buchanan, and a purge of over 54,000 citizens from the Florida voting rolls, of whom 54% were African-Americans.

In 1998, Norquist directed his Americans for Tax Reform Organization to pump money into an anti-labor ballot initiative in California
that sought to limit the influence of labor unions under the guise of “paycheck protection.” Norquist’s told supporters of the “paycheck protection” ballot initiative that he could raise $10 million for their cause, but failed to deliver. The AFL-CIO said Norquist was responsible for “producing and disseminating a resource and strategy guide for introducing anti-worker state ballot initiatives and legislation” across the country.

In 1997, Norquist founded Janus-Merritt Strategies, a lobbying firm, along with David Safavian. Safavian was later convicted on felony obstruction of justice charges in relation to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. The Janus-Merritt clientele included:

• Hamas and Hezbollah supporter Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was later convicted for his role in a terrorist plot and sentenced to 23 years in prison. Alamoudi was also an agent of dictator Muamarr Ghaddafi’s Libyan government. Norquist also helped activist Sami Al-Arian—an associate of Alamoudi—obtain meetings with White House officials during the Bush Administration. Al-Arian was later convicted of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. Department of State.
• Mortgage lender Fannie Mae, which paid the firm $160,000 in lobbying fees in 2001 (when the 2008 mortgage crisis occurred, Norquist would nonetheless comment, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac brought us this collapse … This was criminal negligence on the part of [U.S. Representative] Barney Frank and [former U.S. Senator Chris] Dodd.").
• Corrupt foreign rulers, including former president of Gabon Omar Bongo, who was accused of using his country's budget as a personal slush fund; and exiled former president of the Republic of Congo Pascal Lissouba, who has been convicted in absentia of corruption and treason by his home country. Human rights conditions in Gabon were poor during Bongo's 42 year rule, with a United Nations report citing the "limited ability of citizens to change their government; use of excessive force, including torture toward prisoners and detainees; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; an inefficient judiciary susceptible to government influence; restrictions on the right to privacy; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, association, and movement; harassment of refugees; widespread government corruption; violence and societal discrimination against women, persons with HIV/AIDS, and noncitizen Africans; trafficking in persons, particularly children; and forced labor and child labor."
• Corporate clients, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (the owner of Fox News), the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe (a former Abramoff client), and oil and gas giant British Petroleum.

In 1995, in the wake of the Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives, Norquist, then- House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (who has since been convicted of money laundering), and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff founded The K Street Project. The goal of the project was to facilitate the hiring of Republicans at top lobbying firms and then reward the firms by offering access to influential GOP officials. The explicit “pay-to-play” nature of the project is now illegal, however, in 2003 Republican lobbyists held 33 of the 36 top-level lobbying positions in Washington. During the midst of the project, Norquist told journalist Elizabeth Drew, “There should be as many Democrats working on K Street representing corporate America as there are Republicans working in organized labor—and that number is close to zero.” Norquist credited Abramoff—who was later convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy charges in a far-reaching political scandal—with “instigating the whole [K Street] project.”

In 1995, Norquist told the National Journal, “What the Republicans need is 50 Jack Abramoffs. Then this becomes a different town.”

According to The Nation magazine, “During the second half of the 1980s, Norquist detoured from his tax work to engage in a series of safaris to far-off battlegrounds in support of anti-Soviet guerrilla armies, visiting war zones from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to southern Africa. Working alongside Col. Oliver North's freelance support network for the Nicaraguan contras and other Reagan Doctrine-allied insurgencies, Norquist promoted U.S. support for groups like Mozambique's RENAMO and Jonas Savimbi's UNITA in Angola, both of which were backed by South Africa's apartheid regime (Norquist represented UNITA as a registered lobbyist in the early 1990s).” In June 1985, Norquist—with the help of (now convicted) Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff—organized a “conference of worldwide insurgent leaders called the Democracy International.” The conference was located in Angolan territory held by UNITA. Attendees included mujahedeen from Afghanistan.

Norquist made regular visits to UNITA controlled territory during the 1980s. Although now a legitimate political party in Angola, the United States Department of Homeland Security has characterized UNITA from 1998 until the killing of Savimbi in 2002 by Angolan government forces as a terrorist organization. During this time period, Human Rights Watch described UNITA as “a rebel group led by Jonas Savimbi, [that] killed, abducted, and terrorized civilians with impunity.” The United States Institute of Peace wrote, “Savimbi is indeed responsible for a litany of crimes against humanity.” UNITA employed child soldiers throughout the Angolan Civil War, including during the time that Norquist was a registered lobbyist for the organization. Norquist ties to Savimbi were close, and he admitted to ghostwriting a number of op-eds for Savimbi during the 1980s promoting UNITA’s war against Soviet-backed MPLA. He even wore a UNITA issued uniform while visiting Angola, but admitting to taking it off when fighting broke out.

Norquist also supported RENAMO, an insurgent group accused of killing over 1,000,000 civilians in Mozambique. After Norquist visited RENAMO-held territory in 1987, he wrote a report praising RENAMO for calling for free elections and the free practice of religion, while falsely accusing RENAMO’s opponents of anti-Semitism. Norquist even met with President Ronald Reagan and urged him to support RENAMO, but the administration declined to aid RENAMO’s cause because of the group’s human rights record.