Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist was a guest on the Ruthless podcast today.

They discussed ways the so-called Railway Safety Act will make life less affordable. A coalition of 24 conservative organizations detailed the problems with the bill here.

Norquist said:

“There’s a real problem now with this threat, the so-called Railway Safety Act. This is an effort by the left to make everything less affordable.”

“There are some Rockefeller Republicans who don’t know any blue-collar workers but they think they have to talk with the left-wing union bosses and they’ll tell you what the workers want.

Trump talks directly to blue collar workers. Most Republicans talk directly to blue collar workers. And no, ‘paying more union dues’ is not on their list of things to do.“

“Everything that this bill does was a union demand from a few years ago. None of them have anything to do with safety.”

“This is something the left wing Democrats have wanted forever. But I can explain to you why they want it.

Who funds the union that runs most of the railways? I have the top ten donors here. Top ten.

RUTHLESS: “They are not the blue collar workers.”

NORQUIST: “Dunn Harrington Trial Lawyers. That’s the name of their company. The Caplan Law Corporation. Bremseth law firm. The Bolt Hoffer Boyd law firm. They are all trial lawyers. They are all trial lawyer firms washing money through this union which is demanding that we should — they are telling the Rockefeller Republicans who don’t understand economics and don’t understand middle class interests — so they imagine that when the union bosses tell them that something is a good idea.

Then what do they do with the money, this union that some Republicans want to enrich?

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The Democrat Senatorial Campaign.

The Democrat party of Montana.

Democratic National Committee Services.”

RUTHLESS: “Blue collar!” “No partisanship.” “They shower at night!” [laughter]

NORQUIST: “The [Kamala] Harris Victory Fund.”

RUTHLESS: “Oh man.”

NORQUIST: “Money from trial lawyers into the union. Out to the Democrats.

And there’s a Teamsters affiliated union. 99% to Democrats. So this Railway Safety Act is a way to get more money into the union. Into the Democrats. The Democrat unions don’t just do union stuff. They are behind the pro-abortion movement and all sorts of left-wing actions.”

RUTHLESS: “Oh yeah, we’ve seen their — they anchored the campus protests, all these other things. Nothing to do with the workers that they claim to represent. It dovetails with something we’ve talked about a lot here on Ruthless. Almost across the board, but this is a good example of it: It is more or less just about power. It’s just about power. They can talk about affordability, they can talk about whatever it is they say they are for although their message seems very conflated lately about what it is they are doing or want to do for prices or other things. But all of this stuff is designed just like you laid out. It is an effort to retain power in and of itself. And that seems to me like what you’ve been fighting at the state level and all these tax hikes. If you have a bigger budget to work with you can dole out more to your friends, you can retain more power because they give it back to you. There’s a cut for you involved for your re-election and everything else. And it [Railway Safety Act] is just about growing government and growing the amount of power your political party has.”

RUTHLESS: “To put a bow on the Railway Safety Act, what happens if this thing is codified into law?“

NORQUIST: “It is billions of dollars in higher costs.”

RUTHLESS: “Paid by the consumer that goes back into unions.”

Coalition of 24 Groups Sends Letter in Opposition to the “Railway Safety Act”

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Congress Should Reject the So-Called “Railway Safety Act”

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Grover Norquist: The Railway Safety Act will Make Everything Less Affordable