FREEDOMWORKS 01/15/2015

1. FreedomWorks' Advice to Republicans - by Seung Min Kim via Politico Huddle That “reality-based outlook” mentioned above may run counter to what one outside group wants, however. Huddle has the sneak peek into a memo sent to Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in advance of this week’s GOP retreat, advising them on issues from health care to civil liberties to education to the budget. The group’s president, Matt Kibbe, tells leaders that so-called “small ball reforms” such as enacting the Keystone pipeline and repealing the medical device tax are “not good enough to inspire the American people.” Kibbe writes: “It’s time to lead, and fix the major issues that are actually hurting American families.” Read the memo here:  2. Give Nonviolent Offenders a Chance at Redemption - by Jason Pye Two of the United States Senate's most dynamic personalities are renewing their legislative push to end racial disparities in the criminal justice system and give a second chance to nonviolent offenders through sentencing reform. On Tuesday, Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) participated in a forum hosted by Louisville, Kentucky-based Sullivan University where they discussed the Record Expungement Designed to Enhance Employment (REDEEM) Act, landmark sentencing legislation that they introduced last year and plan to roll out in the new Congress. Read more here... 3. Real Talk with Julie Borowski: Get the Government Out of Your Emails! The government can legally access and read your emails that are older than 180 days. No joke. Online privacy laws were written in ...1986. Uhh, anyone think it's time for an update? Watch here... 4. Boehner's Opportunity to Lead Again on School Choice - by Logan Albright Lately, we’ve seen a seemingly endless assault on education freedom, in the form of misguided proposalsfrom a president bent on cramming backwards education policy down the country’s throat. Fortunately, Republicans have a two-chamber majority now, and a Speaker of the House with a history leading the charge to promote school choice. When Barack Obama assumed office in 2009, one of his first actions was to put an end to the popular and successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program that provided disadvantaged students with greater choice in education. Read more here... 5. Meadows Attributes Speaker Vote to Constituents - via the Citizen-Times Eleventh District U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows said Monday he was simply following the wishes of his constituents when he voted against re-electing House Speaker John Boehner and doesn't expect formal retribution as a result. "We received thousands, literally thousands of calls in our office" from Western North Carolina residents opposing Boehner, said Meadows, a Jackson County Republican. "It was not just from one segment of the electorate. It was a very broad swath." Two conservative groups, FreedomWorks and Asheville Tea Party, plan to hold what they are calling a "flag wave" demonstration at Meadows' Henderson County office in the Henderson County courthouse at noon Tuesday as a show of support for his vote. Read more here... 6. A Gas Tax Hike Would Only Preserve Washington's Culture of Mismanagement and Waste - by Jason Pye  The federal Highway Trust Fund, after years of being raided by Congress to pay for wasteful transportation and extravagant infrastructure projects, faces a $160 billion shortfall over the next decade, which has some lawmakers from both sides of the aisle openly floating a bailout in the form of a gas tax hike. The shortfall isn't a problem created solely by wasteful spending, though it's certainly a big part of the issue, as the trust fund has doled out billions for lawmakers' pet highway and mass transit projects. A couple of other drivers that are exacerbating the problem, however, are the fact that Americans are driving less overall and the rise of fuel-efficient vehicles. Because raising the gas tax is politically unpopular, Congress routinely transfers money from the general fund to cover annual shortfalls. Read more here... 7. Alternatives to the Federal Reserve System - by Trey Grover We have seen that the current system of the Federal Reserve’s control over the money supply can lead to false signals being sent through the economy, creating financial bubbles which inevitably burst. This creates market instability and is a major cause of recessions and financial crises. Recognizing that this is a problem, it is reasonable to ask what alternative systems could be put into place that would result in better outcomes. Watch here... 8. 20 States Raise Minimum Wage; Pain for the Poor and Young to Follow - by Anthony Kang “[T]here's a virtual consensus among economists that the minimum wage is an idea whose time has passed. Raising the minimum wage by a substantial amount would price working poor people out of the job market.” “A higher minimum would undoubtedly raise the living standard of the majority of low-wage workers who could keep their jobs. That gain, it is argued, would justify the sacrifice of the minority who became unemployable. The argument isn't convincing. Those at greatest risk from a higher minimum would be young, poor workers, who already face formidable barriers to getting and keeping jobs.” Read more here... In Liberty, Jackie Bodnar Director of Communications, FreedomWorks