FREEDOMWORKS 01/18/2015

FreedomWorks Gives Prebuttal to 2015 State of the Union - by Matt Kibbe FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe gives a prebuttal to President Obama's 2015 State of the Union, addressing Obama's education plans, supposed "recovery" of the US economy, and "success" of the auto bailouts. Watch here... Barack Obama Will Propose Big Spending Increase in Next Budget - by Jason Pye President Barack Obama faces a Republican-controlled Congress that opposes most, if not all, of his legislative agenda. And with just two years left in his presidency, he staring down irrelevance, without many, if any, real legislative accomplishments embraced by the American people. In some way, these sorts of problems can be liberating, but, as he so frequently tells Republicans, there is still an expectation that he live in some sort of a reality. The FY 2016 budget the White House will present to Congress, however, shows that President Obama is miles away from reality. Though all the details of the proposal aren't yet public, Bloomberg News has discovered that President Obama will ask Congress for a huge spending increase, one that would blow through discretionary spending caps mandated by the Budget Control Act. Read more here... FreedomWorks' Advice to Republicans - 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.” See more here... John Boehner Given Green Light for a Bold Agenda with Controversial Speaker Vote - by Adam Brandon via TheBlaze The Speaker of the House vote was illuminating in many ways. Although Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) managed to win a third term as Speaker, there was an undeniable, and indeed historic uprising against his leadership from 25 members of his own party, the highest number of defections in over a century. Perhaps even more striking was the incredible swell of grassroots enthusiasm for a change in leadership. Over a period of just 72 hours, FreedomWorks activists sent more than 20,000 messages to Congress and made 13,000 phone calls. This is not the kind of uprising that can be ignored, and the question Boehner should be asking himself today is: Why? Read more here... Hey, Republican Leaders, There's An Urgent Need for An ObamaCare Alternative - by Jason Pye In the nearly five years since ObamaCare passed Congress and became law, Republican leaders have yet to rally around a specific set of healthcare alternatives. Railing against the 2010 law has been convenient for campaign trail rhetoric, but stalling, as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in King v. Burwell, is no longer acceptable. It's not like there haven't been patient-centered alternatives proposed. Rep. Tom Price, MD (R-GA) has introduced the Empowering Patients First Act for three consecutive Congresses. The Republican Study Committee, in 2013, introduced its alternative, the American Health Care Reform Act. Rep. Paul Broun, MD (R-GA), who no longer serves in Congress, introduced the Patient OPTION Act, which was endorsed by FreedomWorks. Read more here... Real Talk with Julie Borowski: Get the Government Out of Your Emails! - by Julie Borowski 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... IRS Says You Have No Right to Email Privacy - by Julie Borowski “The Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications.” That’s a direct quote from an internal IRS handbook obtained by the Americans Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act. Scary, right? Read more here... The Next Eric Holder? Obama's AG Nominee Has Questions to Answer - by Logan Albright Within the next couple of weeks, the Senate will begin confirmation hearings for the president’s nominee to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General of the United States. In anticipation of this exciting event, columnist George Will has released an excellent series of questions he would like to see answer before Lynch is confirmed. Among these is a provocative inquiry concerning civil asset forfeiture, the process by which law enforcement can seize property from a citizen not convicted of, or even charged with, a crime. For example, in 2012 the IRS used this power 639 times to drain the bank accounts who were, for the most part, unable to recoup their losses, despite the fact that no criminal proceedings were brought against them. Read more here... 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... Get the FreedomWorks Special Edition of Atlas Shrugged III - by Logan Albright Half a century ago, Ayn Rand penned one of the world’s most vibrant and enduring books on the dangers of a too-powerful government and the importance of individual freedom. Yet despite its popularity and influence, it took until 2011 and the rise of the Liberty Movement for anyone to successfully adapt this remarkable novel for the silver screen. Now, for the first time, you can buy the third installment on DVD, and the FreedomWorks 2-Disc Special Edition of Atlas Shrugged 3: Who Is John Galt? is available exclusively for mail order. Read more here... Sign up for the FreedomWorks Morning Update If you want an update like this newsletter twice a week, be sure to sign up for the Freedom Works Morning Update! The Morning Update is your tool to keep up-to-date with all the threats to your freedom. Sign up here. In Liberty, Adam Brandon Executive Vice President, FreedomWorks