FREEDOMWORKS 01/20/2015

1. 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... 2. John Boehner Given Green Light for a Bold Agenda with 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... 3. Have Republicans Learned Nothing? - by Jason Pye via the Washington Examiner Republicans have held full control of Congress for a little over a week, and some members of the new majority are already demonstrating that they do not deserve the power voters handed them. Sure, they like to campaign on limited government rhetoric, but they are governing like the very big-spending progressives against whom they ran in the fall. The legislative agenda that Republican leaders put forward after the election is trite and underwhelming. Instead of a big, bold agenda, they have been talking about pushing through “small ball” measures — such as authorization of the Keystone XL pipeline and repeal of Obamacare’s medical device tax. Read more here... 4. Justice Department Ends Unconstitutional Property Seizure Program - by Julie Borowski The Department of Justice has announced that it will be ending its Equitable Sharing Program. The Washington Post reports that the Equitable Sharing Program “has enabled local and state police to make seizures and then have them ‘adopted’ by federal agencies, which share in the proceeds. The program allowed police departments and drug task forces to keep up to 80 percent of the proceeds of the adopted seizures, with the rest going to federal agencies.” The end of this federal program is a good step in the right direction. Though, there are some exceptions to the no seizure rule and police can still seize private property under their own state laws. Read more here... 5. Gas Tax Increase: SAY NO! - by Ted Abram Our infrastructure (roads, bridges, airports and more) is in dire need of repair, and our political solution to pay for these upgrades is a big gas-tax increase. Dangerously, our political elites – Republican and Democrats - are strongly advocating for this tax increase. "Our infrastructure's crumbling, our roads and our bridges are in dangerous condition." argued the former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Read more here... 6. 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... In Liberty, Jackie Bodnar Director of Communications, FreedomWorks