FREEDOMWORKS 01/25/2015

State of the Union 2015: Obama Misses Opportunity with Republican Congress - by Matt Kibbe via Fox News The secret is out. President Obama does not like the Republican Congress, and the feeling is mutual. President Obama had an opportunity to take steps towards unifying the two ideologically opposed branches of government in his first State of the Union address to a Republican House and Senate. Not surprisingly, it was a swing and a miss. Read more here... 5 Ways the President's Tax Plan is Bad for America - by Adam Brandon via TheBlaze Pop quiz: When a progressive is confronted with a problem, what will they invariably propose as a solution? If you said, “higher taxes,” congratulations! You’ve been paying attention. President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address was a perfect example of this, with calls for $320 billion in tax increases over at least five different collection programs. Here are five reasons why tax increases are the wrong answer to a question nobody asked. Read more here... Watch Deneen Borelli Speech at SC Tea Party Coalition Convention - by Deneen Borelli Progressives and establishment Republicans look out! The Tea Party is alive and it’s energized to back politicians that will reduce the size of government. I was a speaker at the South Carolina Coalition Convention last weekend where over a thousand conservative activists gathered to prepare for future elections. See more here... On His Way Out, Holder Goes Big on Asset Forfeiture - by Matt Kibbe and Joan Blades via The Daily Beast Most Americans now agree that the war on drugs is a failure. Illegal drug use has not decreased, prisons are overcrowded by non-violent drug offenders, and our precious civil liberties have been trampled. Overzealous lawmakers eager to pander to constituents with a “tough on crime” image have empowered and incentivized federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to wage this decades-long war with various legal tools that undermine constitutional protections of due process and private property rights. Read more here... Bipartisan Support for Criminal Justice Reform - by Daisy Belden A Congressional briefing on criminal justice on Thursday, January 22nd, highlighted the bipartisan efforts for reform. Democratic Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Republican Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich headlined the event. They were joined by Senior Policy Analyst at Texas Public Policy Foundation Vikrant Reddy, CNN contributor Van Jones, and Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI). Former Speaker Gingrich spoke of bipartisanship on this issue and expressed his passion for providing guidance and education to nonviolent offenders, instead of sending them to prisons. He referred to prisons as “universities for crime,” since nonviolent offenders often become violent after a stint in jail. Former Speaker Gingrich and Rep. Reddy both described the economic inefficiencies of mass incarceration with a plea for fiscal conservatives to join the cause of prison reform. Read more here... Liberty Beats: Internet Freedom - by Sam Martin Check out the latest Liberty Beat on why we need internet freedom. Watch here... Heads Up: The FCC's Net Neutrality Rule is Coming - by Logan Albright February is going to be a big month for Net Neutrality. Following a public request by the president, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that he will circulate a new rule on February 5th among the five FCC chairmen. The Commission will then hold a vote on whether to release the rule on February 26th. We won’t know the precise details of the rule until it is released, but Wheeler has made it clear that he intends to reclassify internet service providers as public utilities under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This would give the FCC the authority to enact internet regulations that have repeatedly been struck down by courts as being outside the agency’s purview. Among other things, Title II regulation would allow the government to dictate the terms of internet service, and require providers to pay into a universal service fund, increasing costs to consumers in the process. For an in-depth analysis of the effects of Title II reclassification, see FreedomWorks’ Issue Analysis on the subject. Read more here... Barack Obama is in Complete Denial About the United States' Ominous Fiscal Path - by Jason Pye In addition to proposing an onslaught of spending increases and tax hikes in his sixth State of the Union address, President Barack Obama will, according to The New York Times, "effectively declare victory over the economic hard times that dominated his first six years in office and advocate using the nation’s healthier finances to tackle long-deferred issues like education and income inequality." President Obama has used previous State of the Union addresses to proclaim that heavy economic intervention, including bailouts and wasteful stimulus spending, had averted a second Great Depression. So in some way, what he'll be singing the same song that Americans have heard before. And though it's true that monthly reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics have shown a boom in job creation and a decline in the unemployment rate, a deeper look shows that things aren't as great as they seem. Read more here... The Email Privacy Act: Get the Government Out of Your Inbox - by Logan Albright During the president’s State of the Union address last night, Barack Obama stated that we need to reaffirm our commitment to civil liberties and the protection of American privacy. For once, we agree. The erosion of Fourth and Fifth Amendment protections are among the greatest causes for concern among the political issues of today. But while the president focused his remarks on the invasions of privacy by private hackers and foreign countries, these are minor problems compared to the utter disregard our own federal government has shown for personal liberties. 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