FREEDOM WORKING 06/07/2015

After the Supreme Court Ruling, Congress Must not Save ObamaCare from Itself- by Josh Withrow At the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on a case – King v. Burwell – that could shake ObamaCare to its foundations. If the case goes the way of the plaintiffs – upholding the plain text of the Affordable Care Act as passed by Congress – the health insurance subsidies flowing to millions of Americans in states which did not opt into ObamaCare would cease. Congress will have no choice but to reopen President Obama’s signature law to address this legal difficulty. How our legislative branch handles the situation will have a profound impact on the prospects for free-market health care reforms in the future. The unfortunate reality is that the IRS has been giving out these billions of dollars in health insurance subsidies illegally for almost two years now. As one of ObamaCare’s architects has admitted, the law was plainly written to tie federal health insurance subsidies to state-established exchanges to coerce states to establish their own exchange. But when it became apparent that many states were not going to cooperate, the IRS declared that it was just going to pay out the subsidies anyway, in clear violation of the law.  Read more here... Common Core Update: State and Federal- by Logan Albright As the Senate prepares to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), a bill which could have big implications for the American education system, state legislatures and governors have been busy tackling their own reforms to Common Core education standards. Here’s what’s been going on in several key states. Louisiana The Louisiana legislature is currently working on a three bill “compromise package” that supporters are saying would allow for the repeal of Common Core standards in that state. However, there are concerns that this package is toothless, merely calling for review of the standards without clear prohibitions on adoption and implementation of federal mandates. Read more here... ObamaCare's Illegal Subsidies- by Trey Grover States are taking the lead on justice reform - by Logan Albright via watchdog.org Whenever there is a violent conflict between police and citizens, the media goes into a frenzy looking for someone to blame. Some accuse the police of brutality, racism, and inhumanity. Others point out the hazards of a dangerous and thankless job, which requires dealing with some pretty unsavory people. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, but while politicians and pundits waste breath with accusations and complaints, it’s all too rare that we have someone step up and offer genuine policy solutions. When people talk about “the government” they usually mean the federal government. This is the big government that handles issues like national defense and trade with other countries, not to mention the increasing share of federal spending going towards spending on things like Social Security and Medicare, on which millions of Americans depend. Consequently, when we encounter a problem that needs to be solved, most people’s first instinct is to appeal to the federal government, forgetting that there are fifty state governments and many thousands of local governments equally capable of acting. Read more here...   Register for FreedomFest and get $100 off with the promo code FWFF15 today: http://freedomfest.com/register-now/ Passing the USA Freedom Act: A Difficult First Act in the Great Surveillance Debate- by Josh Withrow After sometimes-dramatic and often-tense several weeks, the USA Freedom Act finally passed the Senate. The act’s passage brings the government’s telephone data surveillance program under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act back from its brief retirement, but with reforms that stop its worst abuses. Although the USA Freedom Act was certainly not the level of reform that many had hoped for, it passage nevertheless sent a clear signal that the days of Congress simply rubber-stamping endless surveillance programs are over. Even this modest reform would likely have stood little chance of passing if Senator Paul had not drawn out the debate as long as he did, leaving the defenders of the NSA’s dragnet spy programs with little choice but to accept the USA Freedom Act or nothing. Just as importantly, the much larger community of reformers in the House, led by Reps. Justin Amash and Thomas Massie, made it clear that an even more watered-down version of USA Freedom would have difficulty passing the House. Read more here... State Attorneys General: Defenders of the Tenth Amendment- by Michael Greibrok Last Friday, the DC Chapter of the Federalist Society hosted an event with guest Mark Brnovich, Attorney General of Arizona. A state’s AG office plays an important role in fighting federal overreach. Besides prosecuting criminal cases and defending state action, many AGs, at least the good ones, also sue the federal government. Our Constitution created a system of checks and balances, in an attempt to keep government power under control and prevent one area of government from becoming too powerful. One of the most important and effective checks is that of the states defending their areas of legislation from federal overreach. The Tenth Amendment clarifies that any powers not granted to the federal government or prohibited to the states, are reserved for the states or the people. Read more here... Concerned Mother on Common Core - by Anthony Kang GOP-controlled Michigan House passes a comprehensive civil asset forfeiture reform package - by Jason Pye On Thursday, the Michigan House of Representatives passed a bipartisan package of eight bills that would overhaul the state's civil asset forfeiture laws to offer more protections for innocent property owners. The Wolverine State is just the latest to advance reforms that curtail this pernicious brand of government overreach. Passage of the reform bills comes a week after the Michigan House Judiciary Committee heard jaw-dropping testimony from Annette Shattuck, a mother of four children, who recounted her family's story of armed raid on her home last year by law enforcement. Shattuck's mother was watching her children while she was out. "After they breached my door, at gunpoint, with masks, they proceeded to take every belonging in my house," she told the committee. "And when I say every belonging, I mean every belonging." Read more here... Covered California Faces Enrollment Woes- by Patrick Roux California is now considering scrapping its state-run Exchange and moving over to the federal run health care exchange after spending $900 million in federal grant money on its Covered California ObamaCare exchange and running a deficit of $80 million in just the first four months of this year. Despite the large sums of money that California and the federal government have dumped on to this health care exchange, enrollment on the exchange fell far short of the minimum required 1.7 million, reaching only 1.4 million. Since California has significantly overestimated enrollment for its exchanges it is now making cutbacks to its program in its advertising and outreach budget and technology services budget. . 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 FreedomWorks Morning Update! The Morning Update is your tool to keep up-to-date with all the threats to your freedom. Sign up here. Make freedom work, Iris Somberg Press Secretary, FreedomWorks