Thursday, June 11, 2015

FREEDOMWORKS 06/11/2015

1. Key Vote YES on the Massie Amendment to End Warrantless Surveillance of Americans by Matt Kibbe
As one of our over 6.9 million FreedomWorks activists nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to vote YES on the Massie/Lofgren/Sensenbrenner amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 2685) that would end warrantless “backdoor” surveillance of Americans.
Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act was written to only allow the government to collect the communications of foreigners, but a large quantity of American communications are scooped up with them. The Director of National Intelligence has admitted that once these communications – not metadata, but actual content – are collected, the government has searched through them for Americans’ content without a warrant. This amendment would prohibit this backdoor spying.  Read more here...

2. Regardless of Court's Decision, ObamaCare is Falling Apart - by Logan Albright
In 2013, Jeb Bush made a comment critical of Republican efforts to defund ObamaCare, saying that we should instead let the law fall apart on its own. It was kind of an insensitive approach, given the number of lives that depend on a health care system that actually works, and I believe he was tactically misguided, but he was right about one thing: ObamaCare is falling apart, slowly but surely.
We are only a couple of weeks out from the King v. Burwell decision that many are saying could deal a staggering blow to ObamaCare, by putting an end to illegal subsidies currently propping the law up. Supporters of the law are, therefore, hoping for a ruling to preserve the subsidies, with the administration actively not planning for any other outcome. Read more here...
3. Georgia's New Civil Asset Forfeiture Law Does Not Go Far Enough - by Jason Pye
Under the leadership of Gov. Nathan Deal, Georgia has become a national leader on justice reform. Prior to the reforms, which began in 2012, the Peach State spent over $1 billion annually housing almost 56,000 inmates, many of whom are low-level, nonviolent offenders, the rate of repeat offenders was depressingly high.
The new “smart on crime” approach undertaken by Gov. Deal has been a resounding success. The number of inmates has fallen and crime and repeat offender rates have dipped. The reforms have been good for taxpayers. In 2014, the Georgia Justice Reform Council estimated savings of $264 million over five years. Read more here... 

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4. Internet remains tax free, for now... - by Erin Aitcheson
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 235, better known as the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (PITFA). The pro-consumer legislation received bipartisan support that permanently bans multiple and discriminatory taxes at the state and local levels on internet access services. The House bill was sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and had 188 co-sponsors and 50 senators supporting a similar bill in the Senate.
The passage of the bill comes in the wake of the October 1 deadline where another temporary extension would have had to be implemented. “But Tuesday’s proposal would put the law in place for the long term, removing any sunset date.” Read more here...
5. Feds Bullying Oregon over Testing Opt Out Bill - by Logan Albright
There’s nothing more frustrating than when state legislatures try to do the right thing, only to be stopped by the intrusive federal government, sticking its nose where it has no business being. The latest example comes from Oregon, where a bill that would allow parents to opt their children out of Common Core-aligned standardized tests is set to be passed by the State Senate, only to face aggressive pushback from U.S. Department of Education.
State lawmakers have been warned that, in passing the bill, they stand to lose $140 million in federal funding. This is not the first state to receive such threats from the feds, and in fact, federal funding incentives are one of the chief obstacles holding back meaningful education reform in the states.  Read more here...
Make freedom work,
Iris Somberg
Press Secretary, FreedomWorks

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