FREEDOMWORKS 11/29/2015 COMMON CORE DITCHED IN ANOTHER BLUE STATE!

Defending the House Freedom Caucus - by Adam Brandon via The Daily Caller On shaky ground with conservatives, House Speaker John Boehner decided last month to leave Congress rather than have his support tested in a battle for the chamber's gavel. Boehner's Number 2, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, failed to secure enough votes from the House Republican Conference to succeed him as planned. What Washington saw in the past month - the toppling of a speaker of the House and the rejection of the "next-in-line" - was unprecedented, and the disruptive efforts of the House Freedom Caucus made it happen. But these were not the first shots in the fight to hold Republican leaders accountable after they lost their way. Read more here... The Grievance Generation   - by FreedomWorks Senior Economic Contributor Stephen Moore via The Washington Times Remember the campus unrest in the 1960s? Whether you agreed with the students or not, they were protesting about things of great consequence - like civil rights, or the military draft, or the Vietnam War. They had chants like "hell no, we won&'t go." Those were the good old days. Now we are witnessing whiney college kids marching in the streets screaming obscenities or taking over the university president's office for what? Feeling slighted? Having their feelings hurt? Talk about rebels without a cause. Read more here... Tell Your Representative: Support the NO Hires for the Delinquent IRS Act   - by Adam Brandon As one of our more than 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative today and ask him or her to support the No Hires for the Delinquent IRS Act, H.R. 1206, and to co-sponsor it if they have not already done so. Sponsored by Rep. David Rouzer, this simple bill would prevent any new hiring at the IRS until that agency certifies that none of its current employees are seriously delinquent on their own tax returns. A report earlier this year from the IRS's own Inspector General showed that a number of IRS employees were seriously behind on paying their taxes. This is part of a larger problem, as federal employees reportedly owe the IRS over $1 billion in back taxes, but obviously it is even more egregious when employees of the tax collectors themselves are found to be delinquent. Read more here... Massachusetts Ditches Common Core - by Logan Albright There seems to be a recurring theme of liberal, New England states regretting the big government programs they implement. First, Vermont was forced to abandon its plans for a single-payer health care system upon finding that there was no way to pay for it. Now, Massachusetts is dropping out of the Common Core education standards that don't work and that nobody likes. While it's surprising that a state like Massachusetts would see the light more quickly than many others, it's not surprising that the standards have been a failure. A top down approach to education, from bureaucrats in Washington straight to your children's ears, was always destined to be a disaster, due to a complete misunderstanding of how children learn. Read more here... FreedomWorks Activist Testifies Against Restrictive New EPA Regulations - by FreedomWorks Super Activist Pat Daugherty I had the opportunity to testify at an Atlanta public hearing about the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan, a plan that would potentially shut down several coal plants across the country, lay off thousands of workers and contribute to the spike in energy costs. The EPA Hearing covered two days, November 19 and 20 - not the most convenient time, considering the proximity to Thanksgiving - but at least two full days were offered to receive public input. Read more here... Stephen Moore Talks Consumer Spending on America's Newsroom Dem's Focus on Income Inequality is Misguided - by Logan Albright via Watchdog.org A new survey from Politico finds what many of us already suspected. Whereas the primary policy issue for Republicans is creating economic growth, Democrats have a rather different set of priorities. Of Democrats surveyed, 81 percent said that income inequality was "the most important economic issue" as far as presidential politics go. The left has always been driven by a misguided egalitarian streak. The nagging feeling that someone, somewhere, might be better off than someone else is an nettlesome irritant they just can't shake, despite the fact that almost all plans to correct the alleged problem depend on gross violations of liberty that would be unacceptable to anyone who values freedom. Read more here... The IRS's Plan to Chill Charitable Giving - by Logan Albright Don't you love donating to causes you believe in? Don't you love that warm fuzzy feeling from knowing that contributing to a worthy cause? And don't you especially love that you can support whatever organization you choose anonymously? That last one is especially important given the news over the last few years that the IRS has been targeting conservatives with audits and denial of tax-free status for nakedly political reasons. Well, if the IRS has their way, this may be a luxury that will soon go the way of the dinosaur. A new rule is proposing that non-profit organizations collect the "tax identification numbers" of all their donors who give over $250. For you and me, that means our Social Security numbers. Read more here... The Entrepreneur Jeffrey Tucker discusses the role of the entrepreneur in identifying and taking advantage of economic opportunities. The ability to anticipate and meet market needs allows economies to be flexible and innovative in ways that are impossible through central control. The special quality of entrepreneurship is an alertness to things that don't exist yet - products and services that consumers don't even know they want. Profits and losses provide the feedback necessary to steer entrepreneurs in the right direction. Read more here... Tell Your Lawmakers: Support the Resolution to Block EPA's Ozone Rule - by Adam Brandon As one of our more than 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and senators today and ask them to support the resolutions of disapproval against the EPA's new air quality standards for ozone emissions. The House resolution, sponsored by Congressman Paul Gosar, is H.J.Res. 74; the Senate version, sponsored by Senator Jeff Flake, is S.J.Res. 25. The EPA's latest regulation to further lower ground-level ozone levels to 70 parts per billion (ppb) flagrantly ignores the real-world impact of compliance. Low-level ozone can be created by forest fires and other natural sources, and man-made ozone pollution is redistributed from distant places by winds. Thus, in many areas of the country the 70 ppb standard would actually require the affected counties to damage their economic output to compensate for pollution they're not even emitting themselves. Read more here... FreedomWorks in Action 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. Jason Pye Communications Director, FreedomWorks