FREEDOMWORKS 09/12/2017 EXPAND AMERICA'S INTERNET!

1. When it Comes to Reduced Taxation, the Numbers Always Add Up - by John Tamny via Forbes Apple is the world’s most valuable company today, but in 1997 it nearly went bankrupt.  Thanks to a $150 million dollar investment care of Bill Gates, the late Steve Jobs was able to acquire the resources necessary to nurse Apple back to health. Jobs, Apple and a world soon-to-be reliant on Apple’s products were all very lucky thanks to Gates’s wealth being so immense that he could risk an enormous sum on a formerly great company that many left for dead. What’s important about Gates is that he had $150 million to lose.Gates’s intrepid investment speaks to the crucial importance of the rich to economic progress. Precisely because they’re rich, they have the means to invest differently than most of us do. Because the rich have money to lose they can take risks that the rest of us can’t, and the economy gains immeasurably. The problem is that policy types from the left and right don’t necessarily see it that way. Read more here... Radical environmentalists are fighting to save Obama’s crooked Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation. This bureaucratic power grab lets liberal DC bureaucrats regulate something as small as a drainage ditch the same as the Mississippi River. That's costing American families, farmers, and small businesses between $158 MILLION and $465 MILLION a year! Write a comment urging the EPA to support President Trump's efforts to repeal Obama’s Waters of the United States regulation right now. 2. The Time is Right for the EPA to Cut Back the Renewable Fuel Mandate - via Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University The deadline closed last week for interested parties to file comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest proposed Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which would require 19.24 billion total gallons of biofuel to be blended into transportation fuels in 2018 and 2019. This biofuel mandate is bad news for the environment and for American consumers: in the past decade evidence has shown that mandated ethanol production could be creating more carbon dioxide emissions than gasoline and polluting waterbodies via nitrogen fertilizer runoff, all while benefitting a narrow group of special interests at the expense of consumers. Read more here... 3. American Conservative Union Statement Wrong on Air Traffic Control Reform - via Competitive Enterprise Institute Yesterday, the American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) released a statement on the air traffic control reform proposal pending in the House. “After fully analyzing the degree of consistency with our Seven Principles, the ACUF has determined that the proposed plan would not actually privatize a governmental entity,” the group wrote.ACUF is correct that air traffic control reform isn’t privatization. Supporters never claimed it was. Rather, it is more accurately called corporatization, similar to what dozens of other developed countries have done since the late 1980s. The U.S. is the last large developed country in the world to still have its air traffic control provided by the government aviation safety regulator. Read more here... 4. Expand America's Broadband Internet Right now, there are 23 MILLION Americans who don’t have access to broadband Internet, just because of where they live. Connecting them to the Internet would help put more money in their pockets, create new American jobs, and further grow America’s economy.Thankfully we can achieve all this by simply changing an FCC regulation. By getting the government out of the way and allowing the market to work, all of America will get better, faster, and cheaper broadband Internet. That’s why FreedomWorks is asking you to contact these senators and urge them to support expanding America’s broadband Internet today. Take Action Here! 5. Students and Parents Are Given Little Choice When it Comes to School Choice - via The Buckeye Institute More families in Ohio should be able to avail themselves of school choice than are being allowed to. This is a tragedy for those seeking to escape schools that are not meeting their needs.Ohio is one of only a few states where it’s largest school choice program, the EdChoice Scholarship, is available only to those students who are assigned to failing schools. However, due to the safe harbor provision, which suspends the consequences of schools failing tests for the 2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years, many students are not eligible for EdChoice even if they are in a failing school. Read more here... Jason Pye Vice President of Legislative Affairs, FreedomWorks