FREEDOMWORKS 12/21/2017 AHHH ...THE SWEET SMELL OF VICTORY (TAX BILL)

. Congress Approves Final Tax Reform Bill, Handing Trump Year-End Victory - via Fox News

The House gave the final stamp of approval Wednesday to a sweeping tax reform package, handing President Trump his first major legislative victory and most Americans a tax cut starting next year.

With a 224-201 House vote, Congress sent the $1.5 trillion package to Trump’s desk. The biggest rewrite of the federal tax code since the Reagan administration will usher in steep rate cuts for American companies, double the deduction millions of families claim on their annual returns and make a host of other changes taking effect in a matter of weeks. Read more here...

Right now, Obama's so-called "Clean Power Plan" threatens to destroy thousands of American jobs and cause your energy bill to skyrocket.
Thankfully President Trump and his conservative EPA Commissioner Scott Pruitt aren't going to let that happen.
But radical leftists are striking back. And if you stay silent now, they will save these big government mandates. Don’t let that happen.
Write a comment to President Trump's EPA right now. Tell them to support the president's efforts to repeal Obama’s Clean Power Plan today.

2. AT&T Is Handing Out $1,000 Bonuses To Its Employees After Tax Bill Passes - via Forbes

AT&T is handing out $1,000 bonuses to 200,000 of its U.S. employees after lawmakers successfully passed tax reform on Wednesday.

The Dallas-based telecom company also reiterated its promise to invest $1 billion in the country in 2018 if the bill is signed into law. The sweeping tax reform was approved by Congress this afternoon and will now go to President Donald Trump for his signature.

"Congress, working closely with the President, took a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world,” said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson in a statement. “This tax reform will drive economic growth and create good-paying jobs." Read more here...

3. So, Um, Does Sen. Jeff Merkley Know What a Heist Is? - via Washington Examiner

Early on the morning of Dec. 20, a large group of middle-aged and elderly persons congregated in central Washington, D.C. Fifty-one of those persons — mostly male, almost exclusively white, and all wearing either a blue, gray, or black suits — gave speeches, made motions, and formally expressed their preference that the government should take less money from its citizens.

It was the biggest “bank heist in U.S. history.” At least, that’s how the junior Democrat senator from Oregon saw it. Despite the fact that no money was stolen and despite the fact that Republicans announced to the world their plan beforehand, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., accused his colleagues of stealing “$1 trillion out of our national treasury.”

While there are questions here about taxation and economics, there’s a larger and more obvious one: Does Merkley have any idea what a “bank heist” actually is? Read more here...

4. The Weekly Fix: Liars, Launderers, and Lobbyists - by Adam Brandon

The fix is in. Democrat lobbyist David Miller -and his wife Lynn Wallis- were busted for embezzling more than $650,000 from a Virginia state senate campaign, setting up fake law firms to fraudulently bill employers, and stealing $482,000 from their own autism charity to fund personal travel and mortgage payments. The crimes occurred between 2010 and 2014.

Lynn Wallis wrote more than 70 fraudulent checks during her stint as campaign treasurer for Virginia State Sen. Richard Saslaw. Together, the couple lied about the nonprofit tax status of their fake charity, The Community College Consortium on Autism and Intellectual Disabilities, and used donations to pay for a vacation home and a trip to Jamaica, among other things. Read more here...

5. Rand Paul and Mike Lee Will Vote "No" On Spending Bill If It Reauthorizes Warrantless Surveillance - via Rare

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.) held a press conference Tuesday morning in which they called for a bipartisan effort to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act.

Under current regulations, the FBI can conduct “backdoor” searches of American communications with foreign targets under suspicion without a warrant. Powers such as this one granted under Section 702 expire at the end of this year.

Paul, Lee, and Wyden have all been champions in the Senate for the right to privacy of Americans against the excesses of warrantless government spying on citizens. Read more here...

Jason Pye
Vice President of Legislative Affairs, FreedomWorks