Repeal ObamaCare - Jan 2015

Capitol Hill Update, 26 January, 2015

The Congressional Budget Office has released its annual budget outlook for the next decade, showing that the budget deficit will continue to fall in the current fiscal year, as well as next year, before gradually beginning to rise steadily again, thereafter. The media mostly talking about this aspect of the report. The Associated Press, for example, ran with the headline: "CBO: Budget deficit to shrink to lowest level since Obama took office."

One of the ways the Obama administration managed to get ObamaCare through Congress was by keeping the cost of the law under $1 trillion. This was accomplished through various budget gimmicks and backloading costs in years at the end of the original budget estimates. These deceptive tactics are how the administration managed to get a score from the Congressional Budget Office purporting that ObamaCare would reduce the deficit by $124 billion.

What truly matters to Millennials? The struggle to find a job after college? Student Loans? Youth Unemployment? All these issues have hit our generation extremely hard, and it's time we rise up and engage our elected officials to find solutions to these very important issues.

The massive unpopularity of Common Core education standards has served as a rallying cry for concerned parents and teachers to get involved in politics—sometimes for the first time in their lives. Nothing galvanizes grassroots activism like the realization that the government is failing our children. These efforts have been remarkably successful, with three states repealing Common Core outright last year, and many state-level bills already being introduced in the new Congress.

As one of our more than 6.7 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your senators today and ask them to support Senator Mike Crapo’s Local Leadership in Education Act “to prohibit the Federal Government from mandating, incentivizing, or making financial support conditional upon a State, local educational agency, or school’s adoption of specific instructional content, academic standards, or curriculum, or on the administration of assessments or tests, and for other purposes,” and to co-sponsor the bill if they have not already done so.

While we may not agree with all speech we come across, it is important for liberty-minded individuals to defend all constitutionally protected speech. If we do not protect speech that we may not agree with, or that is of limited importance to us, there will be fewer people willing to defend speech that we care deeply about. Also, once the Supreme Court rules some speech can be restricted and still withstand constitutional scrutiny, it becomes easier for the Court to rule other speech can be restricted as well.

As one of our millions of FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and senators today and urge them to support the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act.” Sponsored in the Senate by Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and in the House by Rep. Todd Young (R-Ind.),

It’s a new year, and the state legislatures have come roaring back into session chock full of ideas to stop the Common Core education standards that are damaging school systems all across the country. Last year, we saw Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Carolina withdraw from the standards, and 2015 looks to be off to a good start.

A Congressional briefing on criminal justice on Thursday, January 22nd, highlighted the bipartisan efforts for reform. Democratic Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Republican Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich headlined the event. They were joined by Senior Policy Analyst at Texas Public Policy Foundation Vikrant Reddy, CNN contributor Van Jones, and Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI).