FreedomWorks Media Roundup: March 5th – 13th, 2013

Inside the Beltway: Publicity prowess

Young conservatives aspire to school old conservatives this weekend. FreedomWorks hosts its first youth summit for fiscal conservatives younger than 30 on Saturday to discuss “the GOP’s failure to connect with younger voters.” Indeed, President Obama attracts the young and restless: 66 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 voted for him in 2008; another 60 percent followed suit in 2012. It is a formidable voting bloc, numbering about 46 million. Motivating them to go to the polls, on the other hand, is tricky business, but one that deft Democrats excel in. – Jennifer Harper, March 6, 2013, Read More

Rand Paul’s Drone Filibuster Sparks GOP Civil War

FreedomWorks was among the biggest cheerleaders of Paul’s filibuster and, along with the Heritage Foundation, helped light up news and social media with their passionate support. The intensity of the push was noticed by Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who urged all Republican senators to “please go to the floor and help out” Paul. Fourteen of them went, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). – Sahil Kapur, March 7, 2013, Read More

Rand Paul Highlights Obama and John McCain’s Horrible Civil Liberties Records

In the spirit of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Senator Rand Paul delivered the filibuster speech that was trending worldwide on Twitter on Wednesday. He wanted a direct answer from the White House to this simple question: does the U.S. government have the authority to kill an American citizen with a drone on U.S. soil?

The question may seem a bit strange at first. However, with the federal government greatly expanding their use of unmanned drones in U.S. skies, it is a legitimate question that deserves an answer. The U.S. government has already killed an American citizen with a drone. – Julie Borowski, March 9, 2013, Read More

Paul, Lee & Cruz

When a staffer texted Senator Mike Lee that his friend and colleague Rand Paul was mounting a talking filibuster to demand greater transparency on the administration’s drone policy, Lee did not hesitate. “I alerted my staff that I would need to be going to the floor,” he says in an interview.

However, as the same aide explained last week, Paul, Lee, and Cruz have been and will continue to be most effective by working within the system. “It can’t just be about getting the FreedomWorks of the world all ginned up, or trying to oust Boehner, or whatever,” the aide says. “From here on out, we’re trying to push a reform agenda in a more substantive way than just throwing apples.” – Andrew Stiles, March 11, 2013, Read More

Paul Ryan’s Budget Repealed Obamacare to Appease the GOP ‘Fight Club’

There is a significant number of House Republicans who refuse to accept that reality. As The Hill‘s Molly K. Hooper reported Sunday, some House conservatives were upset that the continuing resolution to fund the government until the end of September did not defund Obamacare, and Republican leaders wouldn’t let them amend the bill to add that. So those 16 Republicans voted against their party on a procedural vote on the spending bill last week. FreedomWorks sent out a petition titled “Demand Boehner Defund Obamacare.” The office of Louisiana Rep. John Fleming, one of the 16, gave The Hill a statement saying Fleming thought the spending bill “was a prime opportunity to move conscience legislation that would restore protections stripped away by Obamacare.” Republicans, needing 218 votes and only able to afford losing between 15 and 17 of them, would have lost the vote if so 17 Democrats hadn’t been absent. But those conservatives are promising to do it again. “Worse, from a leadership perspective, is that some Republicans say they plan on doing it again if they feel leaders are limiting them from offering controversial amendments on the floor,” Hooper reports. – Elspeth Reeve, March 11, 2013, Read More

Tea Party to have statewide conference in Newton

The North Carolina Tea Party Coalition is hosting a free “Turning Up the Heat on the Tea Party Message” with speakers focused on image and messages intended to reach all demographics and age groups. The conference, to be held Saturday in Newton, will gather people interested in the Tea Party movement from throughout the state. Sponsors include Freedom Works, Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity, and N.C. Values Coalition. – Hickory Record, March 13, 2013, Read More

2016 Republican Presidential Candidates Update

At this point it is difficult to predict what will be the defining issue(s) of the next presidential election. Our political landscape will surely change but there are some things that we know will be a major factor. The national debt in 2016 is projected to be over $22 trillion and entitlement reform will be as pressing as ever. ObamaCare will have been implemented and its effects carefully weighed. This update can hopefully serve as a one-stop-shop to see what the right’s prospective 2016 candidates have recently been up to over the past two weeks. – Henry Graebe, March 13, 2013, Read More

BeforeItsNews.com: Many of you have asked about video footage from the February 24th FreedomWorks Grassroots Fly-In Summit I participated in. I’m pleased to announce that it is now available. The segment is roughly an hour long. It features Students for Liberty’s Alexander McCobin, FreedomWorks’ Jackie Bodnar and Jeff Scully, and yours truly (Leadership Institute). We extensively discussed youth activism and ways to successfully reach out to our generation. Read More

TheHill.com: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and the heads of the National Republican Senatorial Committee joined Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in his filibuster against confirming John Brennan to head the Central Intelligence Agency, a move that could have political benefits for all involved. Tea Party groups are already rallying to the cause. The conservative group FreedomWorks issued a statement Wednesday afternoon calling for other senators to “Stand with Rand.” Read More

Slate.com: But among the 14 “no” votes were three Georgia Republicans—Rep. Paul Broun, Rep. Phil Gingrey, and Rep. Jack Kingston—currently running or exploring bids for U.S. Senate. FreedomWorks, the grassroots Tea Party group that helped elect some of these guys, pledged to “score” the vote, counting an “aye” against the overall record of any congressman. That said a lot about the politics of GOP primaries. But on legislative terms, the defense hawks decisively won this one.

DeneenBorelli.com: CNSNews.com reports a record number of Americans are not in the workforce based on February data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to CNSNews: “The number of Americans designated as ‘not in the labor force’ in February was 89,304,000, a record high, up from 89,008,000 in January…”

UnitedLiberty.com: On Thursday, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-AZ) unleashed on their colleague, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who had the day before filibustered the confirmation of John Brennan to the CIA with an eloquent defense of the Constitution and due process in contrast to the possibility of a government that could kill its own citizens inside its own borders. The Token Libertarian Girl, Julie Borowski, weighed in on what these two dinosaurs had to say about Sen. Paul and so-called “impressionable libertarian kids” in her latest it video. It’s worth a watch. Read More

EyeOnFreedom.com: “Every Republican officeholder and candidate in the country should have two words tattooed on their hands; growth and opportunity.” Those are the reasons U.S. Senator Ted Cruz gave for introducing his ‘Restore Growth First – Defund Obamacare’ amendment to the continuing resolution to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. Read More

Reason.com: Freedom Works, for example, was livid that GOP leaders refused to allow a floor vote on an amendment to defund the implementation of President Obama’s healthcare law. The conservative group sent out an action alert to its members on Wednesday under the heading “Demand Boehner Defund Obamacare.”    Several of the seven lawmakers who supported passage of the bill but opposed the rule vote cited the Obamacare exclusion in explaining their votes. Read More

TheGabriellaHoffman.com: On Sunday, I had the pleasure of speaking at FreedomWorks’ College Fly-In Summit at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Washington, D.C. I participated alongside FreedomWorks’ Anang Mittal (India), Adam Brandon (U.S./England) , and Ana Puig (Brazil). We shared our respective stories about being first-generation Americans and/or immigrants who came to this country. Read More

UnitedLiberty.com: Below is the speech I gave last night at the FreedomWorks’ Spring Break College Summit at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington, DC. Before I get down to the crux of my talk this evening, I’ve gotta say, watching Senator Rand Paul’s epic 13-hour filibuster on Wednesday was nothing short of inspirational. For more than half a day, Senator Paul — aided at times by some of his colleagues, including Mike Lee and Ted Cruz — gave a brilliant defense of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and challenged the notion of perpetual war. Read More

Watch FreedomWorks President & CEO Matt Kibbe on The Blaze on March 3^rd, Kibbe participated in what Glenn Beck called “Freedom Charts” Kibbe and Beck both categorized political figures on where their political philosophies feel. Watch Here!

Watch FreedomWorks Executive Vice President Adam Brandon as he joins The Blaze TV’s Wilkow Majority on March 4^th, Brandon discussed the Sequester and recent trending topics. Watch Here!

Watch FreedomWorks Policy Analyst Patrick Hedger as he joins Russia Today on March 5^th, Hedger discussed “Is the Keystone XL killing more jobs than it creates?” Watch Here!

Watch FreedomWorks Pennsylvania Campaigns Coordinator Ana Puig as she joins The Blazes Andrew Wilkow Show on March 6^th, Puig discussed the recent death of Hugo Chavez and Venezuela’s Power Transition. Watch Here!

Watch a FreedomWorks video “It’s Not Karl Rove’s Party” featuring FreedomWorks Director of Outreach Deneen Borelli on March 6^th. Watch Here!  

Watch last week’s episode of FreedomWorks On Tap “The Sequester & Alabama School Choice” on March 7^th, Watch Here!

Watch FreedomWorks Director of Outreach Deneen Borelli as she joins FoxNews on March 9^th, Borelli discussed the recent sequester fallout! Watch Here!  

Watch this week’s episode of “Happening on The Hill” featuring FreedomWorks Legislative Affairs Manager Josh Withrow on March 11^th, Watch Here!

Watch a FreedomWorks video “FreedomWorks Youth Summit Visits Senator Mike Lee” on March 12^th, Watch Here!

 FreedomWorks Vice President of Public Policy Dean Clancy appeared on The Andrew Wilkow radio show on March 4^th, Clancy discussed Obama’s budget lies.

FreedomWorks Fellow Tom Borelli joined The Jerry Doyle Radio Show on March 6^th, Borelli discussed the DNC Defaulting on its Duke Energy Loan.

FreedomWorks Legislative Affairs Assistant Josh Withrow joined Rock Splitting Politics on March 6^th, Withrow discussed the Affordable Patient Care Act better known as Obamacare and what can you do to stop this disaster coming to destroy America as we know it. Listen Here!

FreedomWorks Vice President of Public Policy Dean Clancy appeared on The Neal Larson radio show on March 8^th, Clancy discussed health care exchanges.

FreedomWorks Vice President of Public Policy Dean Clancy appeared on The Kevin Miller of KIDO 580 radio Show on March 12^th, Clancy discussed why Idaho’s lawmakers should say “no” to an ObamaCare exchange and urged listeners to let their state lawmakers know they oppose the pending exchange bill (HB248), which is being pushed by corporate interests and is scheduled for a vote in the state house on March 13.