Key Vote “No” on Debt Increase, Conrad/Gregg

Dear Senator:

On behalf of hundreds of thousands of FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to VOTE NO on H.J. Res. 45, a nearly $1 trillion increase in the national debt ceiling that makes it too easy for Congress to continue the wasteful spending to which so many Americans are opposed.  As Milton Friedman rightly noted, the true level of taxation is the level of spending, because every dollar spent ultimately has to be paid by the taxpayers.  This is the perfect opportunity for Congress to say no to their spending addiction and find spending to cut.

As you know, there are a series of amendments associated with this vote that will tell the people exactly where you stand on the issue of fiscal responsibility.  In addition to encouraging you to vote no H.J. Res. 45, we also recommend the following votes, all of which will be score in our Congressional scorecard:

  • Vote YES on the Thune amendment on “TARP”, the Troubled Asset Relief Program. This amendment could save taxpayers as much as $300 billion by eliminating authority to spend unobligated TARP funds immediately, curbing one of the least popular pieces of legislation in recent history.
  • Vote YES on the Coburn amendment to rescind roughly $120 billion worth of wasteful and duplicative government programs.
  • Vote YES on the Sessions/McCaskill amendment to establish a responsible cap on spending growth of roughly 2 percent per year that would require a 67-vote point of order to waive.
  • Vote NO on the Conrad/Gregg amendment, and similar efforts introduced, to establish a “spending commission.” Taxpayers know such commissions are used as political cover to recommend tax hikes so Congress can continue to harm the economy by over spending and over taxing. 

As mentioned above, we will count these votes when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2009. The Economic Freedom Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the Jefferson Award, which recognizes members of Congress with voting records that support economic freedom.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO

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