St. Patrick’s Day Recess Kit

Click here to download a .pdf of the Tax Backgrounder

Click here to download a .pdf of the Telecom Backgrounder

While Congress is out on break during the St. Patrick’s Day recess period (March 20 – March 25), Members will be home in their districts holding town hall meetings, listening sessions, and making other public appearances. While the usual suspects on the Left will be out in force pushing their own liberal, big-government agenda, this also provides conservative activists like YOU who believe in the principles of lower taxes, less government, and more freedom with a great opportunity to move two key Freedom Agenda issues forward.

1. Free Market Telecom Reform in Trouble!

FreedomWorks has learned that the House Energy and Commerce Committee is moving forward with telecom reform legislation. Unfortunately, the committee’s latest approach contains a few “poison pills” that must be taken out in order to pass a bill that will truly allow competition to flourish in the traditional cable TV market and ultimately allow consumers to reap the benefits of more choices, better service, and competitive pricing. Back-door tax increases, price controls, and yet more heavy-handed government regulation are the key elements that must be addressed before a bill moves forward.

Key committee members and others in Congress have stated that they aren’t hearing enough from constituents on this issue. This lack of activity provides us with an excellent opportunity. While the actual drafting of this legislation is still in the works, you can take action now and help influence its outcome!

[TAKE ACTION TODAY!]

2. Fight for Tax Cuts and Prevent New Stealth Tax Hikes

House and Senate Budget Conferees are currently considering extending the dividend and capital gains tax cuts that are already in place for at least 2 more years. These pro-growth tax cuts should be made permanent to remove the market distortions created by uncertainty in tax policy. At the very least, these tax cuts should be extended. Additionally, as the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform suggested, Congress must act to do away with the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). This tax is taking an increasing chunk out of middle-class incomes and forcing more Americans to calculate their tax liability twice.

But fighting for good, pro-growth tax policy is only step one. At the same time, we must work against “stealth” tax hike schemes such as the Windfall Profits Tax. The last time this tax was enacted it had the effect of discouraging U.S. oil production and increasing the nation’s reliance on imports. Such a tax would also damage retirement accounts which hold 40% of oil stocks. Additionally, Congress must not restrict Last In First Out (LIFO) inventory accounting and foreign tax credits. These are more backdoor tricks to raise taxes on the domestic energy industry. These provisions target U.S. firms and would put them at a significant disadvantage in their competition with foreign firms— including the state-run oil companies of India and China.

[TAKE ACTION TODAY!]

These are the top two priorities for true economic conservatives over the next few weeks. You can make an immediate impact by clicking on the links above and sending urgent messages to the targeted lawmakers that will ultimately decide the outcome of these critical issues. In addition, you can download FreedomWorks St. Patrick’s Day Recess Action Kit (see top of page) to learn more about these issues and contact FreedomWorks Grassroots Action Center at 1-888-564-6273 to find out how you can engage in additional activities such as activist phone trees and one-on-one meetings with your legislators.