Dear FreedomWorks member,

As one of our one million-plus members who support free markets, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to support several bills to amend ObamaCare. The new health care law provided billions of dollars in mandatory spending for numerous new programs. This funding procedure ultimately reduces congressional oversight by shifting power to the Executive Branch. All of the following five bills would increase congressional responsibility and oversight by converting ObamaCare’s mandatory spending to discretionary spending:

•    H.R. 1216, introduced by Rep. Guthrie (R-KY), convert funding for graduate medical education in qualified teaching health centers from direct appropriations to an authorization of appropriations.

•    H.R. 1214, introduced by Rep. Burgess (R-TX, repeal mandatory funding for school based health center construction.

•    H.R. 1217, introduced by Rep. Pitts (R-PA), repeal prevention and public health fund.

•   H.R. 1215, introduced by Rep. Latta (R-OH), convert funding for personal responsibility education programs from direct appropriations to an authorization of appropriations.

•    H.R. 1213, introduced by Rep. Upton (R-MI), repeal mandatory funding to states to establish American health benefit exchanges.

One of FreedomWorks' highest priorities is defunding Obamacare, because it will kill jobs, bankrupt the government, drive up everyone's health insurance costs, and put bureaucrats in charge of rationing care. These five bills are a step in the right direction to defund ObamaCare.  We believe Republicans retook the House majority in 2010 because of their strong opposition to Obamacare. Polls have consistently shown that a solid majority of Americans want Washington to reverse the government takeover of health care and adopt a patient-centered approach.

Tell your representative to support all of these bills to eliminate mandatory spending in ObamaCare. We may count their vote on any or all of these bills as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2011. 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
FreedomWorks
[Click here for a pdf version of this letter.]

Since the Federal Reserve opened its doors in 1914, it has never been audited. It remains the most secret and least accountable operation of the federal government. Our dollar has lost 97 percent of its value since its creation. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) have both introduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011. The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would eliminate the current audit restrictions placed on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and require a full and thorough audit of the Federal Reserve.

Please watch my video below and then take action by contacting your representatives and tell them to cosponsor H.R. 459 and S.202.

Cosponsorship update: As of July 4th of this year, H.R.459 had 263 cosponsors, or 60 percent of House Members.

Floor timing update: We expect the House to vote on H.R.459 sometime between July 23 and August 3, 2012.

Dear FreedomWorks member,

As one of our million-plus FreedomWorks members nationwide who support free markets, I urge you to call your representatives and ask him or her to ratify the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. Free trade is an indispensible part of free markets, the voluntary exchange of goods and services between consenting parties without government interference. Freer trade will allow Americans to reap the benefits of competition, which include more choices, better products, and lower prices. Moreover, lower trade barriers allow more specialization and a broader division of labor, making the global economy more efficient, productive, and prosperous. And most importantly, lower trade barriers decrease the amount of say the government has over who we interact with in the market place and decrease the amount they tax us for doing so.

Protectionist rhetoric has unfortunately increased during our current economic downturn, as it does during every downturn as politicians look for someone to blame. Make no mistake: free trade has always benefited the American economy. Protectionism only robs Americans of their income and their freedom of choice. The cost of trade tariffs are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Rent-seeking companies are notorious for lobbying for protectionist measures such as tariffs, quotas and subsidies to limit their exposure to competition. To help spur economic growth, we need to free the market by decreasing trade restrictions. 

The late Noble Prize winning economist Milton Friedman once said “few measures that we could take would do more to promote the cause of freedom at home and abroad than complete free trade.” Free trade limits government interference in our lives and builds important bonds between the people of trading nations. To be certain, all three trade deals have their flaws.  This is an unavoidable result of pursuing freer trade through negotiations and “concessions” talks based on outdated mercantilist theories of economics. But they all move dramatically in the right direction and should be supported by anyone who supports free markets.

Free trade helps the American economy, promotes the spread of liberty, and increases our own freedom. To this end, please contact your representative and tell him or her to ratify the Columbia, Panama, and South Korea trade agreements today.

Sincerely,
 
Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks
[Click here for a PDF version of this letter.]

Dear FreedomWorks member,

As one of our million-plus FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to vote YES on H.R. 471 the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (SOAR). Introduced by Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), the bill would reauthorize the Washington, DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. Congress ended this program in 2009 despite the overwhelming success of the cost-savings program. It is urgent to bring back the DC scholarship program for the sake of DC students and taxpayers.

The Washington, DC public school system is the most expensive yet produces the worst results in the nation. Taxpayers pay an average of $28,170 per pupil annually, but only 12 percent of eighth-graders are proficient in reading and only 8 percent in math. Because our the education system rations which school students are allowed to attended based on the street address of their parents, many poor families have no choice but to enroll their children in a failing local public school. The DC Opportunity Scholarship Program gave students a voucher which enabled them to attend the school of their choice. It’s important to note that, rather than spending new money, vouchers empower students as consumers. They allow students to take some of the dollars that would have been spent on their education at the local school they would have been forced to attend, and free them to choose their own school where those dollars will instead pay for their education.

FreedomWorks Chairman and former Majority Leader Dick Armey led the fight for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program for many years. When the DC Scholarship Program was finally passed in 2004, it gave thousands of DC families hope to send their child to a better school. In fact, the program was so popular that were four applicants for every one available slot. The program was cost effective since it only cost an average of $6,620 per student—one-fourth of the cost that the district pays for K-12 schooling. The short-lived program was also responsible for increasing student achievement and parental satisfaction. The Department of Education found that students who came into the DC Voucher Program when it first started had a 19 month advantage in reading compared to their public school counterparts.

I urge you to call your representatives today and tell them to vote for school choice. We will count their vote on the H.R. 471 the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (SOAR) as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2011. 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
FreedomWorks
[Click here for a pdf version of this letter.]

Dear Senator,

On behalf of over one million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to vote YES on the Save our States Act, offered by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) as Amendment No. 197 to S.493, the Small Business Innovation Research Reauthorization Act, currently being considered by the Senate.

Obamacare is bad medicine for America because it will kill jobs, bankrupt the government, drive up everyone's health insurance costs, put bureaucrats in charge of rationing care, and ruin the world's best health care system. Polls have consistently shown that a solid majority of Americans want Washington to reverse the government takeover of health care and adopt a patient-centered approach.  

As the unpopular Obamacare law nears its first anniversary, the Obama Administration is rushing to implement it in the face of the opposition of a majority of the American public, a majority of the House, a near-majority of the Senate, and a majority of the states, which latter are suing to have the law stayed on constitutional grounds.  

Since December, two federal district judges, in Virginia and Florida, have declared unconstitutional Obamacare's "individual mandate" requiring all U.S. residents to purchase health insurance (the linchpin of the entire, 2801-page law).  The rulings in these and other cases are being appealed by the Obama Administration's lawyers. The judge in the Florida case made clear that it is effectively ordering the government to stop enforcing the law on the 26 states who are parties to the lawsuit; yet the Administration has indicated it will not halt implementation.

To avoid wasting more time and money imposing costly burdens on individuals and employers that may eventually be ruled null and void by a decision of the Supreme Court, Congress should adopt Sen. Hutchison's amendment, which would impose a moratorium on further implementation of Obamacare until the courts render a final judicial decision.  The amendment delays further implementation and any new regulations under Obamacare not already in effect on the date of enactment, until final judicial resolution of the lawsuits. The amendment does not suspend features of the law already in effect on the date of enactment.  

FreedomWorks’ activists are leading the fight for health care freedom with a nationwide campaign of emails, phone calls to Congress, and district office visits to support the repeal of Obamacare and its replacement with a patient-centered approach.  We will keep fighting until true health freedom is a reality for all Americans.

I urge you to vote YES on the Hutchison Amendment (No. 197) to S.493.  We will count your vote on Amendment 197 as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2011. 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
FreedomWorks
[Click here for a PDF version of this letter.]

Dear Senator,

On behalf of over a million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to support several amendments to S.493 the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Reauthorization Bill and others that reduce the size of government.

With our nation over $14 trillion in debt, I urge you to support any effort to rein in excess spending. The following amendments will set us in the right direction towards prosperity and job creation.

•    Amendment #119, by Rand Paul, that would cut $200 billion in FY2011 by reducing discretionary spending and take most programs to FY2008 levels.

•    Amendment #161, by Mike Johanns, to repeal the 1099 reporting requirements.

•    Amendment #165, by Jim DeMint, to rescind the advance appropriations to the Corporation of Public Broadcast.

•    Amendment #174, by Marco Rubio, to rescind the remaining unobligated stimulus funds.

•    Amendment #178, by David Vitter, to sell unused Federal property

•    Amendment #183, by Mitch McConnell, to prohibit EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

We urge you to vote YES on any or all of these amendments, if offered.  We may count your vote on one or more of these amendments to S.493, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Reauthorization Bill, as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2011. 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
FreedomWorks
[Click here for a PDF version of this letter.]

Dear Representative,


On behalf of over one million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to sign onto the Republican Study Committee Health Care Working Group’s letter asking the Republican leadership to introduce an alternative health care plan with no mandates. We applaud the Republican leadership for passing the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act. The next step is to devise an alternative health care plan that will truly lower costs and improve health care quality.

The American health care is in desperate need of free market reform. The health care law passed last March sets us in the wrong direction of more government control. It includes numerous mandates including the individual mandate, employer mandate, state mandates and so on. All of these mandates are a clear violation of our liberties.

The American people overwhelmingly oppose the new health care law. The system must be replaced with a patient-centered approach to health care. The House Republican leadership should instead introduce a free market health care solution that includes no mandates. Signing onto the Republican Study Committee Health Care Working Group’s letter will show that you are committed towards improving the quality of health care.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks
[Click here for a pdf version of this letter.]

Dear Representative,

On behalf of over one million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to cosponsor H.R. 1049 the ROAD (regulatory openness, accountability, and disclosure) to Jobs Act of 2011. Introduced by Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH), the bill would require the Council of Environmental Quality to release an annual report detailing the permitting process for energy projects. The ROAD to Jobs Act is an important step to exposing how unelected federal bureaucrats are stifling job growth.

The process to receive a permit for any energy project has become a bureaucratic nightmare. Due to a web of red tape, the federal regulatory process is burdensome on potential job creators. The required annual report would reveal information including the number of energy related permits that were submitted during that year, the number of permits that have not yet been approved and the economic impact being held from a permit not been issued or one that has been rejected.

The American people deserve to know the cost of the federal energy regulatory process. The first step to reforming our regulatory process is to shed light on the broken system. With an 8.9 percent unemployment rate, it will be useful to learn the number of jobs and capital investment that is being held up due to the bureaucratic process.

Our energy regulatory process is in need of openness, accountability and disclosure. The bill would reveal just how harmful the regulatory process is towards job growth.  I urge you to cosponsor the ROAD to Jobs Act of 2011 today.
 
Sincerely,
 
Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks
[Click here for a pdf version of this letter.]