Key Vote “YES” on Sen. DeMint’s Amendments to S.1813, the Transportation Bill

Dear FreedomWorks member,

As one of our million-plus FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your senator and ask him or her to vote YES on the following amendments to MAP-21 (S.1813), the transportation spending reauthorization bill.  Both of these amendments greatly reduce the size and scope of the federal government.

·    DeMint Amendment SA 1589 – This amendment would eliminate a large number of federal subsidies for alternative fuel and renewable energy programs.  These subsidies have long distorted the market for new sources of energy by allocating funding to the technologies with the best lobbyists instead of those with the most value to consumers.  When the government picks winners and losers, we get unwise and failed investments like Solyndra.  We need to let the innovative spirit of the free markets decide which new technologies will most benefit American consumers. This amendment also lowers the corporate tax rate.  America’s corporate tax rates are the highest in the industrialized world, and freeing up companies to spend more of their own money will allow them to expand and create thousands of jobs.                      

·    DeMint Amendment SA 1756 – This amendment would reduce the federal government’s role in transportation funding by giving states direct control of their shares of the transportation funds.  This would eliminate the problem of certain states receiving more in funding than they paid in to the federal government.  Giving states more control over their own essential transportation projects also eliminates many of the strings that come attached whenever the federal government disperses money, and eliminated the inefficiencies of working through a middleman.

I urge you to call your senator and ask them to vote YES on DeMint amendments #1589 and #1756 to S.1813. We will count their vote on each of these amendments as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2012. 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 key vote notice.]