Dear FreedomWorks member, As one of our millions of FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to vote YES on the Toomey-Shaheen sugar program reform amendment (#925) to the Farm Bill, S. 954. The special treatment of the sugar industry in the farm bill is among the most egregious examples of corporate welfare anywhere in the federal code.   While it does not fully repeal the sugar program, which would be preferable, this bipartisan amendment substantially improve the current state of affairs by rolling back many expansions of the program.  Among the most important reforms is the repeal of the Feedstock Flexibility Program, which subsidizes sugar to be used for creating ethanol.   I urge you to call your U.S. Senators and ask them to vote … Read entire article »

Last year, during a recess while Congress was still in session, President Obama appointed three members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). While it is Constitutional for a President to make recess appointments during a inter-cession recess, these appointments were made during a intra-session recess. It may sound like a minor detail, but it’s not. These appointments to the NRLB, which enforce employee and employer rights, don’t fall under that category. Whoops. We all know that President Obama and the Democrats are having a rough week and, today, it got a little worse when a second court of appeals overturned these appointments.  In January, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that those appointments were unconstitutional. In late April, Obama appealed the decision to the U.S. Court … Read entire article »

The National Treasury Employees Union, NTEU, which represents the IRS employees who harassed and delayed tea party and conservative groups, has come out against the proposal to put federal workers into exchange-based health insurance.  Fancy that: the people in charge of deciding whether you go into an exchange, and who decided it doesn’t matter whether your state doesn’t want one, don’t want to be in one themselves. As Jeffrey Lord of The American Spectator points out (hat tip, American Thinker), With the IRS assuming serious police powers of Obamacare, in effect the members of one left-wing labor union will have access to the private health care records of every single American. While it’s fine to investigate whether President Obama and higher ups at Treasury knew about or even ordered the IRS to harass conservatives … Read entire article »

Another day, another scandal (or three). Whether the issue is investigating reporters, fumbling Benghazi or harassing Tea Partiers, people across the political spectrum finally are challenging the once-Teflon Obama administration. His groupies in the press are loath to criticize him directly, but the president’s “no drama” public façade is crumbling faster than a Kardashian marriage. Some in the press compare the scandal tsunami to Watergate while the more daring sort are even breathing the word “impeachment.” The left and the talking heads can say what they want, but let’s hope Republicans avoid the I-word entirely. Barack Obama isn’t the problem. Progressivism is. If President Obama retired tomorrow so he could focus on golf, body surfing and autobiographies 3 through 13, would the country immediately transform into a liberty-minded paradise? Of course not. President Biden … Read entire article »

America was founded on the ideas and principles of rugged individualism and personal responsibility, and at times these ideals are warped into an excuse to overlook the poor, downtrodden and displaced members of society. As conservatives, we’re often pegged as being uncaring or uncharitable.  We have called for the government to be more nimble, more effective and yes, we’ve petitioned our government to do less.  Is that because we want people who are in desperate times to go without?  No, it’s because we believe that those closest to the problem, the community, are better equipped to handle these needs.  Far better equipped than an overbearing, bloated bureauracy. Many of our friends on the right campaign vigorously against entitlement programs.  If those same people then ignore those in need; shame on … Read entire article »

Joining me today on the FreedomCast is CJ Ciamarella, reporter for the Washington Free Beacon.  We’ll discuss the IRS scandal,  the chilling effect it has on political dissent, and how Republicans should target big government and not Obama.  More on this topic: IRS Targeting Timeline Chilling Effect Republicans Promise Response Have a suggestion for an upcoming FreedomCast episode, or a comment? Send it to me on twitter @KristinaRibali. Subscribe to The FreedomCast on iTunes here. Follow FreedomWorks on twitter and on Faceboook. Follow today’s guest @CJCiaramella on twitter.  Our podcast is fabulously produced by @BradWJackson. Read more CompleteThe FreedomCast – Episode 35 – IRS Targeting Tea Party Groups with CJ Ciaramella … Read entire article »

On Wednesday May 15, 2013, several dozen activists came to center city Philadelphia to protest the shareholders’ meeting of Comcast at the Kimmel Center. The reasons varied from person to person. Most were upset that the CEO was a big supporter of Obama, but an even bigger reason was Comcast’s ownership of MSNBC.  MSNBC has a long history of support for liberal ideology and against conservative causes. This summer, the news station even adopted the president’s campaign slogan “Forward.” Not only is it alarming that a news network would adopt a president’s campaign slogan, but the term “forward” as a political slogan has known roots in communism. With political talking heads such as Rachel Maddow and The Ed Show, there is no question that the station is anything but balanced and leans … Read entire article »

Capitol Hill Update, 20 May, 2013 House & Senate/Schedule: Both chambers are in session this week, and will then be out of town next week for Memorial Day.  After the break, the House and Senate will both return to town on June 3rd for a grueling four-week stretch. Legislative Highlight of the Week: The Senate will spend much of this week considering the Farm Bill, S. 954, formally called the “Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013”. One of the many ridiculous aspects of this bill is that the Senate is touting this year’s bill as “saving” $23 billion dollars over ten years, when the bill will still spend $955 billion over ten years.  That’s nearly a trillion dollars of corporate welfare, Soviet-style price supports, and food stamps.  Worse, the bill … Read entire article »

Today on the FreedomCast, writer and comedian Emily Zanotti joins me to discuss the importance of engaging the pop culture, why conservatives need to loosen up a bit and how she made economics sexy with “Hey Girl It’s Paul Ryan.” Have a suggestion for an upcoming FreedomCast episode, or a comment? Send it to me on twitter @KristinaRibali. Subscribe to The FreedomCast on iTunes here. Follow FreedomWorks on twitter and on Faceboook. Follow today’s guest @emzanotti on twitter.  Our podcast is fabulously produced by @BradWJackson. Read more CompleteThe FreedomCast – Episode 37 – Engaging the Culture and Hey Girl It's Paul Ryan … Read entire article »

I’m tired of Facebook. I even contemplated deactivating my account there, but for that ubiquitous “Like” button (which you should click now). (Just kidding.) (But seriously, click it now).  Facebook is all about the people you know.  They may or may not want to hear about your ideas, whether they agree or disagree with them.   If Facebook is for the people from your high school days, Twitter, it’s said, is for the people you would have liked to have been there.  You can get to know a lot about a person, 140 characters at a time — or you can think that you do. In the end, those sites are focused on personalities, and not on using ideas to bring people together. FreedomWorks maintains a great resource for political activists,  Freedom Connector. … Read entire article »