FW Newsletter: How ObamaCare Destabilized the Insurance Market

Surveying the Conservative Grassroots of America You and I know the tea party movement has changed the face of American politics forever. For a long time we had the interest of Washington, but now we have their attention. Professors and academics have approached FreedomWorks to learn more about our members – their beliefs, motivations, and effect on politics in America. I’m hoping you’ll take part in their anonymous survey to set the historical record straight! The survey is completely anonymous, you can skip any question that you don’t want to answer, and your survey cannot be linked to you. Click here and enter you unique code 3876562 to complete your survey. Rep. David Schweikert Responds to Obama's State of the Union How ObamaCare Destabilized the Insurance Market - by Logan Albright By now, most people realize that the Affordable Care Act has not done much to help bring down the cost of medical care. In fact, insurance plans keep getting more expensive every year. Because of these failings, the administration has consistently had trouble getting people to sign up on the exchanges. Still, there’s one provision of ObamaCare that has remained popular despite its other failings: the requirement that insurers cover preexisting conditions. It’s no mystery why people like this; the inability to afford health care because of a previous diagnosis of of high blood pressure or diabetes is a real problem. However, from the standpoint of insurance, the requirement makes no sense, and cannot work in the long term. Read more here... The Misdirected "Progressives" - by Ted Abram Eight years ago, Americans voted for “Change We Can Believe In.” Unfortunately, rather than strengthening freedom and our economy, We the People received more “progressive” elitism, which is government edicts by a few political overlords. Very harmfully, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi have mandated ObamaCare, a war on energy and thousands of proclamations that have retarded our economic development as well as our personal freedom. Particularly, their mandate hurts middle-income Americans. Recently, President Obama obliquely conceded that a stagnated economy angers and causes angst for many Americans. In a National Public Radio interview our president said. Read more here... A Paradoxical Question - by Rev. CL Bryant America is in a paradoxical situation regarding personal and private intrusion by national and local government agencies. While it is true most citizens want police to respond promptly to distress calls, few are aware that there are instruments of surveillance that do indeed threaten civil liberties. Some local law enforcement agencies are using software gives law enforcement agencies the ability to peer into the lives and records of citizens including criminal activity to innocuous activity on the Internet. The are many questions that all Americans must now ask. How much of our privacy is being invaded? Will there be any citizen oversight to this program? What aspects of a citizen's life can be exposed? Will poor citizens and minorities be easier targets for invasion of privacy than wealthier citizens or vice-versa? There is a host of other questions that we must ask before we allow our civil liberties to be compromised for the false comfort of feeling safe.  Read more here... The Debt The price of money—also known as interest rates—is arguably the most important price in the economy, and when government fixes these rates below the market level, the markets are distorted and we end up with more borrowing and more debt than we should have. The Federal Reserve is creating an addiction to cheap money, and like any other addiction, there’s only one way to kick the habit and return to a state of fiscal sanity. Read more here... Georgia Governor Makes Emotional Case for Justice Reform at RNC Winter Meeting - by Jason Pye via Medium Criminal justice reform was on the menu at a luncheon Thursday during the Republican National Committee winter meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal served up an emotional talk about his efforts to reform the Peach State’s approach to corrections. In January 2011, Deal delivered his first State of the State address to the Georgia General Assembly. The new governor surprised Republican lawmakers when he asked for the creation of a commission to review Georgia’s criminal justice system and offer recommendations for reform. Read more here... IRS Bureaucrats Could Still Be Targeting Conservatives Following the release of a Government Accountability Office report on the flawed auditing processes at the Internal Revenue Service, FreedomWorks National Grassroots Director Noah Wall commented: “It has been nearly three years since the IRS admitted that it was targeting conservatives for their political beliefs. No one has been held accountable for these disgusting violations of the rights to free association and free speech.” “This GAO report shows that there are still fundamental weaknesses in the IRS’s audit procedures that could lead to unfairness in the application of tax laws by a new breed of Lois Lerners, bureaucrats with ideological agendas who simply want to go after conservatives with the heavy hand of the federal government. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen never intended to fix this corrupt agency, and we urge the House to take up the articles of impeachment against him.” Read more here... A TPA-Style Rundown of TPP and TTIP - by Christina Delgado  In true D.C. form, a series of acronyms regarding trade have erupted onto center stage. Although it seems these terms just popped onto the scene, the efforts behind each have been ongoing for several years. TPA The Trade Promotion Authority (“TPA”), also known as the “fast track negotiating authority,” passed Congress and was signed by President Obama on June 2015. TPA was initially enacted in 1974 with renewals occurring in 2002 and recently in 2015, during the Ford, Bush, and Obama presidencies. TPA grants the President authority to handle international trade agreements, but it also establishes detailed objectives the Executive Branch is expected to follow during trade talks. Congress is responsible for setting these high-standard objectives, as well as being the final authority on whether the legislation is actually implemented. Read more here... FreedomWorks in Action Sign up for the FreedomWorks Morning Update If you want an update like this newsletter twice a week, be sure to sign up for the FreedomWorks Morning Update! The Morning Update is your tool to keep up-to-date with all the threats to your freedom. Sign up here. Make freedom work, Jason Pye Communications Director, FreedomWorks           Forward To A Friend | Update Your Email Preferences 400 North Capitol Street, NW Suite 765 Washington, DC 20001