4 Fights for Freedom: How Obama’s Radical Agenda Hit a Huge Roadblock

Phil Kerpen

by Phil Kerpen, Contributing Author: Since Congress is in recess for the next few weeks, I want to take a moment to update you on some of the critical free market battles that are taking place.

This has been a crazy year. Here is a brief look at where we stand on 4 of the biggest fights for freedom that we face:

1) The Supreme Court
After the unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, it appeared as though President Obama had the final straw he needed to fundamentally transform America.

By the New York Times’ own admission, Obama’s handpicked nominee Merrick Garland would have joined the most liberal wing of the Supreme Court, which would have ensured years, even decades, of leftwing ideologues legislating from the bench.

It was nothing short of a full-blown constitutional crisis.

But while Republicans showed signs of caving to Obama’s radical nominee, American Commitment members like you had something to say about it — actually, thousands of things.

Together we sent over 26,000 letters demanding that Congress hold no votes and no hearings on a Supreme Court nominee until after the Presidential election.

And after our letters were sent, and the dust cleared, Republican leadership held firm and blocked Merrick Garland’s confirmation — despite intense pressure from the media and liberal activists.

Patriotic Americans like you played a huge roll in saving the Supreme Court from liberal rule. Now we just need to make sure the next U.S. President nominates a Justice who is deserving of Antonin Scalia’s seat.

You can click here to thank the Senate for standing strong against Obama’s liberal appointee.

2) Obama’s TV and Internet Takeovers
Obama’s White House is using the supposedly independent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as a political weapon for massive government intrusions into our daily lives.

Obama’s FCC reclassified the Internet as a “public utility”, which has slowed private investment, undermined competition, and is stalling innovation. Unfortunately, that shameful 3-2 party-line vote, directed by White House political staff, has been upheld on a 2-1 vote at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. It is likely headed for the Supreme Court, another reason it’s crucial to fill Scalia’s seat with a conservative.

We had a huge victory with your help earlier in the year when we got the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act passed, which prevented new state and local taxes averaging 12 percent from being applied to Internet bills – but the FCC could still use a 3-2 party-line vote to impose huge de facto tax in the form of Universal Service Fund fees – and one FCC commissioner warned that vote is coming after the election.

Meanwhile, the FCC announced a television power grab that would effectively mandate a second cable box and give Google and other politically-favored companies a green-light to pirate copyrighted content, while monitoring and monetizing what you and your family watch.

Once again, we fought back. And our opposition to Obama’s rogue FCC earned us praise from conservative talk radio host Mark Levin, who referred to us on the air as a “wonderful organization.”

We held the politicians’ feet to the fire on stopping Obama’s rogue FCC. And recently, our efforts were rewarded when the House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that would completely defund BOTH of these FCC power grabs! Now the Senate must follow suit. Tell your Senators not to give a single penny to Obama’s FCC Power Grabs!

3) Obama’s Backdoor Student Loan Bailout
In a shocking decision, Obama’s Department of Education released proposed “Defense to Repayment Regulations” that would leave taxpayers on the hook for a MASSIVE amount of student loan debt.

Not only will discharged student loans fall on taxpayers, but in many cases so will the costs of fighting or settling all of the litigation against public Universities. All told, the Department of Education’s own analysis shows that this regulation would cost taxpayers up to $43 billion.

That makes it the most expensive regulation of the year – but until we jumped into this fight, it went almost completely unnoticed. We organized a coalition of taxpayer groups to fight back, and have been doing aggressive media outreach as well as mobilizing you to fight back.

The public comment period on this proposed regulation closed this week, and we bombarded the Department of Education with thousands of comments against this new rule. We are also demanding Congress stops this rule from going into effect.

4) Obama’s War on Retirement Plans
We led the fight against Obama’s DEVASTATING new Department of Labor regulations for American retirement plans. Their so-called “fiduciary rule” was dubbed “Obamacare for your retirement” because if you like your retirement plan, you may not be able to keep it.

Once again, we stepped up to the plate and flooded Congress with letters demanding they stop Obama’s plan to enact crippling regulations on our retirement accounts. With a national debt over $19 trillion, Obama has NO RIGHT to tell us how to be responsible with our own money!

Our efforts played a significant role in getting legislation passed in the House AND Senate to stop this rule from going into effect. But despite bipartisan opposition to Obama’s retirement power grab, Obama vetoed the bill, allowing the rule to take effect with support from just a small minority of Congress.

This marked the FIFTH time since Republican took control of the Senate a little over a year and a half ago that majorities in the House AND Senate voted to stop an Obama regulation, only to have him block them and allow the regulations to move forward with a veto. The Constitutional process for passing legislation has been gutted and turned upside down.

We must fix it, and there is simple legislation to fix the process called the REINS Act, which would REQUIRE affirmative APPROVAL of new regulations by majorities in the House and Senate or they COULD NOT take effect. It’s our top legislative priority.

As we wait for Congress to return from their break, thank you for standing with us on these important fights for freedom.

Together, we have made a huge difference in these critical battles — and though there is still work to be done, we have much to be proud of.

We aren’t sitting passively on the sidelines — we have taken our fight directly to Obama’s lawless administration.
------------------
Phil Kerpen is president of American Commitment. Follow him at (@kerpen) and on Facebook. He is a contributing author at the ARRA News Service.

---

Tags: Phil Kerpen, American Commitment, 4 Fights for Freedom, Obama’s Radical Agenda, Hit, Roadblock To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!