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FreedomWorks

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FreedomWorks is a non-partisan conservative non-profit organization based in Washington D.C. with over 850,000 grassroots activists. FreedomWorks recruits, educates, motivates and mobilizes volunteers who desire less government, lower taxes, and more freedom. FreedomWorks drives policy change by training and organizing grassroots Americans to engage fellow citizens and encourage their political representatives to act in defense of individual freedom and economic opportunity.

FreedomWorks Activists campaigning for lower taxes in North Carolina.

History

FreedomWorks was created on July 22, 2004, and is chaired by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

President and CEO Matt Kibbe, a former aide to Republican Representative Dan Miller and a former staffer at the Republican National Committee, said that the new group "will encourage Republicans - and Democrats - to take positions on issues of individual freedom." Armey said that "Ronald Reagan launched a political and intellectual revolution, and the Contract with America expanded it. Today, it’s time for the next wave. We have a rare window to make the big ideas of individual ownership and economic opportunity a political reality for all Americans. That’s the purpose of FreedomWorks."

Related organization Citizens for a Sound Economy was founded in 1984, making FreedomWorks one of the oldest free market grassroots advocacy organizations in operation today.

Empower America was founded in 1993. Its co-founders were William Bennett, former Senator Jack Kemp, former Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, and former Representative Vin Weber.[1]

Freedom Agenda

The Freedom Agenda is a set of political changes that FreedomWorks supports. The six core issues are: Fundamental Tax Reform to scrap the federal tax code and make it simple, low, transparent, and flat; Social Security to include large Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs) that individual workers own; Tort Reform to end lawsuit abuse; School Choice to increase parental control and competition in education; Economic Growth to push for pro-growth regulatory and trade policy changes; and Welfare Reform to emphasize work, personal responsibility, and greater access to capital. The Freedom Agenda also includes numerous state issues including those on telecommunications, TABOR (taxpayer bill of rights), property rights, and decreasing local taxes.

Controversial Money Laundering

FreedomWorks has earned over $638,000 and about 16,000 members through the sale of insurance policies. When someone signs up for insurance through "Medical Savings Insurance Company", they are also automatically signed up for FreedomWorks without their knowledge. Their information is subject to be rented out as Medical Savings Insurance Company feels fit, which is not uncommon for many groups who obtain client contact information. The dues they pay also pay for FreedomWorks projects.[2]

Critics see the effort as a way for this group to inflate their membership rosters, and more exactly, by taking dues from people with no interest in the groups' politics.[citation needed]

Like many other "independent expenditure" organizations that follow the provisions of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance rules, FreedomWorks has legal structure giving it nonprofit status as a 501(c)(3), a 501(c)(4), a 527 and a federal political action committee.

Personnel

  • Chairman: Dick Armey
  • President: Matt Kibbe
  • Vice President, Research: Wayne T. Brough
  • Vice President, Development: Jaci Brown
  • Vice President, Interactive Media: Chris Kinnan
  • Vice President, Campaigns Rob Jordan
  • Director, Federal and State Campaigns Brendan Steinhauser
  • Press Secretary: Adam Brandon

References

  1. ^ http://rightweb.irc-online.org/org/empower.php
  2. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200683.html


Projects

  • 2008 Presidential Candidate Pages: A survey of each 2008 Presidential hopeful
  • Center for Global and Economic Growth (CGEG): Provides assistance and training to free market think tanks, taxpayer associations, and other limited government organizations outside of the U.S. to help them create effective grassroots networks to bring about policy changes through the political processes in their own countries.
  • Choose Your Cable: Online resource for information on telecommunications regulatory changes across the country.
  • Tabor USA: Online campaign site for the Taxpayer Bill of Rights movement.
  • Scrap the Code: Online campaign site for the flat tax.
  • Lights on Texas: Online campaign site in support of free-market solutions to energy in Texas.
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