They call the legislation the “Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act,” but in actuality is a direct assault on participation in the political process.

We have the power to stop it.

But we must act quickly — today, now. It’s being introduced as I write this.

The bill is HR 5175 and they call the act “The Disclose Act.”

It will force groups like the Republican Liberty Caucus to report our members to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

As a grassroots, all-volunteer organization, we don’t have the staff to prepare such reports. By requiring us to spend time on reporting to the FEC, they are taking away from time we could be spending on promoting our candidates and our cause.

The government wants to create a list of all people who donate to all organizations who support political campaigns so they can post it on the Federal Elections Commission website.

This attack on free speech and liberty-oriented groups in particular must be stopped.

Please contact your member of Congress today and ask them to oppose HR 5175, which will be used as a tracking tool to stop liberty-minded groups like the Republican Liberty Caucus.

Thank you.

Two members of Congress have proposed sound bailout alternatives.

First, regarding the Wall Street bailout already approved by Congress: Representative Louis Gohmert of Texas has proposed returning all 2008 income taxes to American taxpayers as a solution to boost the ailing economy, as he believes taxpayers, rather than the government, should be using their hard-earned money to choose the economy’s winners and losers. Gohmert is preparing a bill to declare the tax holiday for January and February of 2009. According to Gohmert, “We can save more home mortgages, increase employment, and boost economic growth for a lower price tag with this plan than with any centralized bureaucratic program, all by giving the power back to the taxpayers. I am demanding that not another penny goes to executive bailouts, but these billions of taxpayer dollars should go to the taxpayers who earned them.”

According to American Solutions, citizens pay $101.6 billion per month in personal income tax and $65.6 billion per month in FICA tax. Under Gohmert’s proposed plan, all of these taxes would not be paid during January and February of 2009, and the money would stay in the hands of American taxpayers. There is a petition you can sign in support of the Gohmert plan at https://redstate.kimbia.com/taxholiday.

Additionally, Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn has proposed an alternative to the soon to be approved Big Three automakers bailout. The bill, HR 7928, would provide incentives for people to buy cars and reduce the inventory. Lamborn’s plan would give up to a $10,000 tax deduction to each American who buys a new automobile manufactured in the United States — including Ford, Chrysler, GM and foreign auto companies that build cars in this country. The plan would also help small businesses by increasing expense limits from $250,000 to $500,000 with a phase-out cap of $1 million.

In short, there are sound alternatives to Bailout politics, but few Congressional members are willing to look toward alternatives that provide long-term solutions rather than short-term quick fixes.

Pennsylvania State Senator Mike Folmer is a real reformer.

Outspent nearly 20 to one in his 2006 primary campaign, “Citizen Mike,” as he is known throughout his district, was elected as a result of the revolt Pennsylvania voters had when they learned that their legislators voted for a massive pay raise for themselves.

As Senator Folmer said in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in 2006: “I was a reluctant candidate … [but] one factor that appealed greatly to me was the vision the Founders had of a citizen-legislature — of a body consisting of ordinary folks who would fulfill their civic duty for a period of time and then step aside to allow others to do theirs. We’ve gotten away from that; but public service is not something reserved only for the rich or popular or well-connected.”

The Senator recently introduced a bill that would remove Pennsylvania’s unfair hurdles that obstruct ballot access for independent and minor party candidates for public office.

Currently, Pennsylvania law uses a complex formula to produce an extraordinarily high number of petition signatures that non-major party candidates must obtain in order to appear on the ballot in a general election. In 2006, that formula resulted in minor party and independent candidates having to gather nearly 68,000 petition signatures to run in the General Election for Governor or U.S. Senator. Major party candidates, meanwhile, were required to gather only 2,000 signatures during the primary election to run for those same offices.

Other RLC legislators who have sponsored ballot access reform bills in their own states include (former State Rep.) Tom Brinkman of Ohio, (former State Sen.) Duncan Scott of New Mexico, Charles Key of Oklahoma, Randy Brogdon of Oklahoma, and (former State Rep.) Leon Drolet of Michigan.

Similar to the biased Commission on Presidential Debates, U.S. ballot access laws restrict competition and are thus unfair to voters.

Libertarian-leaning Republican legislators are the primary force behind reforming restrictive and unfair ballot access laws across the country.

According to The Chattanoogan, the Republican primary challenger to incumbent Congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee’s Congressional District 3, Teresa Sheppard of Luttrell, was mistakenly left off of the Aug. 7 primary ballot in Hamilton County.

Teresa Sheppard was left off the ballot by county government.

The mistake marked the second time in less than a week that it was necessary to reprint some of the ballots.

The total bill for the taxpayers: $33,000. Oh, yes, let’s put the government in charge of health care.

The first error, which required the reprinting of 140,000 ballots, was that the U.S. Senate race did not appear on the ballots.

Zach Wamp, the Republican incumbent, signed the Contract with America in 1994, but has gone way off course in recent years. As a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Wamp has worked hard to increase pork-barrel politicking for his district. In 2006, he worked to secure a $4 million appropriation for a methamphetamine task force in Tennessee.

Wamp is a term limits pledge breaker, voted to allow electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens without a warrant, and has sided with the Administration on most issues most of the time. Sheppard is a sound alternative in District 3.