Dear Friend of Liberty,

Right now, I’m doing everything I can to stop the National Internet Tax Mandate in the U.S. House.

But without your support, I know my best efforts will come up short.

The special interests are doing everything they can to ram this misnamed, so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act” into law.

So I’m counting on your action today.

I’m so fired up about this legislation that just last week I took to the House floor with a number of my colleagues to discuss our opposition to this tax-hiking scheme.

But it’s going to take more than special order floor speeches to bring those members on the fence back to our side on this issue.

That’s why I reached out to Campaign for Liberty.

I’ve been keeping an eye on their efforts to oppose this legislation in the Senate, and thanks to Campaign for Liberty members speaking out, the vote on final passage was much closer than it could have been.

I believe we can carry that momentum over and build on it in the House.

You see, I’ve written a letter to House leadership expressing my concerns with this legislation and asking them to simply not bring it to the floor for a vote.

But I could really use your assistance in getting as many members of Congress as possible to sign my letter opposing the Internet Tax Mandate.

You can reach your representative at 202-224-3121.

At its core, this legislation is simply unfair.

It forces companies doing business over the Internet – even those in non-sales tax states – to act as tax collectors for states and local jurisdictions across the country.

A few very large companies are now supporting this legislation because it would help them establish a competitive advantage and smother potential future competitors in red tape.

As rising shipping costs and a stagnant economy continue to depress business activity, attempts to shift the burden of tax collection from state agencies to online retailers outside those states would hinder the development of e-commerce.

The Constitution’s Commerce Clause should be used to help, not impede, the flow of goods and services.  As C4L has written before, this legislation flips the Commerce Clause on its head.

Worse yet, the Internet Tax Mandate will replace tax competition between the states with tax harmonization, meaning tax rates will inevitably rise over time.

For these reasons, I hope you’ll contact Congress and ask your representative to sign my letter to House leadership urging them to reject the so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act.”

You can reach your representative at 202-224-3121.

The Internet has been an enormous boon to our entire economy, and I hope to keep it that way.

That’s why, if you’re able, I’d like to ask that after you’ve contacted your representative you contribute $250, $100, or even $25 to help Campaign for Liberty recruit millions of grassroots Americans to stand with us on this issue.

Campaign for Liberty has assured me that if they can raise the necessary funds, they can expand their program against the Internet Tax Mandate with hard-hitting TV, radio, and Internet banner ads to alert Americans to the dangers of Congress passing the misnamed “Marketplace Fairness Act.”

Together, I’m sure we can get enough support from conservatives and liberty-minded legislators to stop this bill in its tracks.

Will you help today, when your assistance is needed most?

I look forward to working more with the liberty movement, and while I wish I were writing you about repealing Gun-Free School Zones or legalizing industrial hemp, I hope I can count on your support to defeat the ill-conceived and misguided Internet Tax Mandate.

Please contact Congress today and encourage your representative to sign on to my letter this week.

Your action could make all the difference.

In Liberty,

Congressman Thomas Massie (KY-4)

P.S. I’ve written a letter to House leadership expressing my concerns with the so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act” and asking them to simply not bring it to the floor for a vote.

I’ve seen firsthand the great work Campaign for Liberty members have done in chipping away support from this bill.

And I could really use your assistance in getting as many members of the House as possible to join me in opposing the Internet Tax Mandate.

So today, please urge your representative to sign my letter to House leadership urging them to reject the so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act.”

You can reach your representative at 202-224-3121.

After you’ve contacted your representative, and if you’re able to, I’d ask that you contribute $250, $100, or even $25 to help Campaign for Liberty recruit millions of grassroots Americans to stand with us on this issue.

The post “Apply the Brakes” appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.

In an interview about the IRS scandal, Senator Rand Paul called for the firing of IRS officials involved in the targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny back in 2010. He asserted that “in order for government to gain its trust back someone needs to be fired, someone needs to be held responsible and if it was criminal, someone needs to go to jail.”

The House Oversight Committee hearing on the matter today called top administration officials involved in the scandal to testify on their role. Lois Lerner, the IRS official who first announced the improper targeting and could have given the most insight into the scandal, decided to invoke her Fifth amendment right to not testify and incriminate herself. The remaining witnesses received a shellacking from Committee members who were outraged at the targeting and specifically at the IRS’s inability to keep Congress informed about their internal investigation.

As entertaining as it was to watch the IRS be on the hot seat today, between the internal IRS investigation and Ms. Lerner’s lack of testimony, there are still many unanswered questions as to how high this scandal goes. This has led some to call for an independent investigation, including Senator Paul, who said “if people are taking the Fifth, then how do we get to the bottom of this unless there is some kind of special investigation?”

So far, the only official that has been removed from office over the scandal has been the acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller who was scheduled to be on his way out in June of this year anyway. One thing is for sure, the government has quite unsurprisingly shown the incompetency to perform the duties entrusted to it and now the inability to properly reprimand itself – shocking, I know.

Hopefully one day we can fire the IRS altogether, but for now, top officials will have to do.

The post Rand Paul on IRS scandal: “Someone has to be fired” appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.

“How? The bill [S. 743, the misnamed "Marketplace Fairness Act ] authorizes states to “require all sellers not qualifying for the small seller exception [$1 million in sales or less] to collect and remit sales and use taxes with respect to remote sales sourced to that Member State.” Yet “sellers” and “sales” are never specifically defined, and there are no specific exemptions for certain types of products or services.

Financial experts say this means states tax “sales” such as stock trades in a mutual fund or brokerage account, or even contributions to pension plans such as 401(k)s that were designed to be tax-free until retirement.

The American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries, a group of more than 11,000 retirement plan and benefits professionals, warns the bill “would allow states to impose a financial transaction tax that would apply to American workers’ 401(k) contributions and other transactions within worker’s accounts.” The group notes that “over 70 million workers could be affected” by such taxes, which “could significantly reduce workers savings over time, threatening their retirement security.”

The post Another reason to oppose the National Internet Sales Tax Mandate appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.

“Today Chairman Bernanke testified that our nation’s long term economic outlook has improved and that consumer inflation is a modest one percent. Chairman Bernanke is grossly misleading the American people when he calls inflation ‘subdued.’

“Just yesterday, it was reported that the median home price in Houston is at an all-time high, having risen 14.5 percent in the last year alone. Americans are struggling with soaring food and energy prices that the federal government conveniently chooses to ignore in its measure of inflation in order to hide the true effects of its policies from the American people.

“The real measure of inflation is the increase in the monetary supply, and the Federal Reserve has increased the Federal Reserve credit by 17.4 percent in the last year alone. The reality is, the Federal Reserve’s policy of monetary expansion through the buying of up to $100 billion of securities each month may help the big-spenders in Congress and their cronies in the banking sector, but it is harming the rest of America.

“Make no mistake, despite Chairman Bernanke’s claims; the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented monetary expansion has created a significant amount of pent-up inflation that, when released, will cause prices to rise even higher and the average American’s standard of living to decline.

“Until our leaders understand that we cannot print our way to prosperity, the American people will continue to suffer the disastrous effects of higher prices, higher unemployment, and lower standards of living and qualities of life for years to come.”

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The post Ron Paul: Bernanke Grossly Misleading American People appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.

This Saturday at the Virginia Republican State Convention, I noticed a number of attendees with Ron Paul shirts, hats, and buttons…but no one wearing any Romney shirts, Gingrich buttons, or Santorum swag. I have also noticed this at other political events. Maybe it is because supporters of other candidates don’t want to remind people they backed an unsuccessful statist in 2012, whereas Ron Paul supporters are proud to still be part of the continuing liberty r3VOLUtion.

The post Rick, Who? appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.

What do you expect when you target the President?” This is what an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent allegedly said to the head of a conservative organization that was being audited after calling for the impeachment of then-President Clinton. Recent revelations that IRS agents gave “special scrutiny” to organizations opposed to the current administration’s policies suggest that many in the IRS still believe harassing the President’s opponents is part of their job.

As troubling as these recent reports are, it would be a grave mistake to think that IRS harassment of opponents of the incumbent President is a modern, or a partisan, phenomenon. As scholar Burton Folsom pointed out in his book New Deal or Raw Deal, IRS agents in the 1930s where essentially “hit squads” against opponents of the New Deal. It is well-known that the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson used the IRS to silence their critics. One of the articles of impeachment drawn up against Richard Nixon dealt with his use of the IRS to harass his political enemies. Allegations of IRS abuses were common during the Clinton administration, and just this week some of the current administration’s defenders recalled that antiwar and progressive groups alleged harassment by the IRS during the Bush presidency.

The bipartisan tradition of using the IRS as a tool to harass political opponents suggests that the problem is deeper than just a few “rogue” IRS agents—or even corruption within one, two, three or many administrations. Instead, the problem lays in the extraordinary power the tax system grants the IRS.

The IRS routinely obtains information about how we earn a living, what investments we make, what we spend on ourselves and our families, and even what charitable and religious organizations we support. Starting next year, the IRS will be collecting personally identifiable health insurance information in order to ensure we are complying with Obamacare’s mandates.

The current tax laws even give the IRS power to marginalize any educational, political, or even religious organizations whose goals, beliefs, and values are not favored by the current regime by denying those organizations “tax-free” status. This is the root of the latest scandal involving the IRS.

Considering the type of power the IRS excises over the American people, and the propensity of those who hold power to violate liberty, it is surprising we do not hear about more cases of politically-motivated IRS harassment. As the first US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall said, “The power to tax is the power to destroy” — and who better to destroy than one’s political enemies?

The US flourished for over 120 years without an income tax, and our liberty and prosperity will only benefit from getting rid of the current tax system. The federal government will get along just fine without its immoral claim on the fruits of our labor, particularly if the elimination of federal income taxes are accompanied by serious reduction in all areas of spending, starting with the military spending beloved by so many who claim to be opponents of high taxes and big government.

While it is important for Congress to investigate the most recent scandal and ensure all involved are held accountable, we cannot pretend that the problem is a few bad actors. The very purpose of the IRS is to transfer wealth from one group to another while violating our liberties in the process, thus the only way Congress can protect our freedoms is to repeal the income tax and shutter the doors of the IRS once and for all.

The post The IRS’s Job Is To Violate Our Liberties appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.

Glenn “Kane” Jacobs has challenged Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey to publicly debate the National Internet Sales Tax Mandate:

“Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey claims that the Internet sales tax mandate is not a new tax. Nor, according to Ramsey, is it an unfair tax,” Jacobs, whose stage name is Kane, said. “Ramsey is wrong on both counts. I, therefore, invite Lt. Gov. Ramsey for a policy debate on the issue of the Marketplace Fairness Act in a public forum at his convenience.”

Hopefully Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey will accept the challenge, but I suspect the Lieutenant Governor does not want to see Mr. Jacobs deliver a Tombstone Piledriver to the arguments for the National Internet Tax Mandate.

Perhaps C4L members in Tennessee should contact Lieutenant Governor Ramsey and ask him to accept Glenn Jacobs’ challenge.

The post Glenn Jacobs issues a challenge appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.

Campaign for Liberty members will not be surprised to learn that the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing program is benefiting wealthy investors while doing nothing to help middle class or lower income Americans.

Americans need to know the full details regarding who is benefiting from the Federal Reserve’s policies, which is why Campaign for Liberty is continuing to push Harry Reid to hold a vote on Audit the Fed. Campaign for Liberty members must keep the heat on the Senate until there is an up-or-down, roll call vote on Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill (S. 209), introduced by Senator Rand Paul.

The post Quantitative Easing: Welfare for the Rich appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.

C4L applauds the efforts of these members for taking a stand against what amounts to a National Internet Tax Mandate, when so many others opposed to this legislation are keeping a low profile out of fear of the special interest groups pushing this legislation.

The post VIDEO: Rep. Massie’s Special Order Floor Speech appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.

“Senate Democrats blocking Senator Paul’s resolution calling for a full investigation of the IRS for targeting groups based on their political ideology is almost as insulting as the IRS’ harassment of conservative groups itself,” said John Tate.

“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. It concerns all Americans who value the First Amendment and free speech. Senate Democrats should be ashamed for blocking Senator Paul’s resolution and for their apparent willingness to keep the American people in the dark about the clear, unconstitutional actions the IRS committed.

“The resignation this evening of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller in no way absolves Congress of its responsibility to conduct a full investigation into what took place at the IRS and to hold those involved responsible.

“Campaign for Liberty joins Senator Paul in demanding a thorough investigation and expects Congress to hold all guilty parties accountable for their inexcusable actions.”

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The post John Tate Calls for Action in IRS Scandal appeared first on Campaign for Liberty.