JBS.org Freedom Campaign - January 2009

It’s a Whole New Ball Game in 2009

This is prime-time for the JBS.org Freedom Campaign. We have a new President, a new Congress, new state legislatures, new legislative issues, new JBS Community (social networking on JBS.org), new state legislative resources on JBS.org, and our relatively new JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Alliance (http://meetupalliance.com/JBS).

Obviously, the economy is on everyone’s mind. However, the government’s interventionist responses to our economic crises have already resulted in bailout commitments measured in trillions of dollars. After experiencing a record federal budget deficit of $455 billion in 2008, the deficit for 2009 is expected to be near $1 trillion. Add this to the $53 trillion in unfunded government liabilities so artfully portrayed in the I.O.U.S.A. film and the Empire of Debt book, and you can see that we’ve been set up for a huge amount of inflation of our fiat currency with the consequent huge price increases for everything we need and huge losses in investment values and retirement income.

Since we know the cure for ruinous inflation is sound money, we’re leading off this new year with a new model sound money resolution for state legislatures (http://www.jbs.org/index.php/action/freedom-campaign/2124). We urge our Chapter and Meetup members in all states to work with their state legislators to get a sound money resolution introduced and passed in their states. Our major educational tool is Dollars and $ense, a 45-minute video by John McManus. John will also be making many Dollars and $ense speeches across the country. Please work with our Speakers Bureau to schedule him to speak in your area to help support this national sound money campaign project.

In addition to our sound money resolution initiative at the state level, we’ll be providing our usual pre-written, editable emails to Congress regarding the need for sound money legislation. Since we’ll be extensively updating and upgrading our online legislative action center early this month, we probably won’t have these pre-written emails ready to use until about mid-January.

Remember, the goal of this campaign for sound money is not just to get lots of state resolutions passed and lots of emails sent to Congress. The goal of this campaign is to use the state resolutions and the emails to Congress as part of a broader grassroots campaign of education and action to generate sufficient pressure to force Congress to reestablish sound money and abolish the Federal Reserve. Our success will depend on the creative leadership of thousands of constitutionalists across our nation. And, now more than ever, we have the online infrastructure at JBS.org to facilitate the creative teamwork of JBS staff, members, and allies that will spell success!

Real ID and Other State Campaign Projects

With the recent addition of social networking and a state legislative center on JBS.org, and the creation of a national network of statewide JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup groups in 2008, we have been deliberately creating online infrastructure to support state-level campaign projects. We’ve already had a lot of experience with state-level campaigns, such as getting state resolutions introduced and passed to block the NAU, repeal NAFTA, and fix illegal immigration (model resolutions at http://www.jbs.org/index.php/action/freedom-campaign/2124). Members in states which haven’t passed these resolutions are encouraged to get such resolutions introduced and passed in your states.

Meanwhile, there’s another very attractive issue to work on at the state level – Real ID. As of last summer, ten states had already passed legislation rejecting the Real ID program based on its invasion of privacy and excessive costs. A dozen more states have approved resolutions calling for the costs of the Real ID program to be fully covered by Congress or the act repealed. As a result of this revolt by many states, the Department of Homeland Security has delayed the timetable for implementing Real ID, but hasn’t backed away from the controversial program.

What makes Real ID especially promising to work on is that several other organizations, such as the Campaign for Liberty, are forming coalitions to work on repealing Real ID in various states. By joining forces with these other organizations in those states where an active campaign is already underway, such as Virginia, chances for success are greatly improved. We’ll be adding resources under “Real ID” on our “Campaign Tools” page at http://www.jbs.org/index.php/action/freedom-campaign/2124.

Let’s work with others to bog down the entire Real ID program and ultimately get it repealed!