PA Bill Number: HR541
Title: Recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.
Description: A Resolution recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.
Last Action:
Last Action Date: Sep 27, 2024
Protect our economic and personal freedoms :: 08/01/2016
From ballooning national debt and spending on the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs to the thousands of regulations imposed each year to efforts to strip Americans’ gun rights to enhanced spying on American citizens through the National Security Agency and others, government continues to grow and become more intrusive in our lives.
So where are the pro-liberty legislators trying to protect us from these depredations?
While defenders of liberty in Congress are far too few for our liking, the Republican Liberty Caucus’ 2015 Liberty Index of Congress provides some insight into who is — and who is not — guarding our freedoms against the ravages of tax hikers, socialists, paternalistic do-gooders and other statists. The index, compiled by RLC of Virginia Chairman Clifford Thies, scores members of Congress based on their votes in two categories: Economic liberties and personal liberties.
The top performer in either chamber was Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., who scored a rare “double-100” in the two categories. Californian Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Tom McClintock, both Republicans, also ranked among the top 10, each with a score of 95.
At the other end of the spectrum, the worst score of just 8 — the only single-digit score in the House — went to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who has lately gained attention for being booed at her own party’s convention and forced to resign her post as chairman of the Democratic National Committee over an email scandal that revealed efforts by the supposedly neutral DNC to coordinate and strategize with Hillary Clinton’s campaign against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
While it is not surprising that Republicans scored much higher, on average, than Democrats in the economic liberties category, their significantly higher scores in personal liberties might be less expected. As Thies explained, this is likely because “our approach embraces the entire Bill of Rights,” including Second Amendment gun and self-defense rights and the, unfortunately, now largely ignored Ninth and Tenth amendments, which preserve individual rights not enumerated in the Constitution and reserve powers not delegated to the federal government to the states or the people, respectively.
“In recent years, the federal government has become increasingly arbitrary and even despotic,” Thies warned, as the executive branch has tilted the balance of powers through executive action and, with the consent of Congress, through “all-encompassing budget deals.” This is why we should keep in mind as the November elections approach that it is critical to elect representatives who will stand up for both our economic and our personal freedoms.
