Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .
Please forward to anyone you know who cares about free speech and open elections.
Dear friend,
Thou shalt not take the Lord, thy Congressman’s, name in vain. This is now the law of the land.
Should you dare to broadcast any ad within 60-days of an election that mentions any elected federal official by name, you must immediately file reports with the government identifying where you got the money for the ads.
Notice that it is the mentioning of an incumbent’s name that triggers this law. This is because . . .
The law is designed to protect incumbents. You retain your right to mention an incumbent’s name ONLY if you are willing and able to bear the government imposed cost. These regulations are a tax on speech, and the power to tax is the power to destroy. Anyone unable to pay the cost must remain silent. This is an abridgment of the freedom of speech, and of the press.
Congress has forgotten that the First Amendment says “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . . ” What part of CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW does Congress not understand? What part of their oath of office, to “preserve, protect, and defend” the Constitution, did they not really mean?
Fortunately, Representative Roscoe Bartlett has introduced the “First Amendment Restoration Act” to repeal these regulatory taxes on political expression. This bill now has 54 co-sponsors. But it needs more. Please ask Congress to pass this legislation. You can write a message and send it to your Representative and your two Senators, in one easy step, by clicking here.
We must use our rights, or lose them. Thank you for participating.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.