What a Summit!

Special thanks to our great group from GA that attended the 2 nd annual Defending the American Dream Summit last week. We were small in number, but high in enthusiasm as we heard from some of the most knowledgeable speakers on issues from the current debt

crisis to health care to blogging to energy issues. Thanks to Herman Cain for the Georgia shout-out! For those who could not attend, I hope you saw some familiar GA faces on Fox News coverage of our Capitol Hill rally. For slide show, click here. More slide shows here and here!

Update on Economy Survey

Last week, we shared our results from the poll on the economy. The number of participants tripled since the first update, so here are the most recent statistics. Read to the end for comments by AFP-GA members. Last chance to take the survey!

The results for how bad the economic crisis is stayed steady, with over half saying the state of the economy is serious, but will be OK in the foreseeable future.

Banking pulled slightly ahead of fuel prices and shortages as the biggest threat to our national prosperity.

When it came to your personal prosperity, a whopping 63% said fuel cost and shortages were the worst, closely reflecting the previous survey results.

Concern for personal prosperity was 43% "somewhat," with 11% at either extremes of "not worried" or "sleep deprived worried." The remaining 35% were quite worried.

The biggest shift came in response to the government bailout, with 70% saying the government overstepped its bounds.

Also, I've included a few comments by our members. They are not credited, because the polling site doesn't tell us who said what. We got a number of great comments, sorry we couldn't share them all! But your free market values shine through.

1. "Smaller government is better and markets work better than bureaucratic decisions. While this bailout may work in the short term, I'm concerned greatly about the long-term consequences. When government willingly steps in to rescue people from risky behavior, government creates an incentive for future risky behavior. When businesses accept greater regulation in order to receive a bailout, we enlarge government, distort markets and render capitalism less efficient. Alternative plans have been proposed that would lower taxes and regulations to create an incentive for private money, foreign and domestic, to flow back into the credit markets. Unfortunately, alternative versions were shut out of this closed process. If the process is broken, the product is flawed."

2. "the economy reacts to what i do. i'm getting up today and going to work! (was that e.e.cummings?)"

3. "Should have listened to Dave Ramsey!"

4. "......So yes, there are problems with the economy but the economy always has been and always will be cyclical - that's its nature. The much bigger issues attempting to bring down our country are big government and right along side of it, insidious media propaganda. Big government AND Main-Stream Media - 'Get Out Of Our Way'!"

Transparency issue gaining ground

Secretary of State Karen Handel led the way on transparency by putting her office's financial records on the web. Now GA Public Policy Foundation reveals that Georgia schools' individual spending records are available for public perusal, thanks to our GA Legislature.

To see the news report, click here.
To see your school system's report, click here.

Why is transparency such an issue? Amazingly, costs go down when transparency increases. A watched bureaucrat is a more careful bureaucrat!

Update on No Climate Tax Pledge

Congressman Paul Broun and Congressional candidate Deborah Honeycutt joined Congressmen Gingrey, Price, and Westmoreland in signing AFP's No Climate Tax Pledge. We applaud their stand against bigger government disguised as environmental conservation.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the nation's premier grassroots organization committed to advancing every individual's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits.

For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org

If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from us, please click here.

What a Summit!

Special thanks to our great group from GA that attended the 2 nd annual Defending the American Dream Summit last week. We were small in number, but high in enthusiasm as we heard from some of the most knowledgeable speakers on issues from the current debt

crisis to health care to blogging to energy issues. Thanks to Herman Cain for the Georgia shout-out! For those who could not attend, I hope you saw some familiar GA faces on Fox News coverage of our Capitol Hill rally. For slide show, click here. More slide shows here and here!

Update on Economy Survey

Last week, we shared our results from the poll on the economy. The number of participants tripled since the first update, so here are the most recent statistics. Read to the end for comments by AFP-GA members. Last chance to take the survey!

The results for how bad the economic crisis is stayed steady, with over half saying the state of the economy is serious, but will be OK in the foreseeable future.

Banking pulled slightly ahead of fuel prices and shortages as the biggest threat to our national prosperity.

When it came to your personal prosperity, a whopping 63% said fuel cost and shortages were the worst, closely reflecting the previous survey results.

Concern for personal prosperity was 43% "somewhat," with 11% at either extremes of "not worried" or "sleep deprived worried." The remaining 35% were quite worried.

The biggest shift came in response to the government bailout, with 70% saying the government overstepped its bounds.

Also, I've included a few comments by our members. They are not credited, because the polling site doesn't tell us who said what. We got a number of great comments, sorry we couldn't share them all! But your free market values shine through.

1. "Smaller government is better and markets work better than bureaucratic decisions. While this bailout may work in the short term, I'm concerned greatly about the long-term consequences. When government willingly steps in to rescue people from risky behavior, government creates an incentive for future risky behavior. When businesses accept greater regulation in order to receive a bailout, we enlarge government, distort markets and render capitalism less efficient. Alternative plans have been proposed that would lower taxes and regulations to create an incentive for private money, foreign and domestic, to flow back into the credit markets. Unfortunately, alternative versions were shut out of this closed process. If the process is broken, the product is flawed."

2. "the economy reacts to what i do. i'm getting up today and going to work! (was that e.e.cummings?)"

3. "Should have listened to Dave Ramsey!"

4. "......So yes, there are problems with the economy but the economy always has been and always will be cyclical - that's its nature. The much bigger issues attempting to bring down our country are big government and right along side of it, insidious media propaganda. Big government AND Main-Stream Media - 'Get Out Of Our Way'!"

Transparency issue gaining ground

Secretary of State Karen Handel led the way on transparency by putting her office's financial records on the web. Now GA Public Policy Foundation reveals that Georgia schools' individual spending records are available for public perusal, thanks to our GA Legislature.

To see the news report, click here.
To see your school system's report, click here.

Why is transparency such an issue? Amazingly, costs go down when transparency increases. A watched bureaucrat is a more careful bureaucrat!

Update on No Climate Tax Pledge

Congressman Paul Broun and Congressional candidate Deborah Honeycutt joined Congressmen Gingrey, Price, and Westmoreland in signing AFP's No Climate Tax Pledge. We applaud their stand against bigger government disguised as environmental conservation.