This week the Institute for Legislative Analysis (ILA) released their comprehensive review of state legislators.

The ILA, “. . . serves as the data and policy hub for national conservative and liberty-minded organizations. ILA was established earlier this year, with its launch event attended by over 50 members of Congress who are the most philosophically committed to limited government. Prior to the launch of the ILA, the team previously served together for nearly a decade at CPAC and the American Conservative Union where they constructed the nation’s first 50 state legislative scorecard.”

The Mississippi Freedom Caucus is proud to announce that four of the top lawmakers who consistently voted for limited government, more freedom and lower taxes were members of the caucus. These members included; Steve Hopkins, Chris Brown, Joel Bomgar, and Dana Criswell. All four scored above 90%, proving their commitment to the conservative principles that make our state and nation great.

Sadly, other than the five top scores no other legislator in Mississippi scored above 80%. The ILA wrote in their analysis, “In fact, an astonishing 91 out of 112 Republican lawmakers received ratings below 50%, meaning they voted more often with the liberal position on policy than they did with the conservative position.

One such example is a bill which forced taxpayers to provide over $10 million to the Arts Commission – an entirely unnecessary government entity – which doled out grants to OxFilm, which sponsors films on Queer Family and LGBTQ drag artists, as well as the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund, which utilizes Critical Race Theory to examine “White Supremacy & Historic Preservation”.

Read more about the ILA’s score and checkout how your legislators compare to the most conservative.

ILA CEO Ryan McGowan said, “ If every day Mississippians do not step up to the plate and start fighting to hold their lawmakers accountable, the gaping hole left by these five lawmakers will only plunge the state further into economic despair.”

The Conservative Candidate Fund is raising money to support candidates who will fill that gaping hole and fight for limited government. You can help by making a donation. Your donation helps recruit, train, elect Mississippians who will fight for a better, more conservative Mississippi.

Donate Today

Contact: 

Dana Criswell, chairman

Mississippi Freedom Caucus

info@freedomcaucus.ms

Coalition Calls on Ending All Mississippi Funding to the American Library Association

Jackson, MS (July 13, 2023) — The Mississippi Freedom Caucus (MSFC) applauds the Montana Library Association for boldly cutting ties with the radicalized American Library Association (ALA). In a released statement the Montana Library Association wrote:

"Our oath of office and resulting duty to the Constitution forbids association with an organization led by a Marxist."

We agree - No decent American should tolerate the promotion of sexually explicit materials to children, yet that Is just what the president-elect of the ALA, a self-proclaimed Marxist, has dedicated her career to promoting. 

The MSFC received data and Information collected by Sen. Angela Hill which Indicates that the State of Mississippi has funded the ALA to the tune of nearly $70,000 in taxpayer dollars since 2015. The State of Mississippi should never utilize taxpayer dollars to support such a radically left organization. 

The MSFC has teamed with Senators Chris McDaniel, Angela Hill, Melanie Sojourner, and Kathy Chism as members of the Mississippi Legislature calling on ALL State Agencies and Universities to immediately withdraw, separate, and denounce the ALA and discontinue any further payments to the organization.  

As state legislators, we are particularly charged with ensuring taxpayer-funded institutions take no part in furthering ethically and morally repugnant agendas inconsistent with the values of the State of Mississippi.   

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Sign the Petition

The Mississippi Freedom Caucus has joined others across the nation in demanding this attempt be stopped! If government power is expanded across our nation, our constitutionally protected God-given rights will be lost. Governors and local politicians love the ability to control your life, but they must be stopped before it is too late.

We need you to join us and put a swift end to this overt attempt to destroy the freedom and liberty that we enjoy.

Sign the petition and join the fight!

Below is a copy of the joint statement signed by 11 Freedom Caucus chairs across our nation.   Add your name to this statement so we can deliver this to every Mississippi State Representative and Senator demanding they limit the emergency authority of the Governor and protect your rights.

Our basic principles are founded on Individual Liberty, Free Markets, Limited Government, and Minimal Taxation. 

As a matter of fact, our beliefs are very much in line with our Mississippi Republican Party’s own platform: 

We believe that people, not government, know best how to spend their own money. When people keep more of their hard-earned money, jobs and economic growth will flourish in the free market system. We support the reduction of the tax burden on our citizens. We believe our tax burden is too high, our tax code is too complicated, and our tax system is inefficient. Government must be open in proceedings and accountable for the use of tax dollars. We believe in the traditional, conservative values that America was founded upon.  

During the session we kept a vote tracker FreedomVotes.ms so that anyone could see how we rate bills and why we vote the way we do. We tie every bill analysis back to our principles. So again, when someone attacks our caucus because of our votes, they aren’t attacking us for our personalities, but our principles. Principles which align with the constitution and our Republican party. So, one has to ask themselves, if someone is attacking the Freedom Caucus based on our principles, what principle exactly is it that they don’t agree with? Freedom? Liberty? Limited governments and minimal taxation? Maybe all of those principles?  

The Mississippi Freedom Caucus is aligned with and developed from the ideals of the House Freedom Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. They are the only conservatives currently fighting in D.C. for sensible fiscal responsibility and to stop the Biden Administration’s out of control spending. They are the only true conservatives willing to buck the status quo in D.C. and actually fight against the swamp.  

There will always be people who think they are conservatives, and call themselves Republicans, but philosophically disagree with our principles and side more with the Democrats. But our principles are worth standing up for and we won’t back down. Our principles are the only ones that can save our state and country, and they are worth fighting for. 

Contact Senators Wicker and Hyde-Smith NOW!

As of late, we have watched those in government drive their own agenda, and increase their power and survival by stripping citizens of their Constitutionally protected First Amendment freedoms and liberties.

Remember Covid? Don’t question the science or the attributed death count, or face being deplatformed.  Remember Hunter Biden’s laptop? Don’t question its authenticity, or be silenced and accused of being a Russian agent. Remember concerned parents exercising their rights as tax-paying citizens to question their school boards about woke policies being enacted? The current administration thought it was worthy of sicking the Justice Department on these concerned parents and labeling them as domestic terrorists. What about the popular app Parler that shot up in popularity among conservatives when it started being canceled and deplatformed on other social media platforms?  As soon as it was perceived as a threat to the powers that be, a coordinated effort by big tech and the U.S. government completely de-platformed not just its users but the app itself. These are but a few examples of what is happening all around us today, and the end result of this kind of drift can be accurately predicted.  

As goes your First Amendment liberties, so goes all of your other freedoms.  Do we want the government to be the sole arbiter of WHEN you can talk, WHAT you can say or WHERE you can express your ideas?

Currently before the United States Congress is what is known as the “Restrict Act”. 

This piece of far reaching legislation is co-authored by Republican Senator John Thune and Democrat Senator Mark Warner. It empowers the Commerce Department and the President with broad non-specific powers relating to transactions and postings on the internet.  But it doesn’t stop there.  While the Act has been labeled by many as the “Tic-Tok Ban Bill'', the platform Tic-Tok is never actually named in the bill.  And while the primary targets of this legislation are said to be companies like Tic-Tok, the ramifications are much more dire. According to Coin Center, the bill could potentially be used to block or disrupt cryptocurrency transactions, and block American’s very access to open source tools or protocols like Bitcoin. The Act could also be used to criminalize virtual private networks (VPNs), a service many Americans use to protect their identities and locations while on the internet.  

Part of the powers granted in the Act to the Presidentially appointed Secretary of Commerce is 

“to review and prohibit certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries”.  

“Certain” is not very well defined, and neither is “Foreign Adversary”.  Granting this power begs the following question: who exactly determines if and when someone is a foreign adversary or when they are acting in a manner which deserves being banned or prosecuted? Should it be by a politically appointed internet czar?  Remember Hunter Biden’s laptop and all of the Justice Department’s analysts that claimed it was Russian disinformation? They coordinated with big tech and blocked the dissemination of the now proven to be legitimate story.  Imagine the ramifications should this Act pass with regards to anyone who is speaking a counter narrative to those in power both in and outside of our country?  One needs only to be identified as a foreign adversary, or just in collusion with one. 

Send a personal email to Senators Wicker and Hyde-Smith

If Tic-Tok is the true impetus for this legislation, why isn’t it even named in the Act?  Why the hypocrisy and double standard for personal data collection and distribution of that data as it relates to the rest of our American-based social media sites? 

The power to regulate IS the power to control. Never forget that it's not just the actors who the government claims need to be regulated that are affected…but every single person who would otherwise have interacted with them.  For Tic-Tok, that’s about 150 million Americans.  For VPNs, about 220 million Americans say they have used one in the past.  When it comes to cryptocurrency owners, it's estimated at about 50 million Americans.  Who knows who else could feel the sting if this legislation becomes reality?  

Today it's you, tomorrow it's me. Freedom is never safe, and it is often messy.  It seldom exists without conflict or risk, and it is always the enemy of those who crave power. If history has taught us anything, it is that we should fight for our freedoms at all costs and in every venue, or we most certainly will find ourselves one day with none. 

Don’t hand over any more of your freedoms to the government.  Contact your Senator today and demand they kill the Restrict Act.

Steven Utroska has been a candidate and has served on the Board of Directors for the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, Director of American’s for Prosperity - Mississippi, and as Director for the State Freedom Caucus Network. Steven is always looking a way to move Mississippi in a conservative direction.

Dana and Steven have teamed up and created the Conservative Candidate Fund. Together they hope to raise money to help every-day citizens who want to run for political office in Mississippi. Their goal is to recruit, train, and help fund these citizens as they step up and join the fight to restore the Republican Party to its conservative platform

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Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calls on Republicans to debate a ban on semi-automatic rifles. Biden's press secretary stated that the President would support any legislation to "remove" or confiscate assault weapons.  But when the Democrats are asked to define an "assault weapon", they describe every gun in production.

THEY  ARE COMING FOR YOUR GUNS!

There is no longer any question about the motives of the radical anti-gunners in Washington or their fellow democrats in Mississippi. In a recent debate on the floor of the Mississippi House of Representatives, Democrats argued against allowing trained teachers who volunteer to carry a gun so our students are protected.  They actually prefer students dying at the hands of mentally disturbed evil killers over allowing you to protect yourself and other innocent lives.These people are radical, evil haters of honest, hard-working Mississippians.  They prefer the evils of our society and seek to destroy our constitution, our state and our government.

Please send your personal message telling your senators and your congressional representatives in Washington that we expect them to stand up for our constitutional rights.Send Your Message NOW!

Anti-gunners like those in the Mississippi legislature who support Joe Biden and his radical leftist ideas are hypocrites.  These democrats seek to disarm you, leaving you helpless and vulnerable while they arm themselves and their families.T

hey believe their life is more valuable than yours.  They are seeking control of you because that advances their political agenda.

They want to destroy our constitution, our way of life, and your freedom.

But we can stop them.

Please send your personal email telling your senators and your congressional representatives in Washington that we expect them to stand up for our constitutional rights.Send Your Message NOW!

How did we get here?

The legislature is controlled by deadlines that have been set by the state constitution. The constitution determines when the legislature begins, when bills must be filed and most importantly, it strictly controls how long the session will last.

Article 4 Section 68
Appropriation and revenue bills shall, at regular sessions of the Legislature, have precedence in both houses over all other business, and no such bills shall be passed during the last five days of the session.

One of the most important deadlines is set by Section 68, above. Last week, the leadership could see they were not going to make the March 27th deadline to pass bills that would spend your money. So they went to the members of the House and the Senate and told them they needed to extend the session. One thing I’ve learned around here is that the legislature can do anything they want, suspend rules, make new rules or ignore rules with a simple majority vote to do so. The constitution and the rules really do not apply.

So a resolution was presented to the House and the Senate to suspend the rules and extend the session until April 4, (on paper only because we actually ended the session today, April 1) instead of the constitutional date of April 2.

That is why I am sitting here on March 31, and waiting as they scramble to get an agreement on this one last bill.

But wait, the dysfunction isn’t over. We missed the new March 31 deadline. So at 12:01 am on April 1 we gaveled in a new legislative day. We did all the required items, we were led in prayer, said the pledge, and voted present for the new day.

But what about the deadline? We are now less than 5 days until the end of the new extended end of the session. So what do we do? Well, now I’m told that this bill doesn’t directly appropriate money from the state treasury, it just “transfers” money from one place to another so it can be passed and we don’t have to abide by the deadline. Only a politician could come up with this foolishness.

The point of relating all of this fiasco to you is to show just how dysfunctional the Mississippi legislature has become. How can a legislature controlled by people of the same party be completely unable to come to any agreement on spending your money? Are they arguing over differences in ideology? Are they so far apart in their desire of how to spend your money that they just can’t agree?

Or is it, as one senior legislator put it, they are simply arguing over control and personality?

Whatever the problem, I can tell you one thing for sure. This is not how your legislature is supposed to operate.

It’s now 4:00 pm April 1

I’m completing this at 4:00 pm on April 1. I’ve left the Capitol and I’m home reflecting on the events of the last couple of days. The hold up last night and the reason for all the delay and fighting was disagreements over the “member projects” bill, House Bill 603.

The last bill voted on in the 2023 legislative session contained $700 million dollars of special projects requested by legislators.

This money is what the leadership uses to keep legislators in line during the session. If a legislator votes how they are told during the session, then they get to take home some cash for unneeded roads, ballparks, running trails and any number of projects.If your legislator brags about how much of this money they have brought home, you need to know that during the session they have sold their vote (your vote) for this cash.

The Mississippi legislature is broken, it works against the people of this state and until the citizens make some major changes, Mississippi will always be last economically, last educationally, and first in corruption.

Hey Patriot,

As a leader in the America First movement, the Conservative Candidate Fund is committed to fighting for conservative values. But we can't do it alone.

Grassroots support from donors like you is what keeps our conservative movement alive. With your help, we can elect true conservatives.

Chip in before it's too late and help us in this final push. Can you help with $25 today?

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But the Mississippi Freedom Caucus has also witnessed the resilience and power of the hard-working conservative people of our state. You have raised your voice several times and demanded your representatives stick to the principles and values you elected them to uphold, and they have listened. 

Email the Governor, Lt. Governor and Speaker - Stop Spending, Reduce Government

Next week I plan to outline for you the wins and losses of the 2023 session, but today we must focus on how the state budget is set for the next fiscal year. 

Appropriation bills lay out how your money is spent by your government. These are the bills that determine the budget for the Department of Education, Department of Transportation, or any of the government agencies that live off your money. 

Until this week, most appropriation bills were passed with “dummy” numbers. These are numbers that are simply placeholders, because the system that has been developed is a system designed to circumvent the constitutional deadlines that are meant to protect you from the politicians' desire to hide how they are spending your money. 

These “dummy” bills were passed by the House and the Senate and are now “in conference.” This means that the only elected officials who have any direct input into how much money each agency gets are Senate and House leadership. 

These “leaders” must derive a final budget number. Most of this work is completed by real people, not politicians, who are hired to project how much money or revenue the state will have for the next year. Once they come up with that number, they look at last year's budget and then equally distribute any increase or decrease among the various state agencies. 

Now it’s time for the politicians to get involved. 

At this point in the process, the leadership must make decisions. Will they stay with the numbers provided by the Legislative Budget Office, LBO, or will they increase or decrease those numbers? For the next fiscal year 2024, LBO has recommended that agencies receive an increase of approximately 3% based on their projections of how much money the state can take from you. 

The House position, led by Speaker Philip Gunn, is that we should follow LBO's recommendations and only increase spending by approximately 3%.  This will produce a final budget of approximately $7.2 billion. While I would prefer we reduce the size of government and actually cut many of these agencies, this position is significantly better than that of the Senate. 

The Senate's position, led by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, is that we should increase spending by almost half a billion dollars over the increases suggested by the Legislative Budget Office. This means Mississippi will be spending your money like a drunken sailor on shore leave and will put the nail in the coffin for any future elimination of the state income tax on working Mississippians.  

Hosemann is doing nothing more than using your money in an attempt to buy votes for his next election. 

It is time for you to speak up one more time.  

We need to let Philip Gunn know that we support his position to limit the growth of the government and tell Lt. Gov. Hosemann that we do not appreciate his careless and reckless liberal spending. 

Send an Email NOW - Stop Spending, Reduce Government

The Mississippi Freedom Caucus is the only group of legislators who fight every day for your rights and freedom. But we need your help.

Step 1 - Go to FreedomCaucus.ms and join our team of Action Fighters

Step 2 - Make a Donation to the Mississippi Freedom Caucus so we can continue to fight.

Sign UP

Donate

Send Gov. Reeves a message - VETO anti-conservative, anti-Republican HB 401

Protectionism, of course, is the act of using the government to protect your business or industry from competition. Instead of actually providing the best product or service at the best price, to contend in the marketplace, many businesses and industries pay to play by hiring lobbyists and turning to the power of the government to control their competition.

Real conservatives know that competition in the market place is a good thing. Competition pushes businesses to cut costs, advances innovation, drives development of new processes and products, and it allows manufacturers to bring products to the consumer at a lower cost. Competition in the market place is good for everyone, except, of course, those businesses that don’t want to compete in a free market.

Let’s go to the platform and see what it says about Free Markets. The MS GOP platform, which we as MS Republicans are supposed to believe in, says:

Preamble

“The Mississippi Republican Party fundamentally believes in the conservative principles of individual freedom, personal responsibility, and free market economic policies…”

Economic Prosperity

“We believe that free enterprise will thrive, flourish and benefit more people through a framework of low taxes and sensible but not overburdening regulations, which both encourages the expansion of existing businesses while also attracts new companies to locate in Mississippi.”

Taxes

“Mississippi Republicans believe that people, not government, know best how to spend their own money. When people keep more of their hard-earned money, jobs and economic growth will flourish in the free market system.”

Healthcare:

“We can have an affordable, accessible and quality health care system by empowering individuals and families, promoting free-market competition and embracing the benefits of technology, innovation...”

Energy

“Continued technological developments will increase their economic viability in the free market.”

Five different times, it says in the platform that we believe in free markets, meaning we want less government in the market place. The MS GOP platform also references competition three different times in a positive way, illustrating that we as Republicans believe in letting business compete in a free market.

Yet only 9 Republicans in the House and 11 Republicans in the Senate, out of the 112 Republicans in both chambers, voted against this anti-free market bill. This bill doesn’t “level the playing field”, it only continues to spread anti-competitive legislation to new businesses, like Tesla, and prevents them from opening new dealerships in the state. 

If HB 401 becomes law in the State of Mississippi, electric vehicles from manufacturers like Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid will be banned from operating dealerships in the Magnolia State.

We urge you to contact Governor Tate Reeves to tell him to VETO this anti-conservative, anti-Republican legislation!

Ask Gov. Reeves to VETO - HB 401

Based on an article by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, Medicaid patients are 97 percent more likely to die than patients with private insurance and 13 percent more likely to die than patients with NO health insurance at all.

But you’ve heard that Medicaid expansion will save our rural hospitals, right? Well, the same article by MCPP quotes the health economist Chris Conover indicating that "Every new Medicaid-related job actually costs the economy at least 3 to 4 jobs elsewhere." Not only does it cost the economy as a whole, but Medicaid also only covers, on average, 80% of what private insurance pays. Therefore, hospitals must increase the costs on private patients, to cover the costs of Medicaid patient’s care.

Email Speaker Gunn, ask him to stand up for conservative Mississippi

And if a hospital doesn’t have enough private insurance patients to keep the doors open to begin with, they certainly won’t have enough private insurance patients to cover even greater losses from an increase in Medicaid patients.  Further, the state will be on the hook for 10% of the increased cost, meaning our dream of being an income tax-free state is never likely going to happen with an expansion in Medicaid.

Still, despite all the data and evidence to show that Medicaid expansion is a bad deal for Mississippians, as it has been for every other state that’s passed it, that hasn’t stopped Delbert Hosemann from passing a Medicaid expansion bill out of the Senate every year since he’s been Lt. Governor and now Tate Reeves is bailing on his own campaign promises by supporting a partial expansion.

Tate said in his post that “We may even have to be willing to do things that make us ‘philosophically uncomfortable.’”

His move shouldn’t just make you “philosophically uncomfortable”, but outright furious if you are a Republican that actually believes in our party platform. Our own MS GOP platform says, regarding healthcare, that Mississippi Republicans believe:

“the expansion of some government health care programs is unaffordable to current and future taxpayers… We believe our health care system can be improved by moving away from the current bureaucracy-driven, heavily regulated third-party payment system to a new patient-centered system of consumer choice. We can have an affordable, accessible and quality health care system by empowering individuals and families, promoting free-market competition and embracing the benefits of technology, innovation and a fair legal climate.  Increased freedom within our health care system must be accompanied by individual responsibility.”

Nothing about Medicaid expansion fits into our party’s platform of stopping the expansion of government healthcare programs, supporting free-markets, and having greater individual responsibility, but it seems that even the leader of our state party, Tate Reeves, has cast our party platform to the side for politically motivated reasons during an election year, not letting something like principles get in the way.

It is also interesting to note that a poll from a few years ago indicates that 70 percent of Mississippi Republicans would be less likely to support a candidate who voted for Medicaid expansion. 

So, it begs the question: If Tate’s not supporting Medicaid expansion to appeal to Republicans, who is he trying to appeal to this election year?

Email Speaker Gunn, ask him to stand up for conservative Mississippi

We need your help.  

Tell Speaker Gunn to stand against any attempt to expand Obamacare in Mississippi.

You may also call  601-345-1211 and leave a message for Speaker Gunn.

The House Bill, having already been passed previously by the House of Representatives, had a clean pass through the Senate with no additional modifications, changes, or amendments and is now headed to the Governor for signature.

In a legislative session that has been thus far wrought with disappointment for conservatives, this is a huge WIN for conservatives, and it is all thanks to YOU.

The Mississippi Freedom Caucus sent out an email in early September 2022 titled “Stop Supporting Woke UMMC Agenda” alerting our supporters that your tax dollars were funding the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), a state-owned and funded hospital, and that the hospital was promoting gender reassignment surgery, including for children.

The Trustworthy, Evidence-based, Affirming, and Multidisciplinary (TEAM) Clinic within UMMC’s Center for Gender and Sexual Minority Health listed via their website that anyone over the age of 13 could make an appointment with the clinic that provides “gender affirmative medicine, including hormone therapy.”

Immediately upon learning this, YOU, our supporters, took decisive action utilizing our action center to send out nearly 1,000 emails to EVERY member of the MS Legislature alerting them of UMMC’s woke agenda and demanding action to stop child mutilation. We are proud to say that, based on YOUR efforts, the bill to outlaw this practice in Mississippi is now on its way to the Governor’s desk.

Even with a private hospital amendment, it may not provide protection for private hospitals, with the State being shielded from anti-competition laws.

There is nothing good about this bill, which was introduced by a Republican in a Republican supermajority Senate, being led by a Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. According to the Mississippi Republican (GOP) website, Republicans should hold a view of free markets in healthcare, stating “We can have an affordable, accessible and quality health care system by empowering individuals and families, promoting free-market competition.” This bill is anything but free-market and the Republicans pushing it seem to be anything but Republicans.

Click Here to Contact your Representative

We need your help.  

Tell your Representative that you want to end government-controlled socialized medicine in Mississippi.  Ask them to vote against Senate Bill 2323.

You may also call  601-345-1211 and leave a message for Chairman Sam Mims asking him to kill Senate Bill 2323.

Click Here to Listen

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is in the news again, this time because it was caught investing money from public settlements in ESG investments that “destroy shareholder value in pursuit of faddish ideological aims, often without proper disclosure to investors.”

You are on the NAAG Executive Committee.  But these ESG investments only came to light because your new conservative colleague, Attorney General Kris Kobach of Kansas, demanded to know what NAAG was doing with the millions it has amassed from public enforcement settlements.

If NAAG is investing in left-wing ESG campaigns behind your back, what else are they doing without your knowledge?  What else is out of your control at NAAG?  What else is the left-wing career staff in Washington, D.C. doing in conjunction with NAAG leadership from places like Oregon, New York, and Connecticut?

We warned you before about NAAG, the millions they have amassed that should have gone into the Mississippi General Fund, their leftward drift, and their financial mismanagement.  We told you it was time to “quit this left-wing organization and bring home the money sitting at NAAG that belongs in the hands of the Mississippi state government and Magnolia State taxpayers.”  Now we find out the situation is worse than we knew.

This time has come for you to act.  The charade of reforming NAAG from the inside is over.  NAAG has rewarded your continued engagement by deploying our state’s resources into left-wing ESG investments that fly in the face of our values. And they have done it right under your nose.

It is time for you to quit NAAG and take legal action to protect our public money.  It is obvious to everyone that the time for legal recourse is coming; it is time for you to stop being on the sidelines, hew to your conservative principles, withdraw from NAAG, and bring our millions home, no matter what it takes.

On Thursday there was a bill to fix the pay raises for teachers’ assistants. The chairman jumps up and proposes an amendment to tack on a $3,000 pay raise. Of course, being an election year, they allowed the amendment and let it pass, knowing full well that they would strip the raise out in conference.

I have said that I will vote NO on all pay raises until the state income tax has been eliminated, which means a pay raise for all working Mississippians, not just those who work for the government. Not just salaries, I'm voting no on anything that grows government and any budget that is larger than the previous year. We have the money to do all the right things, we just do not have enough of the right people in Jackson that want to do it for the people that need it most.

This is an excruciatingly hard stance for me when it comes to education because, year after year, I submitted bills for raises for teachers and teachers’ assistants. I have many teachers in my family, including my wife, but how unfair is it of me to vote for a raise for my household when the rest of the state is suffering through the worst recession of my lifetime.

They know that these raises, increased spending and growing government mean new commitments to the taxpayers, and it makes it harder to eliminate the income tax, but they don’t care. They only want to get re-elected, so they spend like there’s no tomorrow and put the taxpayers on the hook for billions.

I am fighting for a self-sufficient, federal government-free state like Florida! So the next time you hear someone say "why can't we be more like Florida?" refer them to this post.

Click Here for the Freedom Corner Podcast

Our country was founded on the basic principle of religious liberty.  It is a foundational principle that must be protected.  House Bill 1302 authored by Mississippi Freedom Caucus member Steve Hopkins protects the religious freedom of parents and their children attending school.  Many parents are horrified when they find out that the vaccines forced on their children are often developed using cells for aborted children.  This violates all the beliefs and principles of most Christians. They do not want their child forcibly injected and required to participate in this unholy practice.

Representative Hopkin's bill would simply allow parents who have a religious objection to submit a letter to school officials stating their objection and therefore exempting their child from the vaccination requirement.

Please ask your representative to protect your religious freedom by supporting HB 1302.

You may also call  601-345-1211 and leave a message for Chairman Richard Bennett asking him to allow a vote on HB 1302.

Click Here - Take Action

While they were telling you there were not enough hospital beds to take care of the sick, the rules and laws of our state were the reason for the lack of beds.

Mississippi has the most restrictive and most socialistic approach to medicine of almost any state in our union.  

It is time for that to change. 

Mississippi Freedom Caucus member Chris Brown has authored a bill to repeal the socialist rules of the Mississippi Department of Health and allow free market principles to take over.  If Mississippi simply follows the Republican platform, access to healthcare in our state will improve.

The Mississippi Republican Platform says, 

"We believe our health care system can be improved by moving away from the current bureaucracy driven, heavily regulated third-party payment system to a new patient-centered system of consumer choice. We can have an affordable, accessible and quality health care system by empowering individuals and families, promoting free-market competition and embracing the benefits of technology, innovation and a fair legal climate. "

We need your help.  

Tell your Representative that you want to end government-controlled socialized medicine in Mississippi.  Ask them to support House Bill 1494 and repeal the liberal Certificate of Need regulations that have ruined healthcare in Mississippi.

You may also call  601-345-1211 and leave a message for Speaker Philip Gunn asking him to save rural healthcare by passing CON reform. 

Click Here to Take Action