"you'll pay to know what you really think!"

LEGISLATION GIVES BUREAUCRATS POWER TO USE YOUR MONEY TO DEFEAT PRO-REFORM BALLOT MEASURES AND CANDIDATES

Congress wants to use your money to tell you how to think and vote. Your help is needed TODAY to stop them. The House Government Reform Committee will consider legislation this Thursday, May 22nd that would allow Drug Czar John Walters to spend taxpayer money to influence voters to reject drug policy reforms. The section is so broad it could allow the White House to use almost $1 billion in taxpayer money to run government-sponsored television ads against state and local ballot measures that enact drug policy reforms. It could even allow taxpayer money for partisan political purposes, such as government-sponsored attack ads against candidates the White House doesn't like.

The provision is part of legislation reauthorizing the drug czar's office. It would renew the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, a controversial ad campaign that cost taxpayers over a billion dollars in the last six years, despite numerous government studies showing it has failed to meet its intended goals of reducing drug use. If approved by the full Congress, the drug czar's office would have almost a billion dollars over the next five years to spend on the failed media campaign, including ads telling voters to oppose drug policy reform.

ACTIONS TO TAKE

1. If you're from a state with Representatives on the House Government Reform Committee, CALL THEM ALL TODAY. See list of Committee Members here.
   • Tell them to remove the section of HR 2086, the "Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2003", that allows the Drug Czar to use the media campaign for partisan political purposes.
   • Tell them you strongly oppose using taxpayer money to run government ads telling us how to vote and what to think.
   • Urge them to also reduce the reauthorization of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign to one year instead of five, consistent with recommendations by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
2. If you're from a state without a Representative on the House Government Reform Committee, call your Representative and urge him or her to pressure Members on the Government Reform Committee to take out the propaganda provision. To Find out who your Representative is, click here.
   • Tell your Representative to do everything in his or her power to convince the Government Reform Committee to remove the section from HR2086 that allows federal bureaucrats to use taxpayer money to influence elections. Tell your Representative to vote against any bill that contains such a provision.
3. Please forward this action alert to your friends and family. Unless Congress hears from thousands of voters this bill and its dangerous provision could easily become law.

For more info, including the background of this legislation, click here.