FreedomWorks will be missed

OPINION:

Ave atque vale, FreedomWorks. You will be missed.

In case you missed it, FreedomWorks quietly closed its doors forever in early May after 20 years of activism on behalf of free-market principles. Its predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy, carried the banner of limited government for the preceding 20 years.

Unlike many think tanks, FreedomWorks was particularly effective in moving the needle on so many free-market issues because of its unique ability to reach beyond the Washington Beltway. That’s because FreedomWorks invested countless field hours in identifying, recruiting, training and mobilizing grassroots activists at the state level who preferred freedom over government control. Specifically, the activists demanded less spending, lower taxes and fewer regulations.

Legislators didn’t always agree with FreedomWorks. Still, the organization’s ability to show up en masse to state capitals, town hall meetings and district offices made it — and its pro-growth message — all but impossible to ignore. While many organizations purporting to be grassroots were more AstroTurf than anything else, FreedomWorks was the real deal.

The issue-based campaigns on which FreedomWorks activists were trained easily translated to the campaign trail. Its highly trained activist volunteers made a crucial difference in many primaries and general elections. Some of its activists went on to become elected officials themselves.

The organization attracted an impressive array of free-market titans to its leadership, including Dick Armey (who coined the FreedomWorks name), Jack Kemp, Bill Bennett, C. Boyden Gray, Matt Kibbe and Paul Beckner, to name a few.

Those of us who cherish individual liberty owe a debt of thanks to FreedomWorks. Its legacy includes organizing the 2009 Taxpayer March on Washington in which hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied against the expanding federal government under the Obama administration, which included the Affordable Care Act, runaway spending and taxes. The event — which remains the largest gathering of fiscal conservatives — helped give birth to the broader tea party movement that continues to this day.

Part of what made FreedomWorks such a valuable asset in policy battles was its ability to take complicated issues and communicate their impact in relatable terms to everyday Americans. That has been especially important in holding the line against bureaucratic regulations that dampen the economy and put a chokehold on America’s competitiveness.

Unfortunately, FreedomWorks’ withdrawal from the public policy stage occurred just as it had launched its 2024 Debt Crisis Tour. The U.S. national debt is rapidly approaching $35 trillion, with each taxpayer’s share of the debt approximately $267,000. The cost of servicing that monstrous debt alone has already become the fastest-growing segment of the federal budget and will soon overshadow our national spending.

FreedomWorks recently pointed out that 76% of millennials want to cut spending. They understand that they’re ultimately on the hook for that debt and that it represents a serious threat to their future prosperity. How we would have relished watching FreedomWorks lead throngs of young people into congressional town hall meetings chanting, “We want less.”

FreedomWorks’ detractors in the media have suggested that its closing signals a waning enthusiasm for free-market economics, fiscal restraint and limited government among American voters. And that’s exactly why they should not be entrusted to write FreedomWorks’ epitaph. To the contrary, Americans are more concerned than ever about the left’s disastrous economic policies that have led to inflation affecting their daily lives and their big-spending Republican allies.

Among other things, FreedomWorks should be remembered and appreciated for raising awareness of the growing debt crisis and uncontrolled entitlement obligations that too many officials of both parties refuse to even address. While FreedomWorks has left the arena, its championed ideas remain as relevant as ever. It’s up to all of us to continue the fight.

• David McIntosh is president of the Club for Growth. He served as a Republican U.S. representative from Indiana from 1995 to 2001.