FreedomWorks' Grassroots Pressure Against Wall Street Bailout Reaches a Crescendo

Business Wire, Oct 1, 2008

Group's online petition crosses the 43,000 mark in under a week

WASHINGTON -- FreedomWorks, a nationwide grassroots group led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, announces its online petition NoWallStreetBailout.com reached more than 43,000 signatures Wednesday afternoon before the Senate's vote on the Wall Street Bailout bill.

As the Senate debated the bailout, FreedomWorks gave Americans the opportunity to sound off against the proposal. Minutes before the debate commenced, FreedomWorks staff delivered the petitions to key Senate offices.

This was part of a week-long effort to flood Capitol Hill with messages against the bailout. FreedomWorks members visited district offices across the country and made phone calls all week to voice their concerns over the massive government bailout of Wall Street.

FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe stated, "The rate of new petition signers reached more than 2000 an hour earlier this morning. I can't remember the last time I saw such a level of grassroots opposition to a bill, this is remarkable. It doesn't take someone with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's Wall Street resume to figure out who gets fleeced in this deal. The American people understand that this is bad policy, and deserve credit for stopping the legislation in the House on Monday."

The petition site was created specifically to provide a place for the American people to voice their opposition to the so-called Paulson Plan. FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey led the promotion of the site through his weekly newsletter to members. President Matt Kibbe appeared on C-Span's Washington Journal Sunday morning and gained the support of thousands of viewers who began emailing the link around to their networks. Other FreedomWorks experts have been on TV, radio, and in newspapers opposing the legislation all week.

Kibbe added, "In only a few days, our petition channeled the disappointment of tens of thousands of our members and the wider public. Our phones have been busy here with folks who want to find out what they can do to stop Congress from passing this bill."