Dick Armey

Dick Armey (1940-) is the chairman of FreedomWorks, a group guiding bottom-up activism for "lower taxes, less government, and more freedom". He also works in the lobbying division of a law firm, DLA Piper. He retired as U.S. House Majority Leader in 2003, after 18 years as a Republican representative from Texas.

Educated as an economist, he spent 13 years as a faculty member, and eventually chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of West Texas. Previously, he taught at the University of Montana, West Texas State, and Austin College.

First elected to Congress in 1984, and a strong supporter of Ronald Reagan, he was known for bipartisan collaboration while staying with conservative principles. The Wall Street Journal described him as "...tempering his tactics without abandoning his goals, he is getting legislation passed," and quoted him as "You can be so ideologically hidebound that you can cut yourself out of the process.

FreedomWorks
FreedomWorks is separate from, but supportive of, the Tea Party Movement, and was associated with a march on Washington, D.C. in September 2009. The New York Times quotes him as dealing with a political situation like that of the early 1990s, when “the Democrats had their hands on all the levers.” It paid him $550,000 in 2008.