Archives for January 2011

January 31st, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Bill Wilson, President of Americans for Limited Government, released the following statement after Florida Judge Vinson ruled ObamaCare unconstitutional.

“For the second time, the federal courts have ruled that the federal government’s takeover of the health care system is unconstitutional. Congress needs to act now to defund the regulation writing on this unconstitutional law to prevent further damage from being done to our nation’s health care system. It is clear with a majority of states suing to stop the law, that it is unpopular, unconstitutional and unenforceable. Congress needs to act now to correct this mistake.”

With all Americans increasingly concerned about the unsustainable debt Obama and his cohorts have imposed on taxpayers, stopping any further advance of ObamaCare is vital to getting our fiscal house in order. First, stop any further regulation or dictates to the states. Second, repeal the law outright. And finally, move with common sense, market-based proposals to make the necessary repairs. Judge Vinson, following the ruling by Judge Hudson, has done a great service to the American people by beginning this crucial process.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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January 26th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged congressional action to reduce the 2011 budget deficit, which the Congressional Budget Office now projects will be record $1.5 trillion this year:

“Once again, the budget deficit is growing under Obama’s watch, this time to $1.5 trillion, mostly because of the unpaid-for $56 billion extension of unemployment benefits and a $120 billion cut in payroll taxes on employees from December’s tax deal. Because there were no offsetting spending cuts for these items, we are just digging ourselves deeper into a hole of a debt that surely will hinder the economy for some time to come.

“It is now up to House Republicans to put serious spending cuts on the table. Barack Obama is merely proposing a discretionary spending freeze, which will institutionalize spending at its record-high levels and do nothing to decrease the deficit. This is a pathetic proposal that merits no serious consideration.

“Representatives Jim Jordan and Scott Garrett and Senator Jim DeMint have proposed $173 billion of discretionary spending cuts over the next two years, $16.1 billion in cuts to Medicaid, end the ‘stimulus’ saving $45 billion, and ending government ownership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saving another $30 billion. These cuts represent a good start, and could be attached to a continuing resolution due to expire on March 4th. But more must be done.

“Congress needs to put so-called ‘mandatory’ spending on the table for immediate consideration. This spending is on autopilot, and if Congress does not act, will continue to increase year on end. As much as $460 billion of cuts could be attached to an upcoming vote to increase the national debt ceiling above $14.294 trillion. Combined with the Garrett-Jordan-DeMint proposal, the savings would total $725 billion, cutting the deficit in half.

“Politicians like Obama need to stop fiddling while Rome burns. Spending needs to be cut significantly, not frozen. And it’s up to House Republicans to put those cuts on the table before it is too late.”

Attachments:

“Spending Cuts Have to Start Somewhere,” ALG President Bill Wilson, January 24th, 2011.

“’Mandatory’ Spending and the Budget Fairy,” ALG President Bill Wilson, January 12th, 2011.

“Obama’s Budget ‘Freeze’,” Robert Romano, ALG Senior Editor, January 26th, 2011.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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January 19th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today praised a bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives repealing ObamaCare, thanking members for “listening to the will of a majority of Americans opposed to the government takeover of health care.”

The vote passed 245 to 189. 3 House Democrats supported the bill.

“The House vote to repeal ObamaCare is critically important, without which it will be impossible to begin to bring the nation’s fiscal house into order,” Wilson said. “Once fully implemented, ObamaCare will expand federal spending by over $200 billion every year at a time when we need to figure out how to reduce the $1.3 trillion budget deficit and pay off the $14 trillion national debt.”

“The American people sent this Congress to Washington in November to cut spending. Repealing ObamaCare will save over $2 trillion. We commend the House for its foresight in lifting this unaffordable, unfunded liability off of taxpayers’ backs,” Wilson said.

Wilson said the House vote “reflected the will of millions of Americans.” A recent poll by Rasmussen Reports shows that 55 percent of voters want ObamaCare repealed, with only 40 percent opposed. Wilson called it a “mandate to save the nation from insolvency.”

“Even if ObamaCare is repealed, this decade the federal government will still spend $11 trillion on health care subsidies. It will be over $20 trillion the decade after that. Nobody thinks that’s sustainable, and yet here we are debating whether it’s a good idea to add anywhere from 32 to 90 million new people to receive taxpayer-funded health care come 2014,” Wilson explained.

“We’re going to go broke paying for this,” Wilson warned.

Wilson replied to critics, like Senator Sherrod Brown, who called the bill a “colossal waste of time.”

“Actually, the nation is running out of time to get its fiscal house into order. The repeal vote is not symbolic. In fact, it is the first substantive step to rein in the unsustainable expansion of the federal government in years. It’s the first step of entitlement reform,” Wilson declared.

The legislation now proceeds to the Senate, where Wilson said it could receive an up-or-down vote. “If Senate Republicans attach the legislation to an appropriations bill, it would only take 51 votes to pass, not 60,” he said.

“With 47 members of the Senate Republican conference, Republicans would need to pick up 4 Senate Democrats to achieve a majority. That is hardly insurmountable,” Wilson noted.

Wilson thanked the 3 House Democrats who voted for the repeal. “Clearly, there are some House Democrats who got the message from the American people. Hopefully, they will encourage their colleagues in the Senate to follow suit,” he said, concluding, “The only bipartisan consensus in Washington at the moment is against ObamaCare. It is against national insolvency.”

Attachments:

“ObamaCare’s Lies,” Bill Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government, January 19th, 2011.

“Repealing ObamaCare a Good Start to Entitlement Reform,” Robert Romano, Senior Editor, Americans for Limited Government, January 5th, 2011.

“ObamaCare Repeal Could Save $2.6 Trillion,” Robert Romano, Senior Editor, Americans for Limited Government, January 10th, 2011.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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January 18th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged House Democrats “to join with a majority of Americans who want ObamaCare repealed in its entirety.”

“The outcome of the elections in November was clear. The American people don’t want Washington bureaucrats rationing health care based on scarce public funding, making choices that are best left to doctors and patients,” Wilson said.

A recent poll by Rasmussen Reports shows that 55 percent of voters want ObamaCare repealed, with only 40 percent opposed. Wilson said the House has a “mandate to proceed with repeal.”

“The government cannot afford to provide health care for everyone,” Wilson added, explaining, “with a $1.3 trillion annual budget deficit already, the cost of subsidizing coverage for 32 million more people — atop the 60 million people already enrolled in Medicaid, and another 46 million Medicare recipients — will be insurmountable. That’s 138 million people, nearly half the population, receiving taxpayer-financed health care by the government’s own estimates.”

“The average annual cost per individual in Medicaid is currently $4,950, while for Medicare it is $10,670. Even if the average cost of ObamaCare’s 32 million new recipients was only $3,500 per individual, it would still cost $112 billion extra annually, or more than a trillion dollars every 10 years,” Wilson explained.

An Americans for Limited Government analysis of coverage provisions estimates that the bill will likely cost even more than that.

Wilson explained, “Medicaid enrollment is a key question. With the individual mandate requiring everyone to carry health insurance of some sort, enrollment will most likely be higher than the government is estimating. If the individual mandate results in near-universal participation in Medicaid for those eligible up to 133 percent of the poverty level, and for the insurance subsidies up to 400 percent of the poverty level, the costs of ObamaCare will double and then triple upon full implementation.”

“Put simply, the government estimates 32 million people will participate in a mandatory program that more than 90 million will be eligible for. The analysis shows that if everyone eligible for ObamaCare care receives it, the cost will be well more than $2 trillion every 10 years upon full implementation,” Wilson noted. “We’re going broke already.”

“Who thinks the federal budget can afford another $200 billion annual entitlement atop the $800 billion annually we’re already spending on health care?” Wilson asked.

“When all is said and done, government-subsidized health care will cost more than $11 trillion over the next 10 years through 2020, and likely more than $20 trillion the decade after that. And that’s if ObamaCare is repealed. If it isn’t, heaven help us,” Wilson warned.

Wilson asked House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in March to do so again, “and for those who voted for it, it is time to change course and honor the will of the people who are demanding that Washington change the way it does business. The American people voted for the end of government takeovers of industry like health care.”

Attachments:

“Repealing ObamaCare a Good Start to Entitlement Reform,” Robert Romano, Senior Editor, Americans for Limited Government, January 5th, 2011.

“ObamaCare Repeal Could Save $2.6 Trillion,” Robert Romano, Senior Editor, Americans for Limited Government, January 10th, 2011.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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January 12th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged the Senate to enact legislation that would repeal an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finding classifying carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

Wilson said “the EPA has set itself up as a legislator by arbitrarily amending the Clean Air Act, when it is up to Congress to make determinations about what the law should be. This is about the constitutional principle of the separation of powers.”

Politico reports that the issue may come up again this session. Last year a similar proposal by Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski failed by a vote of 53-47. “Four Senate Democrats still serving this session supported it, and with 47 Republicans in the Senate now, it will be more difficult for Senate Democrats to block a bill that a majority of the Senate supports,” Wilson said of the proposal’s chances.

Wilson thanked Senator Murkowski for her prior proposal and urged her to bring it back. He also praised the four Senate Democrats still serving who voted for it, led by Senator Jay Rockefeller (WV). Senators Mark Pryor (AR), Ben Nelson (NE), and Mary Landrieu (LA) joined with Rockefeller.

“It’s going to take bipartisanship to defeat the EPA, and Americans for Limited Government thanks Senators Murkowski, Rockefeller, Pryor, Nelson, and Landrieu for working together to save the U.S. economy from being strangled via regulation,” Wilson said.

Senate Republicans would need every single one of the votes on their side, along with eight other Democrats besides the four that voted last time to overcome a filibuster and repeal the EPA endangerment finding. “It can be done,” Wilson said, noting that the vote would be a difficult one for 23 Democrat senators up for reelection in 2012.

Wilson urged the Senate in upcoming months to take on the EPA, regardless of how they feel about the climate change issue. “Even if a senator believes that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are pollutants, he or she should still rein in the EPA, which simply declared that those gases are covered under the Clean Air Act,” Wilson explained.

“Carbon dioxide, just like water vapor and other greenhouse gases, are not pollutants, nor was it Congress’ intention to regulate greenhouse gases when the Clean Air Act was authored. Instead, it was a baseless court ruling that allowed the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA to seize this power,” Wilson noted.

In 2007, the EPA was sued to regulate greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide. “At the time,” said Wilson, “the EPA did the right thing and said it did not have the unilateral authority to make the Clean Air Act apply to CO2, that it was up to Congress to make such a determination.”

As reported by the American Spectator, the EPA changed the way the Clean Air Act applies to CO2: “The plain language of the Clean Air Act would apply the regulations to anyone who emits more than 250 tons of CO2 in a year. That means fast food franchises, apartment buildings, and hospitals would be subject to regulations aimed at clamping down on pollution from large industrial facilities. Even the EPA recognized the absurdity of this result. It took it upon itself to rewrite the law, saying that what the Clean Air Act meant in this case was 25,000 tons, not 250, and issued what it called a ‘tailoring rule’ to this effect. This represents a significant assault on the principle of separation of powers.”

Democrat Senators last year had used the threat of unilateral EPA action to influence lawmakers to act on legislation restricting carbon emissions, including Senator Mark Begich of Alaska who said, “We need a comprehensive energy plan and if this keeps the fire under these guys to get something major done, I’m all for it.”

Wilson fired back, declaring, “It’s not up to the EPA to hold the American economy hostage. Arbitrarily restricting carbon emissions without any vote in Congress is a violation of the public trust, and it must be repealed.”

Attachments:

“Earth Not on Fire: The Threat Posed by the EPA’s CO2 Endangerment Finding on the Individual and the Economy,” Americans for Limited Government, June, 2010.

ALG Letter to U.S. Senate, June 8th, 2010.

“Apocalyptic EPA Should Not Be Setting Energy Policy,” Editorial by ALG News, June 9th, 2010.

“The EPA’s Reckless Endangerment,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, June 8th, 2010.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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January 10th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned the efforts by pundits and politicians to link the murderous rampage by Jared Loughner to politics:

“Our thoughts and prayers as a nation should be with the victims of the Tucson slayings by Jared Loughner, and their grieving families. Instead, soulless partisan hacks are attempting to cast these attacks in some political context, seeking to blame everyone from Sarah Palin, the tea parties, to the Republican Party at large for somehow inciting Loughner’s killings, the motive of which may never be clear.

“Meanwhile, the motive for linking Loughner to the political right is more than transparent, it is a sick political agenda that seeks to take advantage of this tragedy. Once again, the shameless strategy is to blame a horrendous act of carnage on conservatives, Republicans, or tea parties for the purpose of delegitimizing their philosophy of governing. Enough is enough.

“The American people should not even dignify this twisted strategy as legitimate discourse. It is nothing more than fear-mongering. To try to politicize this tragedy is to scapegoat millions of Americans who only have legitimate objections to their government. The American people will not be bullied from protesting their government, even as they condemn and mourn the needless slaughter by a lone lunatic.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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January 6th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising House Speaker John Boehner for promising to attach spending reductions to an increase in the national debt ceiling:

“House Speaker John Boehner has taken the courageous step of promising to attach spending cuts and budget process reforms to an increase in the $14.294 trillion national debt ceiling. While the size of the cuts on the table remains to be seen, this is a tremendous step in the right direction for the new Congress to take. House Republicans need to use the leverage they have to begin balancing the budget, and that includes attaching spending cuts to the debt ceiling increase.

“Now, Speaker Boehner needs to go a step further and insist on dramatic reductions that will substantially reduce the $1.3 trillion budget deficit. The new House Republican majority cannot afford to allow another trillion-dollar deficit in 2011 without a fight. The American people will not stand for it.

“House Republicans will have two opportunities this year to extract spending cuts from the Senate and White House: the debt ceiling increase and the continuing resolution that expires on March 4th. These two votes need to have big cuts attached to them in order to cut the deficit, say, in half, as a starting point. That would mean at least $325 billion in cuts in each of the two votes. The American people would stand by the House in such a courageous stand, because they took a similar stand in November when they sent House Republicans back into the majority.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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January 5th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in reaction to the speech given by Rep. John Boehner upon being elected the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 112th Congress:

“Speaker Boehner understands that to serve as a representative is a trust with the American people based on the consent of the governed, not an entitlement for the powerful. In his words, it is the ‘People’s House’ that he will be leading, merely as its caretaker, mindful that if the House Republican majority does not act on the express wishes of the people, that it will indeed be a temporary majority.

“The challenges are great. Washington now has its claws in health care via ObamaCare, the financial sector via Dodd-Frank and the takeovers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and energy via the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon endangerment finding. These must be undone and repealed, and we praise Speaker Boehner’s commitment to these issues.

“John Boehner is one leader in Washington who did get the message of November’s elections, and Americans for Limited Government congratulates his elevation to the House Speaker’s chair. His leadership in the minority against the Obama agenda in 2009 and 2010, against the ‘stimulus’, ObamaCare, carbon caps and taxes, and Washington’s unsustainable spending, is one of the major reasons why Republicans regained a majority in November.

“Americans for Limited Government looks forward to working with the new Republican majority in the House and responsible Democrats to bring the nation’s fiscal house into order, begin to pay off the national debt, and roll back an ever-expansive government.

“It will be up to Mr. Boehner to lead the charge to return the government to its limited constitutional functions, to the states, and most importantly, to the people.”

Attachments:

Excerpts of House Speaker John Boehner’s Speech, January 5th, 2011.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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January 4th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the national debt topping $14 trillion:

“This is where we are. With the national debt topping $14 trillion, it stands at 95 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, which is almost a full year of all goods and services the entire economy can produce. As it approaches the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling, incoming House Speaker John Boehner has a decision to make. Attaching $100 billion of spending cuts to that vote may sound nice, but it isn’t one-tenth enough of what needs to be done.

“Instead, House Republicans should use that leverage to extract at least $800 billion of across the board cuts, bringing the budget to 2007 spending levels of $2.7 trillion. Then if lawmakers wished to keep entitlement and defense spending where they currently are, they would have to find about another $200 billion of cuts or so to make from the discretionary budget. And then after that, keep cutting until the budget is balanced, no more debt needs to be contracted, and the debt can finally begin to be paid off.

“The way to begin to do that is to attach the $800 billion of spending cuts to the debt ceiling increase legislation. That includes ending the bailouts, ‘stimulus’, and selling government ownership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The House will have done its job and increased the debt ceiling to help refinance current debts. Then Harry Reid and Barack Obama will have the choice to make: Accept the spending cuts or block the debt ceiling increase and default. The burden will be on them, and the blame will be on them should they fail to raise the debt limit. Those are the terms of the American people.

“The alternative is to just kick the can and raise the ceiling without any cuts or too little cuts attached, and watch as the debt becomes larger than the entire economy this year or next. As the Federal Reserve becomes the government’s top lender, printing hundreds of billions of dollars just to refinance the debt. And, as the national credit rating is eventually downgraded. The dollar will continue to sink, interest rates will have nowhere to go but up, and the ultimate collapse that occurs will be on the heads of every politician who refused to cut spending when they had the chance.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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