Archives for April 2011

Slow Growth Stagflation Threatens U.S. Recovery

April 28, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement onthe reported 1.8 percent growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the Bureau of Economic Analysis:

“Once again, the U.S. economy is slowing down, only growing at 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2011. The reason is because of inflation: higher prices, particularly for food and energy, coupled with persistently high unemployment, crashing housing prices and a dramatic increase in producer prices. What we are witnessing is stagflation ala the 1970’s.

“Barack Obama has concocted a recipe for disaster in the U.S. economy not seen since Jimmy Carter was in office. Gold is more than $1,525 an ounce, oil more than $110 a barrel, and gasoline nearly $4 a gallon. The Producer Price Index has soared 5.8 percent in the past year as the cost of doing business soars, and consumer prices are up 2.7 percent. By next year, 10 percent producer inflation and 5 percent for consumers are very realistic possibilities.

“The reasons for our sorry state are simple enough. Too much money printing by the Federal Reserve, a 188 percent increase in its balance sheet by $1.78 trillion to $2.73 trillion since July 2008, is causing the inflation. Too much government spending and borrowing, with a $1.645 trillion budget deficit this year alone, is squeezing investment capital away from real businesses to government debt service and explains the lack of job creation.

“It’s going to take strong leadership to deal with these swirling clouds, and sadly, Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke appear as helpless as lambs to wolves. It’s time for a real change.”

Attachments:

“Double-Dip in Housing, Rising Inflation, and Soaring Debt Disprove ‘Stimulus,’ Threaten Ship of State,” ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, April 27th, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3281 .

“Obama’s Pain at the Pump,” ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, April 25th, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3273 .

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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ALG Praises Massachusetts House for Restricting Public Sector Health Care Benefits

April 27, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President (ALG) Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising the Massachusetts House, which isoverwhelmingly composed of Democrats, for decisively passing legislation restricting the health care benefits of public sector employees:

“The costs imposed by public sector unions are breaking the backs of state and local governments across the country, particularly health care benefits to government workers. If even Massachusetts sees the need to rein in public sector unions, in this case by restricting the health care benefits of public employees, then nothing should be holding back other states from doing so. Massachusetts now joins the ranks of Wisconsin, Ohio, New Hampshire, and others that are taking this necessary step toward solvency.

“This legislation, primarily backed by Democratic elected representatives, proves that responsible elected leaders regardless of party or philosophy can see the absolute necessity of rolling back the lavish benefits that have been granted to government workers. Throughout Massachusetts, this bill will save over $100 million for cities and towns, saving thousands of jobs from termination, and critically, will return control of spending on health care benefits to representative, elected bodies.

“The key to reining in spending, whether at the state, local, or federal level, is to rein these mandatory forms of spending. And that necessarily must include the privileges that have been given without question to the public sector unions.”

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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Crashing Home Prices: The Obama “Stimulus” has Failed

April 26, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the S&P/Case Shiller housing price index showing another 1.1 percent decline in home values for the month of February:

“The Obama ‘stimulus’ has failed to achieve its always unrealistic and yet essential goal of propping up home values closer to their bubble highs. Housing prices are still deflating to more realistic levels. The irony is that we should have just let prices hit the bottom without intervention in the first place, and we would already be in recovery. Now, Obama and Bernanke have prolonged the recession in housing by avoiding this necessary correction. They wanted a soft landing and, well, they got one. Good job.

“We have wasted more than $2 trillion on a lie. The American people were sold the bailouts on the basis that they were saving the value of their homes, and what they are learning now is the only effect of propping up failed institutions was to reward those who failed so remarkably. The proper course of action was always to allow a market-based correction to run its course, even if that meant allowing financial institutions that bet poorly on housing to fail.

“Now we are in a double-dip recession in housing, which Obama promised would be avoided if all his policies were implemented, which they were. Obama got everything he wanted, and he has failed. Unemployment remains high, home values continue to slowly contract, and the so-called ‘recovery’ is nowhere to be found. America needs new leadership, and less government ‘assistance’ that only makes the problems it claims to address even worse.”

Attachments:

S&P/Case-Shiller housing price index chart shows double-dip, April 26th, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/Case-ShillerHomePriceIndex4-26-11.PNG.

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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High Oil Because of the Weak Dollar; Obama Administration, Fed to Blame

April 25, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement blaming the Obama Administration and the Federal Reserve for weakening the dollar and increasing oil and other commodity prices:

“The Obama Administration once again wants to blame so-called ‘speculators’ for the commodities inflation caused by its own weak dollar policies. Oil is soaring because of the weak dollar — it’s the only explanation that makes any sense. There is no oil supply problem, and demand is only slightly increased from a year ago.

“Yet, prices are soaring. U.S. crude alone has more than tripled from a low of about $35 a barrel in 2009 to over $110 a barrel today, and today gasoline prices are soaring quickly to $4 a gallon, and soon $5. The reason is the weak dollar.

“Since the last commodities bubble in 2008, the Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet by $1.78 trillion to $2.73 trillion, a whopping 188 percent increase. Prices for food, gold, oil, and other commodities have all behaved accordingly. Price increases in a broad range of commodities indicate a clear inflationary problem, caused by the expansive monetary policies of the Federal Reserve.

“If there should be any investigation, it should be into the Obama Administration’s weak dollar policies that are destroying the purchasing power of average American families, who now have to pay even more for staples like food and energy.”

Attachments:

Obama’s Pain at the Pump, ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, April 25th, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3273.

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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New Hampshire Senate Passage of Right-to-Work Bill is to be Praised

April 21, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising the New Hampshire Senate for passing right-to-work legislation:

“The New Hampshire Senate is to be commended for adopting a right-to-work law by a veto-proof majority that will give workers the choice of whether or not they want to pay union dues. The issue comes down to individual choice, and whether New Hampshire and other states are going to respect the right of the freedom of association.

“This follows the House’s passage of similar right-to-work legislation, and the historic passage of a balanced budget that reins in out-of-control public sector unions. The budget also takes the necessary step of increasing public employee contributions to their own pension funds, and now needs Senate approval.

“New Hampshire is taking the lead in pushing back against the excesses of public sector unions, and restoring the freedom of choice to its citizens to decide for themselves who they associate with. Now, the House and Senate need to work together to produce a right-to-work bill that will pass both houses by veto-proof margins.”

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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ALG Blasts White House Executive Order Silencing Dissent

April 20th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today condemned a draft executive order by the White House to compel companies to disclose donations to non-profit groups that might make independent expenditures during an election cycle.

The executive order would apply to “[a]ny contributions made to third party entities with the intention or reasonable expectation that parties would use those contributions to make independent expenditures or electioneering communications.”

“The White House cannot arbitrarily amend federal contractor requirements without a vote in Congress. This is an end-run around the constitutional process, with the Obama Administration once again attempting to implement administratively what it cannot achieve legislatively,” Wilson declared.

He explained, “In this case, the White House could not get the DISCLOSE Act passed, and so the draft executive order compels federal contractors to publicize donations to third parties that make independent expenditures in election cycles that are otherwise shielded from public scrutiny under federal law.”

Wilson added, “It’s nothing more than a cynical gag order issued by executive decree with no basis in the duly enacted laws of the land. As part of the contract-awarding process, the White House wants to know who is giving to whom and will surely make decisions based on that knowledge.”

The executive order would apply to any donations in excess of $5,000 in a given year. Any contractor that donates in excess of the specified minimum to an organization that engages in express advocacy of a candidate would have their names submitted tohttp://data.gov.

“These disclosure requirements, as intended and designed, will have a chilling effect on speech, which is why they previously have been found to be unconstitutional,” Wilson said, pointing to Supreme Court precedent protecting anonymous donations made to groups that solely make independent expenditures in NAACP v. Alabama (1958).

Then Justice John Marshall Harlan’s majority opinion stated, applying the First Amendment via the Fourteenth to Alabama, “We hold that the immunity from state scrutiny of membership lists which the Association claims on behalf of its members is here so related to the right of the members to pursue their lawful private interests privately and to associate freely with others in so doing as to come within the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“There is no question that individuals’ speech is stifled by excessive disclosure requirements on independent expenditures. The Obama Administration is once again attempting to shame and intimidate certain corporations, groups, and individuals from saying anything about elections. Free speech is now an executive order away from being abolished,” Wilson said.

Wilson concluded, “It is outrageous that Obama is making political contributions a criterion for getting a contract with the federal government. This is corrupt Chicago-style politics at its worse.”

Attachments:

Draft Executive Order, The White House, April 13th, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/DraftExecutiveOrder4-13-11.pdf.

Disclosure is Overrated”, by ALG News Senior Editor Robert Romano, June 21st, 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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ALG on S&P Downgrade of Outlook on U.S. Debt: Catastrophic Failure of Leadership in Washington

April 18th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on S&P’s decision to downgrade the outlook on U.S. debt to “negative”:

“Sovereign credit rating agencies have repeatedly warned the U.S. to get its fiscal house in order or else face a downgrade of its Triple-A credit rating. Now the agencies are preparing to do just that by taking the first step of downgrading the outlook on U.S. debt to negative. That means a full credit downgrade is now substantially more likely in the next year or two.

“The time for half-measures has long past. Credit rating agencies are through issuing warnings, and now are taking action. But elected leaders have not presented any budget to meet the challenge of an imminent credit downgrade. The Obama proposal will never balance the budget, and the House-passed budget will take 26 years to do so. We just don’t have that kind of time.

“With a $14.2 trillion gross national debt that will be larger than the entire economy by year’s end, growing to over $25 trillion by 2021, soon our obligations will become too large to refinance, let alone be repaid.

“S&P is explicitly telling us that ‘[b]ecause the U.S. has, relative to its ‘AAA’ peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us,’ that we do not match up to other Triple-A rated nations. They’re preparing to downgrade us, but we are not prepared to balance the budget any time soon. Today’s statement by S&P signifies a catastrophic failure of leadership in Washington that is risking the very solvency of the American people.”

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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ALG Supports Garrett Balanced Budget Bill

April 15th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in support of the Republican Study Committee 2012 budget proposal that will achieve a balanced budget by 2020:

“Americans for Limited Government supports the Republican Study Committee budget proposal by Representative Scott Garrett as it is the only comprehensive approach to the budget that achieves balance within the next ten years. Our nation can no longer afford for politicians to just mouth the words balanced budget, it is time to get serious, and the Jordan budget proposal puts America back on the path to fiscal sanity.”

Attachments:

H. Con. Res. 37 at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hconres37ih/pdf/BILLS-112hconres37ih.pdf .

Honest Solutions, Republican Study Committee, April 2011 athttp://rsc.jordan.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Honest_Solutions_2_Pager_FINAL.pdf .

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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Spending Increases, Not Tax Cuts Culprit Behind $1.645 Trillion Deficit

April 14, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the new Obama budget:

“Barack Obama wants to pretend that the reason we are spending more than we take in is because we don’t take in enough, when the real problem is that we are spending too much. In 2007, the budget deficit was just $160.7 billion, but this year it will rise to $1.645 trillion, a 923 percent increase. How can that be when tax rates have been relatively the same since then?

“Since 2007, annual spending has increased $1.119 trillion, and revenues have decreased by $394 billion. Put simply, 75 percent of the increased shortfall is because spending increased and only 25 percent is because revenue dropped because of the down economy. That means we have a spending problem, plain and simple.

“The implication is that 75 percent of the solution will need to include spending cuts, and the other 25 percent of the solution will be growing the economy so that revenue increases. And in order to get spending under control, Congress will need to rein in mandatory spending, which accounts for $745 billion of the increased shortfall.

“The next time Congress considers a budget, everything needs to be on the table, because that is the only way to get this monstrosity under control.”

Attachments:

Obama’s ‘Adult’ Conversation,” By ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, April 14th, 2011.

Debt a Vexing Can of Worms,” By ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, March 22nd, 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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New Obama Budget a Smoke-and-Mirrors Charade

April 13th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the new Obama budget:

“The new Obama budget is just like the old Obama budget. It’s just smoke and mirrors. A charade. Just like the old budget, under the new budget, every single year, spending will increase, taxes will rise, and the government will expand. The national debt will increase by about $1 trillion a year such that by 2021, the debt will be more than $24 trillion. It never anticipates a balanced budget, nor does it foresee ever paying down the debt, which will soon become too large to even refinance.

“The Obama Administration once again has proven that it cannot be taken seriously when it comes to restoring order to the nation’s fiscal house. If elected officials cannot find a way to balance the budget sometime during their terms of office, their claims of ‘fiscal responsibility’ truly are preposterous.”

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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