Archives for July 2011

July 29th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government today issued a statement urging the House of Representatives to pass the “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act” again with even more cuts:

“There is no need for the House to pass anything today that the Senate simply wants to modify anyway. If the House feels it must pass something, it should just stand its ground and pass ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ again with even more cuts to 2012 than before. And urge the Senate to vote on it up or down. If Congress cannot get a balanced budget amendment now, cap spending, and make immediate cuts, we may never get our fiscal house in order.

“The bill should include a revenue prioritization when the debt ceiling is reached, instructing the Treasury to pay interest on the debt and otherwise refinance debt up to the limit. This will take default or withholding Social Security checks out of the equation, and begin an honest debate without a loaded gun in Obama’s hands.”

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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July 29th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government’s Bill Wilson called for Speaker Boehner to put the “Cut, Cap and Balance” debt extension legislation back on the floor with additional up front cuts and provisions directing the Administration to pay our nation’s creditors, military and seniors first.

In a letter that compliments the Speaker for his leadership in passing debt extension legislation that would keep the United States’ Triple-A credit rating by providing real budget deficit reducing cuts, Wilson encouraged the Speaker to push the bill through the House again stating, “Rather than continuing down the path which doesn’t have the votes in the House, we strongly encourage you to re-vote ‘Cut, Cap and Balance’ with two amendments.”

The amendments Wilson suggests would increase the cuts in Fiscal Year 2012 by 10 percent in response to the continuing European fiscal crisis that is a precursor to what America faces if real spending cuts are not enacted, and including legislation by Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina into the bill. The Gowdy legislation would direct the Treasury to pay the nation’s creditors first, preventing a default, and also pay the seniors and military. Remaining money could then be divided among the most essential services the government provides.

In separate comments, Wilson reminded listeners about the 1995 government shutdown crisis which was over a Republican demand that President Clinton provide Congress with a balanced budget proposal. Former Clinton press secretary George Stephanopolis revealed in his book about the Clinton presidency that the White House was one day from breaking and providing the budget that the Republicans demanded, when the Republicans lost heart and caved.

According to the memoir, All Too Human, here is what was going on in the White House at the time: “Publicly, the President was resolute; privately, he was wavering… But during the two government shutdowns that occurred in November and December, the Republican leaders themselves were our secret weapon. As much as I would love to think that we were the sole authors of our success, their self-inflicted wounds and tactical blunders made the crucial difference.”

“We were literally one day away from putting our nation on a permanent path to fiscal sanity in 1995. Congressional Republicans need to remember this lesson and stay firm now, and force Harry Reid and his Democratic majority in the Senate to explain to the American people why they support spending plans that consign our nation to economic decline,” Wilson said.

The letter was sent to every Republican member of the House of Representatives.

Attachments:

ALG Letter to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, July 29th, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/LetterDebtCeiling 7-29-11.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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In an interview with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, S&P head David Beers said a failure to raise the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling “would not be default so long as the government is continuing to pay its debt as it matures and its interest payments.”

“The head of S&P has reminded America that rating agencies merely rate the ability of a country or company to repay its debt. And he refused to say that a U.S. default is imminent based on Obama’s arbitrary August 2nd deadline,” ALG President Bill Wilson said.

Wilson concluded, “Default would be a choice by Obama. Not the result of any action by Congress. As the Executive, it is Obama’s responsibility to choose which bills to pay. To ensure Obama doesn’t choose to default, Congress needs to take action immediately in support of Representative Trey Gowdy’s push to put a credit prioritization bill on Obama’s desk that would instruct the Treasury to pay interest and refinance debt up to the limit, as well as pay Social Security, Medicare, and the military.”

Attachments:

“Obama’s Loaded Gun,” By ALG President Bill Wilson, July 25th, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3525.

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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July 27th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged all Republicans to avoid personal criticisms of House Speaker John Boehner:

“Political rhetoric should not be directed at Speaker Boehner, but instead should focus on the deeply flawed legislation that he has offered as a solution to the credit crisis facing our nation. Americans for Limited Government strongly urges House Republicans to vote no on the plan that has been presented on the Speaker’s behalf. The last available information on the plan revealed that it only cut $1 billion in fiscal year 2012.

“Conservatives need to stand together in favor of keeping the spending cut promise of the 2010 election, but should maintain our focus on the legislation and not personalities. Likewise, we hope dissenting conservative voices will continue their vital role in working to protect our nation’s future.”

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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July 27th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged all Republicans to avoid personal criticisms of House Speaker John Boehner:

“Political rhetoric should not be directed at Speaker Boehner, but instead should focus on the deeply flawed legislation that he has offered as a solution to the credit crisis facing our nation. Americans for Limited Government strongly urges House Republicans to vote no on the plan that has been presented on the Speaker’s behalf. The last available information on the plan revealed that it only cut $1 billion in fiscal year 2012.

“Conservatives need to stand together in favor of keeping the spending cut promise of the 2010 election, but should maintain our focus on the legislation and not personalities. Likewise, we hope dissenting conservative voices will continue their vital role in working to protect our nation’s future.”

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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July 27th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement analyzing two “competing” plans offered by the House and Senate to increase the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling:

“The only vital difference between the House and Senate plans is Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate plan places a cap on spending which includes war spending, and the House plan allows the discretionary spending cap to be adjusted to pay for the war. So, while the House has been saying the Senate uses illusory savings from winding down the theaters in the war, the House plan actually includes provisions to allow those operations to be funded above the spending cap, according to the CBO. Therefore, the savings are not illusory per se.

“If the Iraq/Afghanistan savings were included in the House plan, the two bills would be nearly identical.”

Attachments:

CBO scoring on Reid plan:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/123xx/doc12338/SenateBudgetControlAct.pdf

CBO scoring on Boehner plan:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/123xx/doc12336/HouseBudgetControlAct.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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July 26th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today warned that neither the House nor Senate plans raising the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling would avert a credit downgrade by rating agencies:

“Conspicuously missing from both the House and Senate plans to raise the debt ceiling is any assurance that merely cutting $3 trillion in spending will avert a credit downgrade now threatened by rating agencies. Without that assurance, leaders are risking our creditworthiness in order to deliver a political solution to a math problem. Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch have said fiscal consolidation needs to at a minimum cut borrowing by $4 trillion, and neither proposal meets that threshold.

“Washington is getting caught up in meeting Obama’s arbitrary August 2nd deadline for increasing the debt ceiling, and is therefore not focused on putting a proposal on the table that would actually preserve the nation’s Triple-A credit rating. Now, the metric being used is whether a proposal can pass, not whether it is sufficient to set the nation on a fiscally sustainable path.

“A downgrade will crash markets, weaken the dollar, and result in higher interest rates for federal, state, and municipal debt. This in turn will make even greater cuts necessary down the road than are being contemplated now, and make a national default more likely. Higher rates will also hurt the housing market and result in lower home values. With all that can go wrong, one might expect both houses of Congress to be putting proposals forward that most certainly would prevent a downgrade.

“Now it is up to the leadership of both houses to allow amendments to these flawed proposals so that they can be fixed prior to becoming law. We should not wait for a downgrade or worse to begin getting our fiscal house in order.”

Attachments:

“$3 Trillion is Not $4 Trillion,” By ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, July 26th, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3529 .

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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July 25th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged Congress to avert a credit downgrade by enacting legislation that will slash borrowing by trillions:

“A solution is not the same thing as a deal, and today America needs a solution to the debt crisis. S&P has warned that a credit downgrade of the nation’s Triple-A rating is imminent within 90 days if action is not taken to slash borrowing by trillions of dollars. A downgrade will cause interest rates to soar, as annual interest owed rises to over $1.3 trillion by 2021. Soon, the debt will become so large it cannot be refinanced, making a catastrophic default more likely down the road.

“Before that occurs, the House needs to pass a short-term debt ceiling increase with more than double the spending cuts, providing the time needed for a long-term solution to be enacted that adheres to the principles of ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’. It must also take Obama’s loaded gun — the threat of default — off the table by instructing the Treasury to prioritize the payment of creditors in the event the debt ceiling is reached.

“If Barack Obama chooses to oppose real deficit reduction, let him veto legislation.”

Attachments:

“Obama’s Loaded Gun,” By ALG President Bill Wilson, July 25th, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3525 .

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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July 22nd, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned the Senate for tabling the “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act”:

“The defeat today in Senate of the ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ provision to deal with the debt ceiling crisis is a tragedy. We have lost, through this vote, not just the ability of any short term remedy, but the opportunity to put America on a trajectory for fiscal sustainability and a return to sound economic planning and thinking. Today is going to be marked, frankly, as a tragic day in American history. This is the day when the Senate went on record wanting to see America expand its debt, which will inevitably lead to the collapse of the dollar and the collapse of the U.S. economy.

“Credit rating agencies Moody’s and S&P have warned if a fiscal consolidation plan of at least $4 trillion is not put in place now, our Triple-A credit rating will be revoked. That will crash markets all over the world, mean higher interest payments, which already total in the hundreds of billions every year, and make the size of budget cuts needed even larger in the future. Washington simply is not taking this threat seriously. ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ is the only proposal on the table that can deal with this threat in a timely and effective manner, saving $5.8 trillion in the next ten years and balancing the budget.

“Senators who profess to support a Balanced Budget Amendment and who voted no on ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ have, through their deceit, tabled the one proposal that can prevent a downgrade. They are guaranteeing that their own states, which too will be affected by a Treasury downgrade, will have to make even higher interest payments on municipal debt. By fighting budget cuts in Washington, senators are guaranteeing bigger budget cuts at home down the road.

“When the nation is downgraded, and markets crash, the American people now have someone to blame: Those senators that refused to take the opportunity presented by ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ to restore order to the nation’s fiscal house.”

Attachments:

“Credit Downgrade Would Drag Blue States into Abyss,” By ALG President Bill Wilson, July 22nd, 2011 athttp://netrightdaily.com/2011/07/credit-downgrade-would-drag-blue-states-into-abyss/

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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July 21st, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged the U.S. Senate to reject a $3.1 trillion tax increase proposed by the so-called “Gang of Six”:

“The ‘Gang of Six’ proposal will increase taxes on job creators to the tune of $3.1 trillion, precisely the last thing this weak economy needs to get moving again and create jobs. House Speaker John Boehner expressly rejected any tax increase in exchange for a debt ceiling vote, making the ‘Gang of Six’ proposal dead on arrival in the House. The Senate should not even waste its time.

“Senators should instead vote for the only proposal on the table that balances the budget, avoids a credit downgrade, and does not include tax increases, meanwhile saving $5.8 trillion over the next ten years, and that is the ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance Act’.”

Attachments:

“Gang of Six Plan: A $3.1 Trillion Tax Hike,” Investor’s Business Daily, July 20th, 2011 athttp://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/578924/201107201854/Gang-Of-Six-Plan-DC-At-Its-Worst.htm

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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