Archives for September 2011

Sept. 28, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today reacted to North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue’s call to suspend congressional elections for two years:

“The North Carolina legislature should impeach Governor Beverly Perdue, who has called for the suspension of the U.S. Constitutional requirement for federal elections. This is all a part of a disturbing trend on the hard left, showing their antipathy toward the people’s right to choose the direction of their country rather than the elites who think they know best.

“Recently, former White House OMB director and Pelosi CBO director Peter Orszag similarly stated that ‘we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic’. This is a trial balloon for tyranny.

“History has shown that elite-driven government always leads to authoritarianism. It’s time for the North Carolina legislature to stand up for the American principle that legitimacy can only be conferred through the consent of the governed by impeaching Perdue immediately. Perdue and Orszag’s attack on representative government is a desire to go back to the days before the American Revolution when the nation suffered under taxation without representation.”

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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September 26th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement condemning the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to ban the use of over-the-counter epinephrine asthma inhalers effective Dec. 31:

“This is a telling decision by the FDA to ban the use of these asthma inhalers, as it places a higher priority on spurious and questionable effects on the atmosphere than on protecting human life itself. Why is the Food and Drug Administration concerned with promoting the radical environmentalist agenda?

“Now 25 million asthma sufferers in the U.S. will have to pay more for non- epinephrine inhalers, all to supposedly save the atmosphere. That is because the alternative inhalers are only available via prescription. So, in addition to paying more for the inhaler, the cost of the doctor’s visit and insurance costs must also be taken into account.

“Once government agencies begin placing higher primacy on the near-religious ‘green agenda’ than on saving lives, it ceases all its legitimate functions. We need to reconsider the far-reaching international accords we have entered into, and just what they mean to preserving our species.”

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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September 21st, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged members of the House of Representatives to cosponsor legislation proposed by Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) that would remove the quasi-judicial powers from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to act against employers, the “Protecting American Jobs Act”.

“For 75 years, the NLRB has worked to facilitate the organization of labor unions at the expense of private employers, with the overreaching powers to act as prosecutor, judge, and jury against those companies at the behest of union bosses,” Wilson said.

The law would strip the Board of all its judicial authority, making federal courts the sole arbiter of alleged infractions of labor law.

“The NLRB is not a court, it is an agency of the executive branch, and yet for nearly a century, its rulemakings have been granted the weight of court decisions. No longer,” Wilson declared.

In an exclusive interview with ALG, Rep. Scott described the bill and said the labor disputes were better handled in the courts. “It takes away the judicial authority of the National Labor Relations Board, [and] puts the decisions in the courts,” he said, adding, “Taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for this agency. The unions and corporate America can fight it out in the courts without doing it on the taxpayer’s dime.”

Rep. Scott thanked ALG for its support of the bill, saying, “I don’t think this bill would be where it is without Americans for Limited Government. I can’t thank them enough for their support in moving this legislation forward.”

The bill, HR 2978, has already attracted 26 cosponsors, whom Wilson praised, saying, “These representatives are embracing the most comprehensive legislation this session to rein in the NLRB’s abuses against private industry.”

A poll conducted by the polling company™, inc./WomanTrend on behalf of ALG found that 66 percent of respondents thought the agency had too much power “to officiate legal proceedings over private U.S. companies in its own court system”.

“The results of the poll are overwhelming. Although the Board is not widely known, the more respondents found out about the agency, the more they opposed it,” Wilson said. He urged members of Congress to continue to educate their constituents of the “NLRB’s excessive authority to act against employers on behalf of big labor.”

The NLRB has come under increasing scrutiny due to its case attempting to bar Boeing from setting up a manufacturing facility in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, which Wilson called “a teachable moment.”

“Sadly, the Boeing case, as horrendous it is, is only a symptom of the problem — which is that this agency has far too much power to begin with to issue rulings against privately owned companies to directly benefit unions. Congress needs to strip its quasi-judicial powers at the source so similar abuses no longer occur,” Wilson concluded.

Attachments:

“Treating the NLRB symptoms not enough,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, September 21st, 2011 athttp://netrightdaily.com/2011/09/treating-the-nlrb-symptoms-not-enough/ .

the polling company™, inc./WomanTrend poll on behalf of Americans for Limited Government regarding National Labor Relations Board, Aug. 19-23, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/NLRBPoll8-19to8-23-11.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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Sept. 20, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) today releaseda poll conducted by the polling company™, inc./WomanTrend showing 64 percent of registered voters favor candidates that support removing the quasi-judicial powers from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

“The results show that the more voters find out about the NLRB, and its powers to act as prosecutor, judge and jury against private companies at the behest of big labor, the more they oppose it,” ALG President Bill Wilson said.

Substantial majorities believe that the agency, founded in 1935, is antiquated (62 percent), has too much power “to officiate legal proceedings over private U.S. companies in its own court system” (66 percent) and to play “the roles of investigator, prosecutor, and judge in each of the cases that come before it” (63 percent), and opposed the Board’s “power to dictate where, that is in which states, companies can locate their places of work or production facilities” (72 percent).

The NLRB has come under increasing scrutiny due to its decision barring Boeing from setting up a manufacturing facility in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, but Wilson said the agency’s history of abuses went back to its inception.

Those include the controversial NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. (1939) decision that a company could not fire workers that staged sit-down strikes, and the BE & K Construction Co. v. NLRB (2002) decision that a company could not sue a union that was attempting to organize its employees, as noted in a recent Investor’s Business Daily oped by Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA).

Both decisions had to be overturned by the Supreme Court.

Rep. Scott is expected to unveil legislation today that will rein in the agency’s quasi-judicial powers, a bill that Wilson called “the most comprehensive effort in 75 years to rein in the one-sided decisions of an agency singularly designed to issue rulings in favor of labor unions.”

Attachments:

the polling company™, inc./WomanTrend poll on behalf of Americans for Limited Government regarding National Labor Relations Board, Aug. 19-23, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/NLRBPoll8-19to8-23-11.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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Sept. 19, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement urging Congress to reject a White House proposal to increase taxes by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years:

“It is ironic that the Obama Administration chalked up his proposals to being simple math when the outcome of raising taxes on job creators will be fewer jobs. That’s the real math.

“During the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression, Congress must resist policies that are designed to take more from the private sector. We should be lowering the cost of doing business in the U.S. so we can compete with overseas companies, not increasing it. Raising taxes by over a trillion dollars is a jobs killer.

“If Obama wants to reduce the deficit he should try cutting spending, and if he wants to help the economy create jobs, he should try cutting taxes. And by cuts, we mean real cuts in spending, not reductions in the growth of spending, and not counting reductions in war spending that has never been committed to. Actual government programs should be eliminated.”

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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Sept. 15, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today praised House passage of a bill by Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) that would prohibit the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from forcing an employer to relocate, shut down or transfer employment under any circumstance:

“The House of Representatives took a good first step today in beginning to address the arrogant, political, overreaching behavior of the NLRB. While Rep. Tim Scott’s bill addresses a symptom of the agency’s history of political favoritism, Congress now needs to address this rogue agency in a more comprehensive manner that cuts to the heart of their misuse of power, abolishing the Board’s quasi-judicial powers allowing it to serve as prosecutor, judge and jury in favor of big labor in the first place.”

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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Sept. 12, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged House passage of a bill by Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) that would prohibit the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from forcing an employer to relocate, shut down or transfer employment under any circumstance:

“The Obama Administration’s NLRB has gone too far as it attempts to block Boeing from setting up a non-union shop away from its Washington state base of operations. It cares more about protecting union jobs than creating new jobs. While millions of Americans struggle to find work in the Obama economy, the NLRB is busy making sure Boeing cannot create jobs in right-to-work South Carolina. A company should be allowed to choose which state it wants to build a factory in free of any governmental interference.

“Rep. Tim Scott is to be applauded for bringing forward legislation that will begin to counter the NLRB’s war on right-to-work states. This is a positive step, and we urge passage. But Congress needs to move past simply adopting stop-gap measures after the damage is already done. A comprehensive overhaul of our broken labor relations system is needed that will abolish the Board’s quasi-judicial powers allowing it to serve as prosecutor, judge, and jury in favor of big labor.”

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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September 7th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today blasted Barack Obama’s pick for head of the Council of Economic Advisors, Alan Krueger:

“In light of his refusal to condemn the extremist remarks of Teamsters’ boss Jimmy Hoffa, promising to ‘take out’ the tea party, it is deeply disturbing that Barack Obama would nominate someone who has taken the radical position of advocating for the unionization of prisoners. Alan Krueger has even supported paying the minimum wage and overtime to prisoners. This is the man that is supposed to turn our broken economy around?”

Attachments:

“Crazy Krueger,” Americans for Limited Government Research Foundation, September 7th, 2011 atwww.getliberty.org/files/AlanKruegerUnionizePrisoners9-7-11.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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Sept. 6, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned Barack Obama for praising Teamsters head Jimmy Hoffa, who at an Obama campaign event in Detroit on Labor Day called on union faithful to “take these son-of-a-bitches out” to win the “war on workers” he said was led by the Tea Party:

“President Barack Obama owes an immediate apology to every hard working American and each member of Congress who supports the Tea Party movement for his affirmation of Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa’s call to violence against his opponents at Obama’s Detroit Labor Day rally. If ever there was doubt that Obama is more comfortable with a megaphone and teleprompter than as the leader of the free world, yesterday ended it.

“If Obama fails to apologize for this call to violence against members of Congress and others who don’t agree with his radical policies, Speaker John Boehner should rescind his invitation to speak in the House of Representatives. In the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, Hoffa’s rhetoric is unconscionable, but Obama’s praising of it shows that he has never risen above his radical community organizer roots.”

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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September 2, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson responded to the just-released August unemployment numbers saying:

“Obama’s economy continues to fail to produce the private sector jobs to even meet the needs of new entrants in the economy, let alone those who are currently unemployed. What is stunning is that the economy created zero jobs in August. It is almost criminal that Obama continues to offer the same failed stimulus solutions that focus upon his radical agenda to change our economy from the most productive in the world to one where hope is replaced by despair and innovation is punished.”

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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