Archives for February 2012

Feb. 24, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today responded to recent data by the Senate Budget Committee showing the U.S. has a higher debt per capita than Greece and other troubled sovereigns in Europe:

“At more than $49,000 per person using the most recent data from the U.S. Treasury and Census, we have a higher debt per capita than any of the PIIGS nations. Elected officials and other central planners attempt to comfort themselves with the false notion that the debt never needs to be repaid. That this $15.4 trillion debt can continually be absorbed by an ever-expanding global financial system. So why worry?

“The larger the debt gets, because it is not being repaid and has actually increased every single year since 1957, the more of it needs to be refinanced over time. That eats a larger and larger share of the economy every year, diverting resources away from more productive facilities and into a useless paper trade. As bloated as international financial institutions have become, there will come a point when not even they can afford to lend us more money, as is already happening in Europe.

“While it is hard to say where that tipping point is, when it comes—not if, but when—we will be left with two choices: to repay the debt, or to default. To avoid a default, the only solution is to balance the budget now and begin paying the debt down.

“This will be a difficult transition for the economy, and to cope with it, it must be accompanied by measures to reduce the cost of doing business in America to attract investment and create jobs. That includes slashing the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, undoing the burdensome regulatory regime in energy, the environment, health care, and labor, lifting restrictions on capital creation, and strengthening the dollar.

“As hard as it will be, at the end of that process, we will be more competitive globally, unemployment will be lower, government will be more limited, and we will be more prosperous.”

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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Feb. 23, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s assessment of rising oil and gas prices, who said, “We need to take strong action to protect consumers from this speculation”:

“Congressional Democrats are once again resorting to the tired line of price manipulation by so-called speculators and oil companies to explain why Americans are paying more at the pump. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is accounting for rising prices by market forces, saying alternatively that it’s because the economy is recovering and includes increased demand overseas, particularly China.

“They need to get their stories straight, because they are entirely inconsistent. Are prices being manipulated, or are they rising as supply fails to keep up with increased demand as the economy recovers?

“Meanwhile, both of these contrary explanations miss the underlying weakness of the dollar that is the real cause for price pressures in commodities, including food, oil, gasoline, and is observable in precious metals like gold. While demand did rise globally from 88.3 million barrels a day in 2010 to 89 million in 2011 according the Energy Information Agency, so too has global production increased to 90 million a day in Dec. 2011. So, market forces alone do not explain the price swing.

“Of course, this happens every time the nation experiences price shocks: government officials thrash about looking for anyone to blame but themselves for a problem they helped to create with their big spending, money printing ways.”

Attachments:

“Obama says high oil prices evidence of improving economy, ALG responds,” Feb. 21, 2012 at http://getliberty.org/content.asp?pl=10&sl=5&contentid=841.

“Weak petrodollar threatens economy,” ALG President Bill Wilson, Feb. 22, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/02/weak-petrodollar-threatens-economy/.

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

Feb. 21, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to Barack Obama’s recent assessment that“as the economy strengthens, global demand for oil increases”:

“Obama thinks the current run up in gas prices is a good sign, evidence that the economy is improving. Except, in 2011, the global economy slowed down while oil and gas prices were rising along with a broad range of other commodities including gold even while domestic consumption was declining. Additionally, just last month, the International Energy Agency has cut its projections of the growth of global oil demand for 2012, and Saudi Arabia is once again lowering its production this year. With oil traded in dollars, that all indicates inflationary pressures and a weak dollar are moving prices, not increased demand.

“In addition, last year, another part of the run-up in prices was the Libyan crisis. This year, the Iranian crisis is in effect, with the U.S. and Europe placing de facto embargos on Iranian oil exports. This too has an effect.

“Then there is the domestic regulatory environment that makes these price spikes all the more acute here in the U.S. The nation’s refining capacity is declining along with continued restrictions on domestic oil production. We simply lack the domestic capacity to increase output when we experience these price shocks. In fact, we have declined from producing 9.6 million barrels of oil a day in 1970 to little more than 5.5 million a day now.

“Overall, these huge run-ups in oil and gas prices are not good for the economy. They did not work well in the 1970’s and again in 2008, when the roof blew off the economy. They always lead directly to increased producer and consumer prices, both of which take money out of other parts of the economy, and are detrimental to the growth picture.”

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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Feb. 17, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement condemning House adoption of a deal to extend the payroll tax holiday, unemployment benefits, and the “doc fix” for another year without paying for it:

“This legislation the House has passed will add $165 billion to the debt over the next three years. This is simply inexcusable. They are promising partial pay-for’s down the road, such that the ten year cost will supposedly be brought down to $89 billion. That’s still too much. Republicans took a majority in the House promising to reduce the debt. This bill speeds up the bankruptcy of Social Security, adds significantly to the debt, and betrays the voters who demanded fiscal responsibility in 2010.

“The economy is beleaguered by excessive debt, both public and private, and we will not work our way out of this malaise with yet more debt. This legislation is counterproductive and denies the growing body of evidence that too much debt has become severely detrimental to economic growth. The spenders in Washington, D.C. are completely clueless to what ails our economy. We need new leadership.”

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

Feb. 16, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to a deal to extend the payroll tax holiday, unemployment benefits, and the “doc fix” for another year without paying for it:

“This is a severe disappointment. This is a deal that will hasten the bankruptcy of Social Security, add over $100 billion to the debt, and dispirit the base of voters who swept Republicans into a majority in the House in 2010. When critics claim there is little difference between the two parties, this is what they’re talking about. This is a win for none other than the political class in Washington, D.C. The American people once again lack representation. Who’s looking out for the interests of the taxpayer?

“Now it is up to individual members of the House and Senate to oppose and hopefully defeat this bill despite the position of party leadership. No deal is better than a bad deal.”

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

Feb. 13, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today responded to the release of the White House’s proposed 2013 budget:

“Once again, the Obama Administration is proposing to borrow another $1.3 trillion to pay for unsustainable increases in government spending, which under the budget will not be cut on a net basis any year over the next decade. There are no real reforms proposed to prevent entitlement programs from dragging the Treasury into the Abyss of insolvency. Meanwhile, he is proposing to increase taxes by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years on job creators that will only further slow down the economy.

“Obama wants to pretend that there are $2.50 in ‘cuts’ for every $1 in increased taxes, but since spending increases every year under his proposal, such math is impossible. It is just another imaginary number from the government; pure propaganda designed to prevent the American people from seeing the true dire straits our fiscal house is in.

“This quarter, the national debt will grow to be larger than the entire economy, probably never to return to below 100 percent of the GDP. The reason is because while the economy only grows at a tepid pace of less than 2 percent, the debt continues to expand by about 10 percent every year. No country has ever sustained such borrowing. Remaining the world’s preeminent economic superpower is unfeasible under such policies. Obama is pursuing a purposeful policy of national decline.”

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

Feb. 10, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today responded to Barack Obama’s decision to move forward with a controversial regulation requiring religious-affiliated employers to provide contraception in their plans:

“Despite overwhelming objections to his regulation, Obama has announced he is moving forward with his regulation forcing religious-affiliated employers like hospitals, schools, and charities to provide contraception in their plans without modification, giving them one year to figure out how to implement it. He is doing so based on the promise that he will issue a new regulation later this year that supposedly responds to the objections.

“But according to a White House fact sheet, that new regulation that has yet to be issued and is merely conceptual, would still require that religious-affiliated organizations’ insurance providers offer contraceptive coverage ‘free of charge’.

“The White House merely wants the religious institutions to pretend with them they are not funding this coverage, when the reality is they will be. This is unconscionable. Now the President is attempting to get religious institutions to be complicit in this lie, forcing his rule and will upon them. This is wrong and it must be rescinded immediately.

“The White House is claiming it will be paid for by the insurance companies themselves. But since the employees will not have to pay an additional premium for that coverage nor the religious-affiliated employers given a discount on their premiums to offset the costs, and the monies under the plans are fungible, the net effect will be that the religious institutions that are paying the premiums will still be paying for the contraceptives.

“As a result, it remains a violation of the First Amendment and an affront to religious liberty.”

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

Feb. 9, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement blasting an Obama Administration regulation forcing religious-affiliated institutions to provide contraception in violation of their own doctrines:

“Whether one agrees with the use of contraception or not, forcing religious institutions to pay for a practice that violates their doctrines is a gross misuse of government power and a violation of the First Amendment. This policy was not even a part of the law that Congress voted on, it was a regulation issued from on high by HHS and the White House. It initially applies to religious-affiliated institutions like hospitals, colleges and charities, but if it stands, there will be nothing in the way to also directly force it onto churches and houses of worship in the future.

“Obama is tearing down the constitutional firewalls between state and church, and imposing his will alone. This is a consistent pattern of ignoring and breaking the law to enact his political agenda and it must not be allowed to stand.”

Attachments:

“Above the Law,” ALG President Bill Wilson, Mar. 29, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?display=3200

“Obama’s Radical Non-Recess ‘Recess’ Appointments,” ALG President Bill Wilson, Jan. 5, 2012 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3982

“Did Congress Authorize the Obama Refi’s?” ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, Nov. 2, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3811

“Obama’s executive orders overstep,” ALG press statement, Oct. 31, 2011 at http://getliberty.org/content.asp?pl=10&sl=5&contentid=778

“Tyranny with a whisper,” ALG President Bill Wilson, Sept. 29, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3714

“More calls for tyranny over America,” ALG President Bill Wilson, Oct. 17, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3762

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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