Archives for April 2012

ALG urges adoption of resolution overturning EPA regulation against coal electricity

April 30, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging Senate adoption of S.J. Res. 37 that would overturn an Environmental Protection Agency regulation that would require coal-fired power plants to significantly reduce mercury emissions:

“Mercury is a natural part of the Earth’s environment. Thousands of tons of mercury are emitted annually through natural forces like volcanoes, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, geysers, and forest fires, and yet the EPA in its infinite wisdom has decided to target the relatively low amount of mercury that is emitted by coal-fired plants in the U.S. These regulations require these power plants to be retrofitted with new technologies that will cost tens of billions of dollars to implement, while failing to prevent more than 99 percent of mercury from being emitted into the environment. It is hard to find a costlier regulation that would achieve so little.”

Attachments:

“The Myth of Killer Mercury,” By Willie Soon and Paul Driesson, Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2011 at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703421204576329420414284558.html

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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GDP numbers weak, ALG says ‘This is Mitt Romney’s election to lose’

April 27, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the latest report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showing the growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at just 2.2 percent in the first quarter:

“This is the time in the political cycle when voter attitudes are cementing, and right now, the Obama economy stinks. Unemployment is still above 8 percent, which the Administration said would never happen if the ‘stimulus’ was passed. Growth is still quite sluggish, only coming in at 2.2 percent in the first quarter, despite promises of a V-shaped recovery. 25 percent of that can be explained by higher commodity prices in non-durable goods and in services, meaning without the inflation, growth might be more like 1.7 percent.

“In fact, the Obama Administration was projecting 3 percent growth this year, so their rosy projections are once again way off. In 2011, they projected 3.1 percent growth and only got 1.8 percent. As their growth projections prove to be way off once again, revenues will fall short of expectations, and the national debt will continue to grow that much faster.

“Also, now the $15.6 trillion national debt is officially larger than the entire $15.4 trillion U.S. economy, growing at an annual rate of over 10 percent. No nation can long sustain itself when it takes on debt at nearly five  times the rate its economy grows.

“Couple that with almost $4 a gallon for gasoline, food prices once again increasing, home values continue dropping into a double-dip recession, 1 in 2 recent college graduates cannot find full-time work to pay off hundreds of billions of student loan debt, and the election outlook for Obama must look quite gloomy. This is Jimmy Carter all over again — only worse. This is Mitt Romney’s election to lose.”

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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Sheila Jackson Lee withdraws CISPA amendment, ALG responds

April 26, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the withdrawal of an amendment offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to the “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act”(CISPA) that would have authorized the Secretary of Homeland Security “to acquire, intercept, retain, use, and disclose communications and other system traffic that are transiting to or from or stored on Federal systems:”

“It is a good day for liberty when an Orwellian amendment so horrific that it would have authorized the Secretary of Homeland Security, a political appointee, to monitor the nation’s entire digital infrastructure and in the process, spy on Americans, was withdrawn from consideration. This police state on steroids amendment by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was a thuggish thrust at authoritarian control on all Americans.

It is likely the amendment was about to go down to a spectacular bipartisan defeat. And deservedly so.

“However, major problems remain with the legislation. Much of the debate surrounding CISPA has focused on provisions creating a right of service providers to decide whether or not they wish to share user data with the government.  In the process, everyone has been pretending or assuming that the government is not already collecting and storing this data through various intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency.

Recent disclosures by former NSA official William Binney on Democracy Now challenge that assumption in an alarming fashion. By Binney’s account, not only has the government been gathering intelligence domestically on U.S. citizens for some years now by monitoring the entire network, but that it has already developed a vast database of most every electronic communication in the world. CISPA does not address these concerns at all.

“If Congress wishes to truly address intelligence ‘sharing’ with the government by communications companies, it must first outlaw these existing NSA and other surveillance programs and order the destruction of the data already in the government’s possession. Then it might have more teeth, and the American people could have certainty their sensitive private data is actually secure.

“But pretending that this pointless debate now taking place in Congress will have any effect on whether data on everybody will continue to be collected by the government is not the solution. It only creates a false veneer of privacy.”

Attachments:

“Cyber intelligence sharing vote raises broader constitutional questions,” ALG President Bill Wilson, April 25, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/04/cyber-intelligence-sharing-vote-raises-broader-constitutional-questions-2/

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 Sen. Ron Johnson’s ‘No Sore Loser Act’

April 26, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement in support of legislation by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) that would prohibit lame duck presidents from issuing costly regulations after an election they either lose or are in their final term through Jan. 20:

“Americans for Limited Government strongly supports Sen. Johnson’s ‘No Sore Loser Act’ that will stop presidents from issuing eleventh hour costly regulations after they lose reelection. Sometimes outgoing administrations like to smash everything to pieces, so to speak, on their way out the door. And there’s no reason the economy should suffer any more at the hands of this Administration than it already has.”

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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‘If I wanted America to fail’ video tops 1 million views on Youtube

April 26, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the FreeMarketAmerica.org video “If I wanted America to fail” topping 1 million views on YouTube.com:

“The out-of-control radicalism of the Obama Administration exposed in our ‘If I wanted America to fail’ video has clearly struck a chord with the American people, rising to over 1 million views on YouTube in less than a week. And it is little wonder, when Obama-appointed EPA officials like Al Armendariz state as their goal to ‘crucify’ oil and gas producers as standard practice, making an example of them as a warning to other private companies that wish to expand American energy production.

“Now FoxNews.com’s Chris Stirewalt writes that ‘Obama’s EPA Could Be Toxic to His Re-Election Hopes.’ And that’s exactly right. Imposing one’s will on the nation via these harmful regulations without any congressional approval is extremely bad politics. Deliberately making oil, gasoline and other fuels more expensive is very bad politics. Arbitrarily deciding carbon dioxide, a gas necessary for the existence of life, is a harmful pollutant able to be regulated under the Clean Air Act so the EPA can ‘crucify’ major industry and American energy consumers is exceedingly bad politics.

“Even more importantly, whether it’s intentional or not, these policies are risking making America fail. It’s too expensive to do business here —because of these ‘green’ policies. Generally, energy is too costly —because of overt government acts. This goes beyond even Obama. These policies have been decades in the making.

“If the nation does not want to fail, the radical environmentalist agenda must be defeated politically at the ballot box and in the bureaucracy and in the halls of Congress. As the world’s leading economic superpower, we cannot afford to fail. That is why we made this video, and that is why we want every American to have an opportunity to see it — before these policies truly take hold and we really do fail as a nation.”

Attachments:

“If I wanted America to fail,” Video, FreeMarketAmerica.org, Americans for Limited Government, April 22, 2012 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc.

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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Americans for Limited Government project Free Market America takes America by storm

April 25, 2012, Fairfax, VA – Americans for Limited Government’s newest project, Free Market America, has taken America by storm since its launch this past weekend.

“The success of Free Market America’s launch shows that Americans are still very interested in the ideals of free markets and limited government, and stopping the Big Government environmentalists in nationwide. Our video, ‘If I wanted America to fail,’ has more than half a million views on YouTube in just a few days,” said Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government.

Since its launch last weekend, Free Market America has been featured on Fox News, Drudge Report, Glenn Beck TV, HotAir.com, The Blaze, Human Events, Michelle Malkin, Breitbart and many, many others.

“The widespread success of this project shows that Americans are willing to stand up and fight for freedom and prosperity and against the heavy hand of big government. With many in the conservative media and conservative bloggers spreading this message and taking our content viral, the Big Green agenda will soon be facing an uphill battle.”

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Attachments:

Twitter suspends Free Market America account; Conservatives get Twitter to reverse – NetRightDaily.com, April 23, 2012

Viral video: If I wanted America to fail – YouTube, April 20, 2012

Sheila Jackson Lee CISPA amendment gives Homeland Security power to spy on Americans

April 25, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on an amendment offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to the “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Privacy Act” (CISPA) that would authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security “to acquire, intercept, retain, use, and disclose communications and other system traffic that are transiting to or from or stored on Federal systems:”

“Any reasonable person should see the amendment proposed by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee as far-reaching and Orwellian. The Jackson Lee amendment to CISPA is the purest expression of totalitarianism ever proposed in the halls of Congress. It is breathtaking the speed with which the police state is being advanced in this legislation.

“This sweeping amendment by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee would allow the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, a political appointee, to monitor the nation’s entire digital infrastructure. There are no communications that do not ‘transit to’ or through existing Federal systems including those run by the FCC, and based on recent disclosures by NSA whistleblower William Binney, there are no communications that are not ‘stored on’ Federal systems in some way.

“That means every communication in the world would be accessible by the Secretary of Homeland Security. And since it also includes all communications on Federal systems, that would include all congressional correspondence, all congressional inquiries into anything, all internal White House communications, all sealed federal court documents, all military communications, and all intelligence gathering in the world. In short, all of the most sensitive top secret and privileged information would funnel to a politically appointed official who may be tempted to misuse it.

“The Secretary need only certify that acquiring the information is necessary to counter cyber security threats. Since the Secretary will have no way of knowing which information will be relevant to that purpose until the data is filtered and analyzed, she will have to acquire it all in the process.

“Once acquired, the amendment even allows the information to be used beyond the purview of protecting national security or against cyber threats. Under Jackson Lee’s amendment, ‘information obtained pursuant to activities authorized under this subsection will … be retained, used, or disclosed… with the approval of the Attorney General, for law enforcement purposes when the information is evidence of a crime which has been, is being, or is about to be committed.’ Suddenly, the nation’s vast intelligence and military infrastructure will be at the fingertips of the Department of Justice to be used for targeted, malicious, political prosecutions.”

Attachments:

“Cyber intelligence sharing vote raises broader constitutional questions,” ALG President Bill Wilson, April 25, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/04/cyber-intelligence-sharing-vote-raises-broader-constitutional-questions-2/

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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Social Security, Medicare bankruptcy accelerates, Trustees report

April 23, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement reacting to the latest Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report:

“It is no surprise that particularly the Social Security program has lost three years off the life of its trust fund in a single year. Obama and Congress foolishly underfunded the program by $95 billion with its election year extension of the so-called payroll tax holiday. They are consciously facilitating the bankruptcy of the program. Now the program’s trust fund will be exhausted three years sooner in 2033, at which point, benefits will be cut sharply.

“In particular trouble is Social Security’s disability program, according to the Trustees.  The trouble with that program is systemic more than anything, as Congress has so dramatically expanded the definition of disability it now costs over $125 billion annually.

“Medicare is even worse off, with its trust fund set to be exhausted in 2024. This is hardly surprising, too, considering how Obamacare’s expansion of millions on to the Medicaid rolls and into the taxpayer-subsidized insurance exchanges was paid for in large part by cutting $500 billion from Medicare over ten years. But even without Obamacare, Medicare would still be in dire straits. Like the other entitlement programs, it has promised far more than can be delivered on a sustainable basis.

“All of these programs are lies that promise too much. The trillions of contingent liabilities in these programs are not even factored into our current $15.6 trillion national debt, which is already larger than our entire economy. If those contingent liabilities in entitlements were included, it would be trillions more still in debts that cannot be repaid, only refinanced.

“No nation can long sustain itself when it offers more in benefits than it collects via revenue. Borrowing to fill in the shortfall is only a temporary stopgap measure, and in the end this system will collapse because we cannot tax at a high enough rate to save these programs. When we needed real reform to our nation’s finances, all we got from Obama was a hastening of our national decline.”

Attachments:

“Defining Disability Down,” ALG Chairman Howard Rich, Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2012 at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304299304577346341282507300.html

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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Senate to vote on Enzi bill rescinding NLRB snap elections, ALG urges adoption

April 23, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement urging Senate adoption of S.J. Res. 36 proposed by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) that would rescind a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rulemaking requiring unionization elections occur within seven to ten days of being filed:

“The Senate has an opportunity to rein in the NLRB’s abusive power grab instituting snap elections on behalf of unions, which will shorten the amount of time businesses have to make their case to employees. This has been a top priority of big labor as union membership wanes nationwide to expedite the process in as little as seven to 10 days.

“The urgency for union certification elections — and the speed with which the NLRB adopted the new rule — is curious when, by the NLRB’s own data, it only took about 38 days to wrap up a unionization election under the old rule. The old process has allowed employers the opportunity to present a case against unionization in a manner allowing for deliberation. While it may be more convenient — for union bosses — to dispense with this process as quickly as possible, it neither serves the interests of businesses nor employees who are given little time to weigh the pros and cons of the decision.

“While the Senate should certainly rescind this rulemaking, it should also be mindful that it underscores just how much power this agency really has to issue sweeping regulations affecting tens of thousands of places of business.

“That is why it is no longer enough to treat the symptoms of the agency’s overreaching quasi-judicial powers with mere stopgap measures. In the House, Rep. Austin Scott has proposed HR 2978 that will address this rogue agency in a comprehensive manner. Scott’s legislation will abolish the NLRB’s powers to serve as prosecutor, judge, and jury in favor of unions. If congressional Republicans are truly committed to reining in the abuses at the NLRB, they should carefully consider the Scott bill, which will eliminate the agency’s power to regulate in such a far-reaching manner.”

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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Obama claims oil price manipulation after saying it was rising demand

April 19, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement commenting on Barack Obama’s claim that “speculators artificially manipulate markets by buying up oil”:

“In February, the Obama Administration accounted for rising gasoline and oil prices with market forces, saying alternatively that it was because the economy was recovering and included increased demand overseas, particularly China. Now, Obama is claiming that so-called ‘speculators’ are manipulating oil prices.

“Which is it? Rising demand? Or price manipulation? These are contradictory claims, and undercut the Administration’s credibility on this issue.

“Obama is just trying to deflect attention away from his own ‘stimulus’ policies that have weakened the dollar. These are the real cause for price pressures in commodities, including food, oil, gasoline, and precious metals like gold. When you have high prices in a single asset, supply and demand issues can be cited. But when you have a broad range of commodities all with escalating prices, that is an inflationary indicator.

“Are rising food prices a part of Obama’s global conspiracy to manipulate prices, too? What about rising gold? How many are involved in this sordid plot to raise prices across the board? This is absurd.

“We don’t need Obama’s conspiracy theories to explain price shocks. Government hacks like Obama will blame anyone but themselves for the problem which they themselves created. This is inflation brought on by too much money printing and government borrowing.”

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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