Archives for May 2012

May 31, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today responds to New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s crusade against sugary drinks:

“New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s micromanaging Nanny State strikes again with an attempt to implement a ban on sugary drinks to combat increased obesity among city dwellers.  New York City residents better start saying goodbye to Slurpees, Starbucks’ Frappuccinos and Big Gulps as any sugary drink larger than 16 ounces might soon be banned from the city.

“The truth is Mayor Bloomberg has no business interfering with the diets of New York City residents.  This is just another example of the government overstepping its authority.  We’ve already seen many of these diet restrictions appear on a national level within Obamacare and the law’s strict rules banning vending machines from carrying certain beverages and the heavy cost burden that requires chain restaurants to post its calorie information on menus.

“Bloomberg has made New York City a rival to California as a lab rat of sorts for the latest Big Government intrusions that end up as federal government policies.  The Nanny State approach Bloomberg is willing to take shows how far they are willing to go to regulate every aspect of individual Americans’ lives — from cradle to grave.  We need to keep the government out of the kitchen.”

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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May 29, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the implications if Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker should prevail in a June 5 recall election:

“If the latest polls are any indication, Governor Walker is well-positioned to prevail in the June 5 recall. This will deal a big blow to big labor, which has spent millions attempting to oust Walker, as a voter verdict against ever-expanding big government. Asking public employees to pay their fair share of their own retirement and health benefits is a common sense policy, and has strong support among taxpayers.

“The people of Wisconsin, and of every other state, have a reasonable expectation that politicians, and government employees, will be responsible stewards of their tax dollars — particularly in an age when insurmountable debts threaten to leave our economy lost at sea. We need to be careful, lest these debts sweep the ship of state under the waves.

“A Walker win in Wisconsin will be a victory for taxpayers across the country, and particularly for the policy that demands responsibility and accountability from government workers. There is no entitlement to make taxpayers pay more for excessive benefits schemes that threaten to bankrupt every state in the Union.”

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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May 29, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement condemning the Seattle City Council for passing unanimously Resolution 31379 against local railroads responsible for transporting coal to the shore to be shipped overseas, opposing the development of coal-export terminals in Washington state

“The City Council is full of hot air. To fight what it calls the ‘serious impacts’ of the discredited man-made climate change hoax, the City Council has seen fit to pass a resolution condemning the Rocky Mountain coal industry and the railroads that deliver the coal to the Pacific for overseas export. They are declaring war in effect on these coal-producing states, as well as the workers who would be employed at the port to ship the coal. All this in a misguided attempt stop the burning of coal that will take place anyway.

“This is just another example of the sheer lunacy of the radical environmental agenda — the same agenda that decimated Washington State’s timber industry under the false assumption that they were saving spotted owls.”

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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May 24, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today sent a letter to the House Ethics Committee today questioning Michigan Representative Fred Upton’s use of taxpayer paid franked mail to tout his political rating by a national association to his constituents.

Wilson’s letter to House Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Jo Bonner stated, “I am confident that between the political campaign war chest that a powerful committee chairman can easily amass, and his own personal wealth, Mr. Upton could afford to pay for his own political direct mail without need of taxpayer assistance. Given this confidence, this mailing is all the more offensive, as it reveals Mr. Upton’s sense of entitlement to the perks and benefits of office that are so repugnant to Americans across the political spectrum.”

The letter is in response to a mlive.com news report that Upton has come under fire for a taxpayer funded letter targeting sportsmen in his district touting his rating by the pre-eminent gun rights organization in the world.

“This taxpayer funded campaign mailer is a callous abuse of the congressional franking system which is designed to let constituents know what is happening in Congress and how they are voting.  To cross the line by including political determinations by third party groups in the midst of a reelection campaign is a despicable abuse of power,” Wilson continued.

The letter bringing the House’s attention to the abuse was sent to all members of the House Ethics Committee as well as to House Speaker John Boehner.

Attachments:

Letter to House Committee on Ethics, Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson, May 24, 2012 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Ethics-Letter-on-Upton-NRA-Mailing-5-24-12.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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May 23, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the possibility of Greece leaving the Eurozone:

“Running a deficit in excess of 9 percent of GDP, Greece is upside down and will only be able to return to sustainability if it exits the Eurozone. They never have followed the Eurozone’s budget rules, and they never will. The political class there has always used the temporarily cheap financing the currency provided as a subsidy for its own excesses.

“The only other way to accommodate Greece and other nations’ profligacy in Europe would be for the European Central Bank to monetize and refinance their debts for perpetuity, no matter how large they got. This would transfer wealth from Germany to southern Europe, and transfer inflation from south to north. It would be the end of fiscal sovereignty for all of Europe’s powers, but particularly for the greater ones, which would be forced accommodate the waste of their neighbors.

“That likely will not happen. For Greece’s own sake, switching back to the drachma and leaving the Euro is the only way out — even if it throws Europe into momentary turmoil. In the end there likely will be no escaping cutting spending, but at least it can be on Greece’s own terms, in its own currency, and with the liberty of her people intact.”

Attachments:

Greece sets June 17 for new elections, By ALG President Bill Wilson, May 23, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/05/greece-sets-june-17-for-new-elections/

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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May 22, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising the U.S. Southern District of New York Court for enjoining enforcement of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that allowed for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens for national security purposes:

“Judge Katherine Forrest has taken the first, necessary step of suspending enforcement of the section 1021 of the NDAA pending further review by federal courts, preventing the federal government from indefinitely detaining any U.S. citizen while the trial is taking place. The government’s arguments in this case rest on a very broad interpretation of the President’s war powers on the homeland. It is essentially claiming to already have the power to exercise war powers against citizens on the homeland.

“The Bill of Rights was designed to work under all circumstances, including wartime, and as such the authorization to use force in Afghanistan cannot supersede constitutional protections to due process. Nor can the government target citizens for activities otherwise protected by the First Amendment as violations of law or threats to national security.

“Judge Forrest must now go the extra step and find the NDAA’s overbroad detention policies to be an unconstitutional overstep by Congress. If the government has enough cause to hold a citizen indefinitely, it can make its case at a trial with a jury of one’s peers rendering a verdict. The reasons for indefinite detention would otherwise be prohibited by federal statute anyway, and subject to criminal penalties. Therefore the government has yet to articulate a reason why such authority is necessary, let alone constitutional.”

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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May 21, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the latest report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showing $10.77 billion of a $100 billion credit line has been tapped, which comes atop another $22 billion that had been borrowed from the U.S. $64 billion quota to the Fund as of Dec. 2011:

“The past two months has seen a steady rise in U.S. lending to the IMF, with an additional $3.5 billion, undoubtedly to help prop up Europe as it struggles through its sovereign debt crisis. This brings U.S. crisis lending to the Fund up to about $32.7 billion.

“Overall, the IMF has expanded total lending by $9.1 billion in the past two months, with $6.78 billion for Portugal and $2.13 billion for Greece alone. That means the U.S. in the past two months has provided over 38 percent of funds to prop up Europe, well in excess of our 17.72 percent quota obligation to the Fund. The IMF could not bail out all of Europe if it wanted to. It was never designed to be used by advanced economies in the first place. Yet, here we are.

“If the European Central Bank, Germany, and others in Europe do not want to borrow and print their own money to prop up Greece and Portugal, why should the rest of the world go into debt to prop up a sinking ship?

“This raises urgency for the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Rep. Spencer Bachus to bring up HR 2313 immediately so that it can be heard on the floor of the House. Bachus’ lack of attention to this bill is puzzling, as this legislation would rescind what remains of the U.S. $100 billion credit line to the Fund before it is all used propping up banks that bet poorly on European sovereign debt.”

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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May 17, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the easing of oil and gas prices:

“By the Obama’s account, recently he said that ‘as the economy strengthens, global demand for oil increases.’ So, now that oil and gas prices have eased, does that mean that demand is not as strong as everyone anticipated? Using Obama’s own metrics, does that mean the economy is now weakening?

“Contradictorily, Obama more recently suggested that the oil price spike earlier this year was the product of so-called speculators. He promised new regulations to ‘prevent market manipulation’. But at the same time he warned that ‘[n]one of these will bring gas prices down overnight’. So by Obama’s own account, his proposed regulations which never even took effect do not account for oil and gasoline prices dropping, either. Have the speculators suddenly stopped speculating?

“Why are prices now dropping? Obama’s tired worldview of mythical economic recoveries and speculator boogeymen cannot account for the real underlying cause for these rapid price bubbles: the weak dollar. When it appeared that the crisis in Europe had abated earlier this year, the euro strengthened against the dollar, the world’s reserve currency, and oil prices spiked up dramatically. Now that it appears the euro may collapse after all, the dollar has temporarily strengthened, and so prices have dropped.

“But the American people should take no solace in the chaos in Europe. The dollar is only ‘strong’ now in comparison to the weak euro. Should the euro collapse, there will again be a temporary flight to safety into the dollar, and oil and gas prices will continue to drop. But afterward, the underlying weakness of the dollar itself will again take hold, and inflation will ensue.

“If we as a nation wish to address these rapid price swings, we must address the strength and stability of the dollar. We need sound money.”

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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May 16, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement condemning Senate passage of the $140 billion reauthorization for the Export Import Bank of the United States:

“In the end, there were just 20 senators, including as few as 19 Republicans, who stood against the corporate welfarism that is the Ex-Im Bank. This is just another government subsidy program for which there is overwhelming bipartisan support for — 78 senators of both parties apparently have no problem giving an additional $40 billion of lending capacity to a bank that gave millions of guaranteed loans to Solyndra. No problem with a bank predominantly used by one aerospace company that gives foreign companies an edge over U.S. competitors in the global economy.

“The world would not end without the Ex-Im Bank. The greater economy would barely bat an eye without it. All that would happen is taxpayers would save $140 billion and a corrupt corporate welfare scheme would be abolished.

“We thank the 20 senators that did the right thing.”

Attachments:

20 senators who voted no: Barrasso (R-WY), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Enzi (R-WY), Grassley (R-IA), Hatch (R-UT), Inhofe (R-OK), Johnson (R-WI), Kyl (R-AZ), Lee (R-UT), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Paul (R-KY), Risch (R-ID), Rubio (R-FL), Sanders (I-VT), Toomey (R-PA), Vitter (R-LA)

“No place for Republican crony capitalism,” By Rick Manning, Director of Communications, Americans for Limited Government, May 8, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/05/no-place-for-republican-crony-capitalism/

“Axe the Ex-Im Bank,” By Howard Rich, Chairman, Americans for Limited Government, March 21, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/03/axe-the-ex-im-bank/

“Big Government is Making Boeing a Bad Actor,” By Howard Rich, Chairman, Americans for Limited Government, April 9, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/04/big-government-is-making-boeing-a-bad-actor/

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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May 14, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement after European Union officials weigh the consequences of a Greek exit from the weakening Euro:

“The situation in Greece continues to deteriorate in the wake of its national elections, as the European leaders try to figure out what to do as it rejects plans to cut out-of-control spending.  Not surprisingly, Greek politicians want to have their cake and eat it to, as they want to continue their government’s spending spree and have the rest of the world to subsidize it. They want to stay in the Euro, and yet want to keep their fiscal sovereignty. But Greece can’t have it both ways, as these are mutually exclusive. If Greece really wants to stay in the Euro zone, it will pay for its past mistakes and certainly cede its sovereignty to Brussels. In truth, an exit from the Euro and a return to the drachma is Greece and her people’s only salvation.

“While that process plays out, many are looking at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to continue bailing out the failed European Socialist experiment in Greece and the banks that enabled it. That is why the U.S. Congress needs to act to close the IMF’s $100 billion U.S. taxpayer-funded line of credit that Obama signed into law by passing Representative Cathy McMorris-Rodgers’ H.R. 2313 closing the line of credit.

“It would be the height of irresponsibility for Congress to fail to protect U.S. taxpayers from having our treasury raided to bail out reckless and irresponsible politicians, when our nation faces a fiscal crisis that is every bit as severe, and will prove to be dramatically more devastating.  Rather than push ourselves even further into our own debt death spiral, it is time for Congress to just say no to throwing life preservers to those who are unwilling to do what is necessary to save themselves.”

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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