Archives for June 2012

June 28, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Obamacare:

“The U.S. Constitution died today.  The underlying hope and belief that our nation’s founding document protected individual freedoms from an ever encroaching government is a thing of the past based upon this ruling.  It is inconceivable how these nine lifetime appointed jurists could have decided to keep a law that is such a blatant intrusion into each of our lives, but the result of their decision is that individuals can no longer rely on the federal government power being limited by anything other than the political pressure their individual elected representatives feel.  Ultimately, the Supreme Court has opted out of the battle to retain our freedoms, and has thrown in entirely with those who advocated for unlimited government authority.  It is truly a sad day for our nation.”

Interview Availability: Americans for Limited Government (ALG) will be providing in-depth analysis of the legal, regulatory, and political fallout of the Supreme Court’s sweeping ruling. Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson and other experts on Obamacare and the Court’s ruling, including ObamacareWatcher.org editor-in-chief, John Vinci, Esq. and ALG counsel Nathan Mehrens.

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June 27, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Rep. Spencer Bachus to send HR 2313, a bill by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, which would rescind what remains of a $108 billion expansion of credit to the International Monetary fund that has been used to bail out Europe:

“There is no longer any excuse for Chairman Bachus to hold back legislation rescinding the additional $108 billion of funding to the IMF that was approved by the Pelosi-Reid Congress in 2009. It’s been languishing in committee for months now. With France raising its minimum wage, Spanish banks seeking yet more bailout funds, pro-bailout parties taking charge in Greece, and the very future of the Eurozone in doubt, it is time for the U.S. to reclaim any unspent taxpayer dollars before they too are wasted.

“There is no doubt that unless Congress takes action U.S. taxpayers will continue to prop up Europe. Already, U.S. lending through the IMF has topped $32.7 billion, with bailouts in Europe accounting for most of that at over $24 billion.

“Nobody believes the IMF even has enough firepower to prop up all of Europe anyway. Not even the European Central Bank as presently composed does. And with Germany ruling out both Eurobonds and fiscal union, the only other solution will eventually be a break-up of the Eurozone. U.S. taxpayers should have no part in throwing good money after bad trying to prop up something that cannot be saved.

“Yet Chairman Bachus still has not sent legislation to the floor that would rescind the additional $108 billion of funding to the IMF. Why? His inaction on this legislation puts him in the camp of helping France increase its minimum wage, of propping up Spanish banks, and trying to save socialist Greece from its own excesses. This bill must be put to the floor immediately for an up or down vote, and then sent to the Senate, before any more money is poured down the drain.”

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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June 22, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement questioning whether or not our president will comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare:

“Obama’s radical implementation of the DREAM Act, granting legal status to perhaps one million illegal immigrants, without any vote in Congress is just the latest in a long line of usurpations.  Whether one agrees with the DREAM Act or not, we should all agree that no president is above the law.

“Obama is governing by his will alone and it raises a question over whether he will abide by the Supreme Court’s imminent ruling on Obamacare should it be struck down.  If he believes he can make law without Congress, why wouldn’t he also believe he can act in direct contravention of a Supreme Court decision?  Will he comply?

We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis, and how far out of control it gets appears to be up to Obama.  We the people must bind him to the Constitution and the rule of law, or else constitutional processes must be used to bring him in line.  He is out of control.”

Attachments:

“Obama the Usurper” by Bill Wilson, Feb. 10, 2012

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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June 21, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the elevation of Rebecca Blank to acting secretary of the Commerce Department:

“The Obama Commerce Department is a case study of why it is so important to fight bad nominees at the secondary level. Had Obama gotten his way, the Acting Secretary would now be Terry Garcia — someone so radical Green he makes Van Jones look like the CEO of Dow Chemical. He was so bad he couldn’t even get a vote.

“Now, with John Bryson resigning under very unusual circumstances, who replaces him? Rebecca Blank. The best Obama could come up with to head the Commerce Department is someone who does not even believe in the private sector.

“All of this is just an admission of why the Department should just be abolished, and its pieces scattered into wind. But more so it is a warning to Senate Republicans to closely scrutinize every single nominee and block as necessary, especially these deputies, who you never know when they’re going to be elevated.”

Attachments:

ALG Nominee Alert, Rebecca Blank, Dec. 2011, at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Rebecca-Blank-NomineeAlert.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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June 21, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the sorry state of the U.S. economy:

“Obama’s recession is undeniable. With U.S. manufacturing contracting for the second straight month, Chinese manufacturing also declining, home sales down, home prices still in the toilet, unemployment still way too high, job growth slipping, retail and factory orders down, and Europe melting into a puddle of bad debt, the signs are unmistakable. The U.S. economy, indeed the global economy, is severely slowing down.

“Despite $3.4 trillion of fiscal and monetary stimulus since Obama took office, we are in our sorry state. No matter how much the Fed twists and turns, no matter how many trillion dollar deficits Congress runs, the classic Keynesian and monetarist prescriptions have failed to restore the robust, sustainable economic growth that is needed to get America back to work. Obama and Bernanke are powerless to stop this contraction, and have been relegated to no more than passive observers of our decline.

“The trouble we face in the Obama economy is that the debt overhang, both public and private, is diverting resources away from expanding the private sector.  We cannot even honestly service our existing debt without a printing press. Because Obama never correctly identified debt as the problem, and instead resorted to gross expansion of debt and quantitative easing to cure the economy, he has only made things much, much worse.

“A slowdown caused by too much debt is now imminent. It is upon us. The only question is if the nation will find a way to pare down and retire those public and private debts with honest repayment, instead of the de facto default of inflation. Already, papering over the debt is not working, and is only further diluting regular Americans’ ability to repay their own debts by causing prices to rise and expendable income to shrink. Make no mistake, true repayment will be a painful process, but the sooner it begins the better.

“But that is only part of the solution. Restoring sound money and balancing the budget is the key, but to lessen the pain involved, it must also be accompanied by supply-side tax policies, a dismantling of the worst regulatory environment in the world, and freeing up and incentivizing private capital formation here in the U.S. Only then can the long path to recovery and national healing begin. It is time for new leadership on the economy. Obama has failed miserably.”

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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June 21, 2012, Fairfax, VA–Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision in Knox v. SEIU, which determined that a state cannot require its employees to pay a special union fee that will be spent for political purposes without first giving the employees information about the fee and a chance to object to it:

“It is simply an unconscionable violation of public employee worker rights for any state to compel their civil servants to pay special political fees into a union, so that union can pump that money into the pockets of politicians.  The Supreme Court got it 100 percent correct when they protected workers from this abuse.

“As the individual decisions of thousands of public employee union members have proven in Wisconsin who have stopped making union dues payments after they ceased to be compelled to do so, unions depend upon the state forcing people to join and pay dues.  When individual workers get to choose, they abandon the union and their big government agenda in droves.”

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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June 20, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned 5 Republican Senators for guaranteeing implementation of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation on coal emissions by voting against a resolution by Sen. James Inhofe that would have rescinded it:

“This is a tragic defeat. Enough Democrats voted with the Republicans to defeat the EPA’s crippling regulation against the coal industry, but then five GOP senators led by Lamar Alexander provided the margin of victory for the radical environmentalists. If all five had voted with their party, this regulation would have been defeated. Therefore, it is these five Republicans: Alexander, Ayotte, Brown, Collins, and Snowe who are responsible for the higher energy costs that will result from implementation of the EPA’s irresponsible war on coal.

“These five senators have undercut the message of job creation and growth being advanced by the Republican Party and its nominees this year.

“The EPA’s mercury emission regulations will require power plants be retrofitted with new technologies that cost billions of dollars to implement. Rather than going through that trouble, however, older coal-fired plants are simply being shut down, leading to a drop in demand, which then hurts miners who depend on coal for their livelihoods. These five senators now deserve the blame.”

5 Republican Senators who voted against Inhofe resolution: Lamar Alexander (TN), Kelly Ayotte (NH), Scott Brown (MA), Olympia Snowe (ME), and Susan Collins (ME)

Attachments:

ALG calls on Sen. Alexander to drop coal-killing bill, June 18, 2012 at http://getliberty.org/alg-calls-on-sen-alexander-to-drop-coal-killing-bill/

Letter to Sen. Lamar Alexander, June 18, 2012 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Letter-Alexander-Coal-6-18-12.pdf

Inhofe resolution overturning EPA regulation against coal mercury emissions vote imminent, June 15, 2012 at http://getliberty.org/inhofe-resolution-overturning-epa-regulation-against-coal-mercury-emissions-vote-imminent/

“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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