Archives for December 2012

Dec. 28, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging the Senate to finally act on legislation that would actually avert the fiscal cliff of tax increases on every single American:

“Although the Senate has passed legislation that would affect tax rates at the start of the new year, the bill itself is unconstitutional, as S. 3412 never originated in the House of Representatives. Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution requires that ‘All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.’ House Speaker John Boehner could not act on this bill, or amend it, even if he wanted to due to this constitutional delegation of authority.

“The Senate has been provided many pieces of legislation by the House, such as H.R. 8, that it could lawfully amend or pass, allowing the Senate and House to convene a conference committee to resolve differences. That is how constitutionally a bill becomes law.

“What can be inferred from Senate Democrats’ refusal to act on any House legislation to avert the fiscal cliff is that Harry Reid has every intention of raising taxes on every American one way or another.  Or else he would have simply amended an H.R. bill, like the Senate did to pass Obamacare, to include his preferred resolution to the fiscal cliff.

“Obama, who has failed to demand the Senate take further action, is therefore complicit in increasing taxes on all Americans. Even if the House did pass S. 3412, as many Senators have demanded, and the President signed it, it would later be held to be unconstitutional, and then everyone’s taxes would go up anyway. Reid and Obama know this. They want to go over the cliff.

“The House has done its job. Now it is up to the Senate to take up H.R. 8 and pass it or amend it. The Senate need not agree with everything the House has done, but Reid’s method of averting the fiscal cliff would not pass muster in a basic civics class, let alone a court of law.”

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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Dec. 21, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to the failure in the House of the Plan B tax increase:

“Nobody takes any joy in the embarrassing failure of Speaker Boehner’s Plan B tax increase, but he was willing to trade the only brand Republicans have as the anti-tax party—in exchange for nothing.

“Now his only salvation is to rally his conference around a strategy that ensures the American economy will be on sound footing in 2013. When Congress returns after the New Year, the only legislation considered by the House should contain permanent tax relief for all Americans, accepts the sequester cuts, defunds Obamacare, and includes a 1-to-1 ratio of $1 trillion of immediate spending cuts for a $1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling.

“The House will have acted responsibly in the face of Obama’s desire to go over the cliff. The least they can do is ensure there are no more such cliffs in the future, and that this will never happen again. If House Republicans can find the courage to lead, the American people will follow.”

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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Dec. 20, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in response to the rejection by the House Rules Committee of the Jordan-Scalise-Mulvaney alternative to the Plan B tax increase:

“We are disappointed that the House Rules Committee will not be allowing a vote on the Jordan-Scalise-Mulvaney alternative to the Speaker’s Plan B. In light of this decision, we urge a no vote on the Speaker’s Plan B tax increase.”

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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Dec. 20, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging the House of Representatives to support an amendment to the Speaker’s Plan B bill:

 “Republicans must not fall into the trap of increasing taxes and doing nothing to cut spending. The Jordan-Scalise-Mulvaney amendment to the House bill will make tax relief permanent for all Americans, averting the fiscal cliff, and address the dire state of the nation’s finances through real spending reductions.

“The Senate is going to reject the so-called Plan B anyway. The House might as well give them something that actually solves the real problem—which is spending—instead of a tax increase on job creators that will wreck the economy and drive investment overseas. Even if Plan B passes the House, everyone’s taxes are still going to go up at the end of the year, and Republicans will still get blamed if we go over the cliff.

“Republicans are missing an opportunity to lead the nation on real fiscal reform. There should not be a single tax increase on any American when the government will be borrowing $1 trillion every year for the rest of our lifetimes until we can no longer afford to service it. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, conservatives and Republicans need to raise the banner of bold colors, not pale pastels.”

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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Dec. 17, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today thanked 32 states for not implementing a state-run health insurance exchange under Obamacare:

“32 states representing 63 percent of the population, a clear majority Americans, are to be praised for rejecting state exchanges under Obamacare. Because federal exchanges lack statutory authority to issue insurance subsidies and enforce the employer mandate, businesses in these states now will have the chance to challenge these regulations in court.

“This will help protect job creators from penalties and other costs under the law’s employer mandate, affording them a competitive advantage over those which have state exchanges. This is a wholesale rejection of Obamacare at the state level.”

States with federal exchanges:

ALABAMA
ALASKA
ARIZONA
FLORIDA
GEORGIA
INDIANA
KANSAS
LOUISIANA
MAINE
MISSOURI
MONTANA
NEBRASKA
NEW HAMPSHIRE
NEW JERSEY
NORTH DAKOTA
OHIO
OKLAHOMA
PENNSYLVANIA
SOUTH CAROLINA
SOUTH DAKOTA
TENNESSEE
TEXAS
VIRGINIA
WISCONSIN
WYOMING

States establishing partnerships:

ARKANSAS
DELAWARE
IOWA
ILLINOIS
MICHIGAN
NORTH CAROLINA
WEST VIRGINIA

Attachments:

“Why governors should not implement state insurance exchanges under Obamacare,” By Bill Wilson, Nov. 14, 2012, at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/11/why-governors-should-not-implement-state-insurance-exchanges-under-obamacare/

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

 

Dec. 12, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Taxpayers are footing the bill for thirty five union officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation, which spent $4.8 million dollars in union salaries in 2012, paying an average salary of $138,175 per year according to a report released by Americans for Limited Government today.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association accounted for twenty one of the taxpayer funded employees with eight people making in excess of $170,000 a year.

Of the thirty five, only three make less than $100,000 a year, with the lone National Federation of Federal Employees representative registering the low annual union salary of $80,748.

Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government questioned why taxpayers are paying union salaries at all saying, “It is obscene that in one Department alone, taxpayers are being stuck with almost $5 million in public employee union salary costs, these unions collect member dues and should pay for their own employees.”

Labor unions have become increasingly dependent upon the public employee sector as their presence in the private sector has fallen to near record lows with fewer than 7 percent of non-government employees belonging to a union.  While private sector union membership has collapsed, government union membership has grown so rapidly that more than 50 percent of AFL-CIO membership is now comprised of public employees.

This shift explains organized labor’s increased stridence against reasonable measures to rein in government spending, as they are one of the chief beneficiaries of larger government payrolls.

The scrutiny of taxpayer funding of labor union employees’ salaries comes on the heels of historic losses for Big Labor in the states of Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin in 2012.  These losses in formerly heavily unionized rust belt states signal that organized labor will be even more dependent upon their federal public employee base for the dues money that fuels their political clout.

“Big Labor has been a primary financier for the far left advocates of expanded government, it is time for elected officials to cut off the gravy train of having the taxpayers pay for union salaries.  It is simply wrong for American workers who have a median household income of just more than $50,000, to pay the freight for non-productive government workers who make more than two and a half times that amount,” Wilson concluded.

The report on Transportation Department union employee salaries was created using Department responses to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Americans for Limited Government.  The FOIA history can be found at www.algfoiafiles.com.

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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Dec. 11, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising the Michigan House of Representatives for passing right-to-work legislation that leaves it up to workers whether or not they wish to join a union when hired:

“The Michigan House of Representatives passage of right-to-work legislation is a momentous step forward for worker rights.  The tyranny of having to pay dues to a labor union just to be able to have a job is being ended in the state that is most synonymous with the labor movement.  In this case, the symbolism is reality.

“With fewer than 7 percent of all privately employed workers belonging to labor unions, the far left movement is taking its last gasping breaths.  Out of their death rattle, it is not shocking to hear those who cling to the past, making threats like the one heard in the Michigan House chamber that, ‘there will be blood’ when the bill becomes law.  These kinds of threats are the norm for Big Labor, but today in Michigan, they ring hollow, as the people and their elected officials have decided to give workers a choice of whether to pay union dues.

“History shows that when workers have this choice, they reject union membership as being irrelevant, and that is why Big Labor is in a state of shock.  If they can lose Michigan, they have lost not only the battle, but the entire war.”

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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Dec. 7, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on November’s unemployment rate:

“122,000 fewer Americans had jobs in November than in October, yet the government reports that the unemployment rate declined to 7.7 percent.  This simple fact is why the unemployment rate has become one of the least relevant economic statistics that the federal government releases.  Instead of being a benchmark for the nation’s employment situation, Instead of being a benchmark for the nation’s employment situation, the unemployment rate has become nothing more than a statistical anomaly.  Anyone who continues to take it seriously as a meaningful measure of our nation’s economy is either fooling themselves or trying to fool others.”

Below is the data from Schedule A of the Labor Department unemployment report (bolding added for emphasis):

Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted

HOUSEHOLD DATA
Summary table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted

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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Dec. 5, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today praised Sen. Lindsey Graham’s warning to the Obama Administration that congressional Republicans are “not going to raise the debt ceiling ever againuntil we address what got us in debt, and that’s government spending and entitlement growth.”

“All Americans should thank Sen. Graham for taking such a strong stand. Americans for Limited Government urges his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate to follow his lead,” Wilson said, noting that without an increase in the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling, “Obama’s second term will be on hold.”

Graham’s call to action was heard on the nationally-syndicated Sean Hannity program on Dec. 4.

“By Sen. Graham’s own word, there will be no additional debt until this rogue administration is reined in. That is the right position for any responsible legislator to take. We need real reform now,” Wilson said, calling for the debt ceiling to be tied to making tax relief permanent, enacting entitlement reform, and balancing the budget within 10 years.

Graham, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, took Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to task for proposing that Congress eliminate the debt ceiling all together. “Suggesting that we never have a say about raising the debt limit again, that it be raised in perpetuity, when it’s a constitutional requirement that Congress only can borrow money, shows to me that he’s trying to create a situation for unlimited power rather than bipartisanship,” Graham said.

Wilson called Graham “absolutely correct,” adding “the debt limit is the one check on the government’s power to borrow unlimited amounts of money. It is time Congress use that check against Obama before it is too late.”

“Obama wants an unlimited credit card. Instead, Republicans should freeze his account,” Wilson charged.

The debt ceiling was last raised in August 2011 by $2.1 trillion, the largest such increase ever, and the Obama Administration has burnt through all of that in just 16 months.

By 2022, the national debt will soar to $26 trillion under the current baseline.

Wilson concluded, “Left unchecked, the debt will consume us. This is the hill for Republicans stand and fight on. It’s now or never to rein in unchecked government borrowing, before the debt is so large it cannot be refinanced, let alone repaid and drowns out any chance at real growth and prosperity.”

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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(Washington, DC – December 3, 2012) Apparently, gas isn’t expensive enough yet-at least for one environmental interest group that is now suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to force the creation of Cap-and-Trade. The Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law last week told EPA to expect the lawsuit.

“They want to make cheap energy expensive, so that expensive energy will seem cheap,” said Ryan Houck, executive director of Free Market America.

“We’ve seen this play before, and inventing fictitious markets that traffic imaginary products is bad enough. But asking the EPA to assume quasi-legislative powers so that it can unilaterally enact Cap-in-Trade is a deeply troubling step, even for radical environmentalists. Proponents of this lawsuit absurdly cite Hurricane Sandy as a reason for Cap-and-Trade.

But what Hurricane Sandy truly illustrates is the human hardship that results from communities losing power and fuel. This measure aims to render Sandy’s fuel shortages and soaring energy prices commonplace.”

Politico posted its story on this backdoor Cap-and-Trade lawsuit late last week. It can read here<http://www.politico.com/story/2012/11/84346.html>.

Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government expressed concern that, “This lawsuit is nothing more than a pretext for the EPA to continue expanding their power through ginned up judicial actions.”

The practice of using litigation to enact policy has become commonplace on environmental matters.

Here’s how it works: Environmental interests sue the EPA to compel a particular policy outcome (such as “Cap-and-Trade”).

Sympathetic bureaucrats (who often have ties to the litigants) gleefully settle the suit, and agree to enact new policies without bothering with nasty details like “Congress.” For more information (and for examples), click here<http://www.freemarketamerica.org/free-market-flashpoints/the-sue-and-settle-formula.html>.

Free Market America is a project of Americans for Limited Government that produced the 2.6 million-hit viral video, “If I wanted America to Fail,” http://www.freemarketamerica.org/free-market-flashpoints/if-i-wanted-america-to-fail.html  which debuted on Earth Day earlier this year.

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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