Archives for April 2015

April 30, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to House Speaker Rep. John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) statement that “I support any plan that the chairman [Hensarling] can get through his committee, whether it would reform the bank, wind it down. But there are thousands of jobs on the line that would disappear pretty quickly if the Ex-Im Bank were to disappear. So I have told the chairman he needs to come up with a plan, because the risk is that if he does nothing the Senate is likely to act, and then what?”:

“Congress need take no action to unwind the Ex-Im bank, because existing law already provides for the orderly liquidation of the bank. A lapse of authority will simply mean the bank’s operations continue until all existing obligations are settled. It will continue collecting interest payments to maintain those operations. Why would the House pass such a redundant piece of legislation?

“We urge Chairman Hensarling to do all that is necessary to unwind the bank in an orderly manner, which is absolutely nothing.”

Attachments:

12 U.S.C. §635f – Termination date of Bank’s functions; exceptions; liquidation at https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/635f :  “Export-Import Bank of the United States shall continue to exercise its functions in connection with and in furtherance of its objects and purposes until the close of business on September 30, 2014, but the provisions of this section shall not be construed as preventing the bank from acquiring obligations prior to such date which mature subsequent to such date or from assuming prior to such date liability as guarantor, endorser, or acceptor of obligations which mature subsequent to such date or from issuing, either prior or subsequent to such date, for purchase by the Secretary of the Treasury or any other purchasers, its notes, debentures, bonds, or other obligations which mature subsequent to such date or from continuing as a corporate agency of the United States and exercising any of its functions subsequent to such date for purposes of orderly liquidation, including the administration of its assets and the collection of any obligations held by the bank.”

“Export-Import Bank: Overview and Reauthorization Issues,” By Shayerah Ilias Akhtar , Congressional Research Service, March 25, 2015 at http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43581.pdf: “[A]ccording to Ex-Im Bank, if its authority were to lapse, no new commitments (including new loan, guarantee, or insurance transactions) could be approved by its Board of Directors or under delegated authority, but prior obligations (including disbursements on already-approved final commitments) could continue. The Bank could continue to make expenditures in its operations (including salary, rent, etc.), while developing a plan for orderly liquidation.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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April 29, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the poor first quarter GDP numbers in recent years:

“It’s not the weather, stupid, it’s the economy. From 1996 to 2005, first quarter economic growth averaged 2.55 percent, whereas from 2006 to 2015, first quarter economic growth averaged just 0.03 percent. The common denominator here is not the weather, but the fact that the economy started to turn downward in the second half of the 2000s and still has not recovered. We didn’t suddenly start having winters when the Great Recession occurred. Dispense with the bull market spin.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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April 29, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to the Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s address to a joint session of Congress:

“Monetary policy is the primary mechanism for pricing goods and services by nations, and any trade agreement that ignores this fact is no trade agreement at all. John Boehner has chosen to highlight this great flaw of the Trans-Pacific Partnership by inviting the key opponent of a monetary accord to speak in favor of an agreement — that primarily benefits Japan. The U.S. Congress is not a venue for foreign powers to influence the outcome of a treaty to which they are a party, and particularly one which ignores the two-thirds Senate majority necessary for constitutional ratification.

“Anyone who has driven on the roads the past thirty years knows that trade with Japan is already robust, with about $300 billion of total trade between our two nations every year. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is not necessary for there to be trade with Japan. Yet, any commercial treaty could and should include monetary policy. Monetary policy is trade policy, and should Congress and the president continue to ignore the elephant in the room, Americans who work for a living will continue to pay the price.

“The failure to include monetary policy in the Trans-Pacific Partnership is yet one more reason we urge members to oppose granting trade promotion authority to the president.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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April 24, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, to investigate the Clinton Foundation’s ties to the Russian company, Uranium One, which donated millions to the foundation, seemingly in exchange for a lucrative U.S. uranium contract:

“Loretta Lynch’s first act as Attorney General should be to launch a full-scale investigation of the Clinton Foundation’s ties to the Russian company, Uranium One. The appearance that Hillary Clinton sold approvals to foreign governments puts a stain on every foreign policy decision she made as Secretary of State. The national security team had to know about this, and went along with it, and the notion that President Obama knew nothing is simply unbelievable. Our national security is now for sale.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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April 22, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting a Wall Street Journal oped by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in favor of granting trade promotion authority to President Barack Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

“It is more than disappointing that a man who made his career in Washington, D.C. arguing against the abuse of power by the executive branch would now choose to cede power to that very branch of government which he seeks to lead.

“Trade promotion authority via an executive-legislative branch agreement is an unconstitutional fabrication of the modern administrative state, something Senator Ted Cruz is well aware of. Prior to the Trade Act of 1974 and the New Deal before that, nothing like trade promotion authority can be found anywhere in the constitutional framework surrounding the treaty making process. Cruz has naïvely bought into the idea that Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution can be averted by simple majorities of both houses to adopt an international trade treaty.

“Meanwhile, real trade treaties, such as the United Kingdom Commerce and Navigation Treaty of 1815, which was a free trade agreement, required a two-thirds Senate majority to be ratified. The only thing that has changed between then and now is the modern Senate’s reckless disregard for constitutional, limited government and the rule of law. Ted Cruz should know better.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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April 21, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in opposition to trade promotion authority for President Barack Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

“Proponents of the Pacific trade deal face irreconcilable problems that on one hand, they bemoan Obama’s executive regulatory overreach in areas like amnesty, Obamacare, and Net Neutrality, yet, they claim that Congress should cede to the same president an enormous grant of power that eviscerates the advice and consent treaty ratification process. You can’t be pro-Constitution with one press release and in favor of shredding it in the next and call yourself a constitutional conservative.

“It is also almost become a standard talking point for conservative groups that President Obama’s foreign policy has been a disaster, with the China climate deal treaty, the Iran nuclear treaty, and the opening of Cuba serving as prime examples of this president’s failure to stand up as the leader of the free world. Yet, some conservative groups are willing to trust this same failed president to negotiate the rules for the world economy without even the ability to read the treaty that he’s negotiating. This is either abject naiveté or willful blindness of the goals of Obama’s multinational, corporate partners who helped him make the deal.

“What’s more, the big lie that fast track legislation allows Congress to have input in the treaty-making process should never be repeated again. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is 99 percent completed after almost 5 years of negotiations. The time for a fast track bill might have been at the beginning of that process, not at its conclusion.

“Finally, Obama is under no legal compunction to do anything that Congress requests. The proof lies in the rejection by his of a demand by the majority of the Senate and House to include currency manipulation language in the trade deal, creating an avenue for China to dock into the trade agreement at a later date without ever reconciling their supposed currency manipulation. The key trade issue between the U.S. and China and other nations is currency and price competition.”

Attachments:

Americans for Limited Government letter to Rep. Tom Emmer opposing fast track, Feb. 25, 2015 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/LettertoEmmerandHouseGOP2-25-15.pdf

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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April 16, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement to the announcement that trade promotion authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be tied to passage of trade adjustment assistance for the same deal:

“Orrin Hatch and Paul Ryan have just agreed to passing trade adjustment authority as precondition to getting Democrat votes for fast track trade promotion authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Congressional Republicans should reject this big labor giveaway, which puts the GOP in the untenable position of funding organized labor in order to get to 60 votes in the Senate on the trade deal. It is time to put a stake through the heart of Obama’s fast track dreams, and deny him the opportunity to rewrite the economic rules of the world.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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April 13, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the imminent introduction of legislation in the Senate that would grant Obama fast track trade promotion authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

“It is hard to imagine that a political party could have more of a death wish than Senate Republicans are exhibiting as they plummet forward with consideration of giving President Obama fast track trade authority for a managed trade agreement.

“Here is what Brent Bozell, conservative leader from ForAmerica says about fast track, ‘There is no way that Congress should trust President Obama with the enormous grant of constitutional authority that Trade Promotion Authority or ‘fast track’ represents, and it would be the height of insanity to reward Obama’s abuse of power over the past six years by giving him the pathway to rewrite the economic rules for the world. Any treaty Obama signs should be subjected to the full scrutiny demanded by the U.S. Constitution, that is why Congress should reject giving this President fast track trade authority.’

“The irony of fast track is that President Obama will gain the ability to rewrite the rules for the world’s economy through the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Republicans are united in opposition to the way President Obama has been using his pen and phone to expand the size and scope of government, yet Senator Hatch seems intent on allowing him to rewrite regulatory rules of the world overriding existing law.

“One example is the President’s inclusion of immigration law changes in the law in spite of the bi-partisan opposition to that approach. Passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership which is assured should fast track legislation become law, legally opens the doors for increased numbers of foreign white collar workers over Congress’ previous objections. This is why NumbersUSA has recently announced that it is urging a no vote on fast track legislation.

“What is most frustrating is that Hatch clings to the past notions and talking points about free trade in justifying handing this power over to Obama ignoring the obvious, the TransPacific Partnership is a regulatory deal, not a free trade deal. At best it is a managed trade deal where those multi-nationals who played ball with Obama politically in America got a seat at the table so their international interests were moved forward.

“This type of crony capitalism is resisted by Republicans in their rhetoric, but rubber stamped by anyone who supports giving this President fast track.

“Should Republicans make the mistake of passing fast track and then the Trans-Pacific Partnership, they will have handed Obama the pen to fundamentally change America, be attacked by labor unions and the Democratic Party for killing American jobs, and their corporate buddies will fund those ads with the dollars they push into the Democratic Party coffers to hedge their bets against a change in leadership.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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April 15, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting the U.S. Senate for voting not to pay for repealing the Medicare sustainable growth rate:

“The Senate Republican majority could not even do a measly $15 billion a year in spending cuts elsewhere in the budget to pay for the $141 billion Medicare so-called doc fix. It was a no brainer. If you’re going to blow a $141 billion hole in the deficit, you pay for it. Previous doc fixes had been paid for. Why not this one?

“It is sad to learn that the energetic promises from some Republicans in elections about cutting the size and scope of government are only valid when they are in the minority. It is time that their actions match their campaign rhetoric.”

Attachments:

Senators who voted against paying for the $141 billion doc fix at http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=114&session=1&vote=00139 :

Alexander (R-TN)

Baldwin (D-WI)

Bennet (D-CO)

Blumenthal (D-CT)

Booker (D-NJ)

Boxer (D-CA)

Brown (D-OH)

Cantwell (D-WA)

Capito (R-WV)

Cardin (D-MD)

Carper (D-DE)

Casey (D-PA)

Cassidy (R-LA)

Cochran (R-MS)

Collins (R-ME)

Coons (D-DE)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Donnelly (D-IN)

Durbin (D-IL)

Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)

Gillibrand (D-NY)

Graham (R-SC)

Hatch (R-UT)

Heinrich (D-NM)

Heitkamp (D-ND)

Heller (R-NV)

Hirono (D-HI)

Kaine (D-VA)

King (I-ME)

Klobuchar (D-MN)

Leahy (D-VT)

Manchin (D-WV)

Markey (D-MA)

McCaskill (D-MO)

McConnell (R-KY)

Menendez (D-NJ)

Merkley (D-OR)

Mikulski (D-MD)

Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)

Nelson (D-FL)

Perdue (R-GA)

Peters (D-MI)

Reed (D-RI)

Reid (D-NV)

Sanders (I-VT)

Schatz (D-HI)

Schumer (D-NY)

Shaheen (D-NH)

Stabenow (D-MI)

Tester (D-MT)

Tillis (R-NC)

Udall (D-NM)

Warner (D-VA)

Warren (D-MA)

Whitehouse (D-RI)

Wyden (D-OR)

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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A heretofore secret hearing is being held on a secret bill to enable expedited passage of a secret treaty. Only in D.C.

April 14, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to a Politico Pro report that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) would hold an April 16 hearing “regardless” of whether legislation granting trade promotion authority to President Barack Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been introduced:

“Senator Orrin Hatch apparently plans to hold a hearing that has not been officially announced on a trade promotion bill nobody has seen yet because it’s not finished, on a Pacific trade deal that nobody can read because it’s secret.

“Doubling down on Nancy Pelosi’s you’ll have to pass it to read it declaration on Obamacare, Senate Republicans are raising the absurdity that is Washington, D.C. by holding a Senate Finance Committee hearing on providing Obama fast track trade authority without the ability to even examine a bill. Fast track limits the constitutional requirement for treaty ratification to a simple majority rather than a two-thirds Senate vote requirement.

“The controversy is over a 99 percent completed trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. A trade deal which is so hush-hush that Obama officials limited briefings on environmental portions of it to staff with secret or above clearance levels. It is shameful that Republicans have not only backed away from requirements to have bills posted in advance of votes so the public has the opportunity to read them, but this new blind committee hearing process rivals the opaqueness of the Pelosi-Reid reign.”

Attachments:

“Hatch hopes for TPA bill tomorrow,” Politico Pro, April 14, 2015 at https://www.politicopro.com/go/?wbid=51642

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government Foundation at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG Foundation President Nathan Mehrens.

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