Archives for May 2015

May 29, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to a House Republican aide who told Politico, “The more time it hangs out there, the more third parties on the right will dig in and wavering members will go the wrong way” on fast track:

“It is clear that House leadership recognizes the growing unpopularity of fast tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Ignoring the implications of trusting Obama to negotiate a treaty that in the President’s own words, ‘writes this century’s rules for the world’s economy’ is both dangerous and irresponsible. We urge members to listen to their constituents and make it clear to leadership that no vote is better than a bad vote on a treaty that will permanently harm America.”

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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May 28, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging opposition to the separate customs bill and trade authority facing Congress that will allow human rights abusers to receive favorable economic treatment by the U.S. in international trade:

“Congress is looking to whitewash the horrors of mass graves and religious persecution in Trans-Pacific Partnership nations like Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam through passage of a separate customs bill which would allow human rights abusers to get the most favorable economic treatment from the U.S. available in the world. It is this exact kind of legislative maneuvering and chicanery that has caused universal disgust with Congress and Washington, D.C., where both parties engage in cynical deal making to avoid confronting real evil.

“The Senate unanimously indicated concern about religious freedom in an amendment to fast track legislation, and additionally there are provisions barring Malaysia, a slave trafficking regime, from participating in the trade agreement. The upcoming customs bill wipes out these provisions through a simple wave of Obama’s pen certifying that the human rights abusers are trying to do better.

“We all know Obama will ignore any language directing him to enforce the trade agreement, proving trade authority will not worth the paper it is printed on. Even if trade authority says no Malaysia, he’ll put Malaysia in. Amendments that have no real power over what Obama puts into the Trans-Pacific Partnership or who participates in it, provide political cover with no practical binding impact. If House members are truly concerned about the human rights atrocities of our trading partners they must reject fast tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“The time to amend the Trans-Pacific Partnership is after Obama submits it when Congress has the real power of two-thirds Senate ratification. Attempts to amend the trade deal through fast track depend upon Obama’s good will. If there’s one lesson Congress should have learned by now, it’s that Obama doesn’t care what they think.”

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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May 27, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement that Definition of “Waters of the United States” Under the Clean Water Act regulation will be finalized shortly:

“The rule just adopted by the EPA will regulate all waters of the United States under the terms of the Clean Water Act, something that was never intended by the statute. The Supreme Court has twice struck down agency attempts to do precisely this, but what do these administrative state agencies care about court rulings or what the law actually says? We have been playing regulatory whack-a-mole with the EPA for decades. This is just the latest dictate from an agency that simply does whatever it pleases. Here we go again. Now it will once again be up to federal courts to safeguard the rule of law and protect all Americans from a regulatory regime so severe it will claim dominion over every puddle on their properties and threaten the viability of U.S. agriculture.”

Attachments:

“Clean Water Act regulatory whack-a-mole hurts farmers,” By Robert Romano, February 20, 2015 at http://netrightdaily.com/2015/02/clean-water-act-regulatory-whack-mole-hurts-farmers/

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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May 27, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to reports that the L.A. County Federation of Labor is seeking an exemption from the $15 an hour minimum wage law they advocated:

“It is almost criminal that the very labor union leaders who have urged the Los Angeles City Council to destroy thousands of jobs in their successful campaign to raise the City’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, now are asking that union jobs be exempted from the wage law.

“This tacit admission that the minimum wage law pushed by the L.A. County Federation of Labor is bad for business and will lead to the elimination of jobs is Kafkaesque in its cynicism. Apparently labor leaders have given up on convincing workers to join unions and now seek to convince employers to embrace the sub-minimum wage that they promise to deliver should they get their special carve out.

“In light of this demand to allow unions to negotiate and maintain sub-minimum wages, the City should reconsider and abandon their $15 an hour minimum wage folly.”

Note: Rick Manning is a former resident of Los Angeles and a graduate of the University of Southern California, the largest employer in the City.

Attachments:

“L.A. labor leaders seek minimum wage exemption for firms with union workers,” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2015 at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-los-angeles-minimum-wage-unions-20150526-story.html

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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May 27, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to reports that the House of Representative may strip out anti-slavery provisions in the fast track legislation:

“The Senate-passed version of trade authority legislation explicitly bars Malaysia from joining the trade agreement due their official U.S. State Department certification as human slave traffickers. And now the issue of slavery has been dumped in the laps of House Republicans, who must choose between their legacy as the party of Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, and their corporate crony funders. There is simply no excuse for the party of Lincoln to gut provisions that bar Obama’s deal with a nation that his own administration has certified to be slave traders. This gives a whole new meaning to Obama’s ‘trade’ deal, and is just one additional reason why Congress should reject fast tracking the agreement.”

Attachments:

State Department analysis states Malaysia is “a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking,” annual report on trafficking in persons submitted under section 110(b)(1) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, at http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2014/226770.htm

“Obama takes unexpected setback on trade agenda as fast track passes Senate,” May 24, 2015, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/22/senate-passes-fast-track_n_7425614.html

“America’s first black president throwing slaves under the bus on TPP,” May 27, 2015 at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/05/americas-first-black-president-throwing-slaves-under-the-bus-on-tpp.html

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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May 21, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to the Senate vote advancing fast track legislation granting trade authority to President Barack Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

“The Senate vote was never in question. The battle has always been in the House. Every day, House leaders like Jim Jordan and Jeff Duncan step forward opposed it. 8 Republican presidential aspirants have come out against the trade deal. Everything points to a stinging defeat in the House of President Obama’s disastrous attempt to rewrite the rules of the world’s economy.”

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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May 20, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the U.S. Senate to reject cloture on granting trade authority to President Barack Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

“It is absurd to rush the close of debate on efforts to fast track a trade deal that is enormous, long-lasting, and will have a negative impact on America. Ultimately, the trade agreement will do nothing about currency manipulation overseas, the most important trade issue facing U.S. exporters, workers, and consumers. Whether you support or oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, senators should reject giving short shrift to legitimate debate and real amendments to the agreement.”

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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May 19, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to a 92 to 0 vote in the Senate to “establish consideration of the conditions relating to religious freedom of parties to trade negotiations as an overall negotiating objective of the United States”:

“The unanimous vote in favor of our trading partners respecting the religious freedom of their residents highlights the futility of the fast track amending process, as if the Senate alone was voting to abolish Sharia law. Brunei, one of the eleven trading partners in the soon to be completed Trans-Pacific Partnership, practices Sharia law, and this amendment will not do a thing to stop it. Senators can support these show votes all they want, but ultimately, they must reject fast track because all of these amendments highlight very good reasons to reject the deal, and none of them will alleviate those concerns.”

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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May 18, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Senate Republicans to reconsider their support of granting trade promotion authority to President Barack Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade agreements in light of more Republican presidential aspirants coming out against the deal:

“With Chris Christie now coming out against fast track, joining presidential aspirants Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham and Mike Huckabee, it is clear that Republican voters are dead set opposed to granting trade authority to President Obama. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are risking seats in 2016 in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to get the legislation passed, jeopardizing any majority in the Senate a new Republican president might enjoy, and making it harder to win the states he or she will need in order to even get to the White House.”

Attachments:

Chris Christie comes out against trade authority for Obama on Laura Ingraham Show, May 13, 2015 at http://www.lauraingraham.com/b/Chris-Christie-Comes-Out-Swinging-Against-Obama-Rubio-Fast-Track-And-Foreign-Workers/310818663719163797.html

Ingraham: What’s your take on giving Obama this fast track trade authority, this is a huge issue in Congress right now. A lot of Republicans are working with Obama although they didn’t campaign on doing that but know they are working with Obama on this issue. What is your take on that?

Christie: Well listen, I’ve said that the only way I would give fast track trade authority to a president, was if it was a president that could actually trust and negotiate well, and after watching the way this president has negotiated with folks in Iran. I have real concerns about giving this president the ability to negotiate on his own. I believe in general in giving the executive more authority to negotiate trade agreements, I have real concern on giving this president executive trade authority.

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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