Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement in response to allegations by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 12 that the Obama-run Department of Labor has engaged in racial discrimination in their internal promotion policies dating back to 2009:

“It is the ultimate irony that Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is facing a union crisis at the Department he leads that is largely based upon racial discrimination claims built around the discredited disparate impact theory that he has long sought to impose on private employers.

“The racism claim from Labor’s public employee union local is based upon statistical analysis of job promotions rather than a critical look at the comparative candidates who were being considered.  Under Perez’s own enforcement of the law while at the Justice Department, the merits of individual candidates don’t matter, the only guideline for racial discrimination is if the correct proportion of each race and gender are represented.  Now, he faces a complaint that accuses his predecessor and many of his subordinates in the Department with being branded with the scarlet R of racist due to their promotion practices.

“Now Perez and Obama himself are being hoisted on the very petard they have been using as a cudgel against private employers.”

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

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Feb. 6, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement calling attention to documents uncovered by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp proving that the proposed IRS regulations against 501(c)(4)s were planned while the targeting of the tea party was ongoing, and not in response to that scandal in 2013 as the Obama administration has contended:

“President Obama can no longer hide behind his seemingly perpetual state of confusion over what is happening in his administration, as records now clearly show. The 2012 email released by Chairman Camp proves that the new IRS regulation restricting 501(c)(4) organizations’ political speech was not in response to the scandal targeting the tea party or any confusion about what (c)(4) regulations mean, but was devised well in advance.

“The IRS had a long-term plan to use its power to intimidate and stop small conservative groups from participating in the political process using the same tax-exempt status as groups like Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters that publish voter guides.

“Congress can no longer stand idly assuming good will from this administration and it must use its power of the purse including any extension of the debt ceiling to expressly prohibit the implementation of these new IRS rules designed to squelch First Amendment rights of Obama’s political opponents.”

Attachments:

“Camp Blasts Treasury & Lois Lerner for Developing 501(c)(4) Rules ‘Off-Plan’” Feb. 5, 2014 at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=369014

“Obama’s state of confusion on IRS underscores cover-up,” By ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, Feb. 5, 2014 at http://netrightdaily.com/2014/02/obamas-state-confusion-irs-underscores-cover/

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

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Jan. 31, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today praised Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) for directing the investigation of the IRS targeting of the tea party and other 501(c)4 organizations toward a November 2013 proposed rulemaking by the Treasury Department that will severely restrict the political speech of all 501(c)4s:

“House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp’s request for all documents related to the IRS rulemaking is a step in the right direction to stop these egregious regulations from taking effect.  The regulations would effectively legitimize the very IRS activity that resulted in the tea party targeting scandal of the past couple of years.  Chairman Camp’s request will help determine if the new regulations were driven more by politics than the law.”

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

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Jan. 22, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement blasting the Obama administration via then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for allegedly threatening Standard and Poor’s in 2011 when it downgraded U.S. debt:

“Standard and Poor’s sworn declaration that they were threatened by Obama Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in the wake of their downgrading U.S. debt makes the New Jersey bridge closure claims look like child’s play.  The worldwide economy depends upon S&P rating bond risks appropriately and the clear attempts to intimidate those who measure those risks by Obama’s henchman shows just how out of control this Administration has been since almost its inception.

“The President must be held accountable for these actions. This was an egregious abuse of power that calls into question not only our creditworthiness, but the lengths the Obama administration will go to in order to hide the truth about our coming fiscal ruin. Our $17.3 trillion debt is not going away, and threatening those who say it is a problem will not save us when the bill finally comes due.”

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

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Jan. 14, 2014, Faifax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement praising Senate Republicans for blocking an extension of unemployment benefits:

“It is refreshing that Senate Republicans have found the backbone to stop Harry Reid’s attempt to jam through a massive unemployment insurance extension spending increase without making the necessary cuts to pay for it.  It is time for Congress to have an honest discussion about Obama policies, including Obamacare and runaway environmental regulations, that are exasperating this long-term unemployment crisis, rather than just passing the buck on to future taxpayers.

“Currently, those who have the misfortune of being unemployed receive more than six months of benefits, and with the Obama Administration’s Labor Department reporting that the unemployment rate has shrunk to 6.7 percent, it just may be time to end the extension altogether.”

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

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 January 10, 2014, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens issued the following statement on December’s job numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“Another half a million people dropped out of the American labor force in December.  You can ignore every other statistic and spin coming out of this Administration about the job market, this is the only data point that matters.  That is a half million more dreams shattered as Americans give up on traditional, legal paths to economic success and wealth.

 ”Since Obama became president, the number of people who are considered to be in the civilian job eligible population has increased by just shy of eleven million people, but the number of people who have entered the work force has only increased by about 730 thousand people.  Quite simply our nation cannot survive when fewer than sixty six out a thousand working aged people are entering the workforce.  Of those sixty six who want a job, about five of them are unemployed.

“That is Obama’s economic legacy.  Political spin and economic shills can put whatever face they want on his economy, but any rational person can see, that this is not a sustainable model.  That is the takeaway from the December employment report, and it is ugly.”

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

Jan. 9, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement urging Senate Republicans to block cloture on a $6.4 billion three-month extension of unemployment benefits:

“It has been six years now of long-term unemployment benefit extensions, up to 99 weeks, then up to 73 weeks. In some instances individuals need only work a couple quarters to qualify for benefits, receiving far more than they ever paid into the system. Is that fair? That makes these long-term unemployment benefits extensions not any sort of insurance, but a debt-creating welfare program.

“It shouldn’t be renewed at all, since it is only treating the symptoms of what ails the economy. Instead, the Senate should be working at undoing the policies that are really holding the economy back and preventing people from finding work.

“That said, if it is renewed, it better be paid for. And not with spending cuts that occur years from now, but with cuts that occur this fiscal year. If the Senate wants to increase spending on extended unemployment benefits by $6.4 billion in 2014, then members should find $6.4 billion of spending cuts in this fiscal year. Anything less will be a fiscally irresponsible failure that adds to the debt and will do nothing to help people get back to work.”

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

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Jan. 7, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement urging Senate rejection of Debo Adegbile as the next Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division:

“The Senate should reject Debo Adegbile from being confirmed as the next Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

“Adegbile is best known as the man who headed the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s voluntary racial assault on the integrity of a dead Philadelphia police office in a quest to get his murderer off of death row.

“The attack on the character of the dead, defenseless officer was so egregious that the Fraternal Order of Police has come out against the nomination writing:

‘We are aware of the tried and true shield behind which activists of Adegbile’s ilk are wont to hide – that everyone is entitled to a defense; but surely you would agree that a defense should not be based upon falsely disparaging and savaging the good name and reputation of a lifeless police officer.  Certainly any legal scholar can see the injustice and absence of ethics in this cynical race-baiting approach to our legal system.’

“Adegbile has also supported Equal Employment Opportunity Commission efforts to prevent the usage of criminal background checks to screen potential new hires.  As the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Office, Adegbile would be in a position to bring legal action against employers who engaged in the commonsense practice of ensuring that convicted thieves weren’t hired to oversee inventory or rapists weren’t serving as parking attendants.

“The nomination of Adegbile is an affront to the concept of moving toward a non-racial society, and he should be rejected on a bi-partisan basis by the United States Senate.”

Attachments:

Nominee Alert for Debo Adegbile, Americans for Limited Government, Jan. 7, 2014 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Debo-Adegbile-NomineeAlert-January-2014.pdf

Letter of Opposition to Debo Adegbile, National Fraternal Order of Police, Jan. 6, 2014 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/FOP-Opposition-to-Adegbile-Nomination.pdf

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

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Jan. 7, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement condemning Senate action to extend unemployment benefits by $6.4 billion for 3 months, including the votes of six Republican senators, Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine), Bob Portman (Ohio), Dean Heller (Nev.), and Dan Coats (Ind.) who helped Democrats get to the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture:

“These six Senate Republicans that voted with Democrats to extend unemployment benefits are doing nothing to lift the economy out of its continued doldrums, and are only feeding the Obama Administration’s class warfare agenda. Instead of treating the symptoms, it is time to begin undoing the policies that are really holding the economy back and preventing people from finding work.

“It has been six years since the financial crisis and the recession that followed, and yet here we are still acting as if it is 2008. In total unemployment benefits have been extended 11 times since 2008. Meanwhile, the government has done nothing to get out of the way of the economy and let it grow.

“Instead, Washington, D.C. has piled on an excess of regulations via the EPA’s carbon endangerment finding, new industry takeovers via Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, and a diversion of investment resources away from the private sector to government bonds by running such high deficits.”

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

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Dec. 19, 2013, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government today launched studentfirstnews.com, a website dedicated to raising awareness of alternative education options across the country. The group’s president, Nathan Mehrens, issued the following statement about the new project:

“Studentfirstnews.com is dedicated to promoting alternatives to the current failed education system, whether its private school choice, charter schools, or magnet schools within the public system. We’re going to let the American people know who is fighting for students first. We’re going to name names and pull no punches against those who are desperate to keep the current disaster in our schools in place just to service a few narrow interests, leaving our children as pawns in a high stakes game competing for tax dollars.

“We need more alternatives in our schools, not an inquisition into those fighting the good fight against a corrupt, failing system. It’s time we put students first and put an end to the nonsense that prevails in the education establishment that clings to the status quo that is failing our children.”

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

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