Archives for November 2010

November 11th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson sent a letter to each newly elected Republican Member of the House urging them to oppose Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) as Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

In his letter to the new Members, Wilson highlights Rep. Upton’s voting record as conflicting with the new Republican agenda. “Fred Upton’s voting record on key issues demonstrates his destructive support for the bailouts, the stimulus, and job-crippling green legislation that sends American jobs overseas. This combined with his opposition to repealing ObamaCare make him particularly unsuitable to Chair the one committee with primary jurisdiction over many of the most important issues facing our nation,” Wilson wrote.

In his letter, Wilson reminded the Members about the importance of electing committee chairs who represent the values of limited government, the platform that got them elected to the majority Nov. 2.

“As a newly elected member of Congress, you have a unique opportunity to let Republican leadership know that you want an Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman who agrees with the basic limited government ideas that brought about the greatest Republican victory in the House of Representatives since 1894,” wrote Wilson.

He finished his letter with this, “The entire direction of the next two years is being set during these organizing meetings, and Americans for Limited Government strongly encourages you to not allow this historic opportunity to get lost before you are even sworn in.”

Background:

Wilson’s Letter to New Members

Fred Upton’s Voting Record

GOP Must Choose Leaders Wisely

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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November 11th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the preliminary recommendations of the Obama deficit commission:

“The deficit commission does not contemplate a balanced budget until 2040. It never contemplates reducing the overall $13.7 trillion debt, which will continue to grow year-on-end. The American people want to pay down and retire the national debt, not continue to grow it. We don’t have 30 years to balance the budget.

“If Congress does not act to balance the budget and begin reducing the debt immediately, next year the Federal Reserve will become the number one holder of U.S. debt. Failure to act now will mean the debt will soar past 100 percent of the Gross Domestic Product in just a few short years. By 2018, if not sooner, our Triple-A credit rating will be downgraded. In fact, China has already taken the step of downgrading us.  The commission’s recommendations, if enacted today, would not prevent one of these things from happening, meaning higher costs to paying the debt in the future, and a weaker dollar. Ultimately, the dollar will lose its special status as the world’s reserve currency.

“By failing to outline the consequences of doing nothing, the commission starts out in exactly the wrong place. Because it does not contemplate the real problems posed by the unsustainable debt, it offers the wrong solutions. The commission focuses on gradually reducing the deficit, which is the wrong premise, when Congress needs to focus on reducing and eventually paying off the $13.7 trillion national debt. Before it has even presented its final findings, Obama’s commission has failed.”

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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November 11th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the preliminary recommendations of the Obama deficit commission:

November 9th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged House Republican leadership to block Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) from taking over the House Energy and Commerce committee, noting “his abysmal voting record on energy issues.”

“At a time when Americans are rejecting the Obama anti-energy agenda, Representative Fred Upton has spent his career in Congress embracing radical environmentalism,” Wilson said, adding, “Fred Upton has repeatedly voted against expanding energy production in the U.S. as the nation’s dependence on foreign sources of fuel has only grown.”

Wilson praised House Republican Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor for “reaching out to conservatives and making good opening moves. But Fred Upton has not earned a promotion. He has consistently voted against conservative, pro-growth positions. His elevation would send the exact wrong signal to tea party members, conservatives and the tens of thousands of people who worked themselves to the bone to elect the GOP majority.”

Wilson pointed to Upton’s votes against offshore drilling in Florida and the Great Lakes, and his vote to block millions of acres of land from energy exploration and mineral leasing.

Wilson said “that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As gasoline was rocketing past $4 a gallon because of the weak dollar, Upton blamed it on American energy companies by voting to raise taxes on them, which would have been passed on to consumers with even higher costs.”

Wilson explained, “History has now shown that the 2008 energy and commodities bubble was directly related to government’s weak dollar policy. But that didn’t prevent Representative Upton using it as a pretext to raise taxes on energy producers, who largely are blameless for inflation caused by printing too many dollars.”

Wilson continued, “Upton actually cosponsored the bill that banned the Thomas Edison incandescent light bulb, forcing its replacement with dangerous, mercury-laden bulbs. The costs of containing these poisonous new bulbs will ultimately far outweigh the supposed energy usage ‘savings’. If an American happens to drop one on the floor, it’s a toxic hazard requiring thousands of dollars to clean up.”

“But that’s not all,” Wilson added. “Upton voted against reimbursing property owners who are blocked by government from developing their own land on account of protecting endangered species.”

Wilson said Upton also opposes “the basic tenants of federalism. He opposed giving local governments veto power over federal decisions to acquire land even though the federal government already holds over 650 million acres of land at the expense of economic development.”

Wilson concluded, “Fred Upton’s decidedly anti-energy voting record makes him decidedly unsuitable to be the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee. America needs to increase its domestic energy supplies, and Upton has opposed it at every turn. We need all the energy we can get, and the only thing standing in the way are politicians like Upton and the bureaucrats he empowers.”

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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November 8th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today praised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “for not accepting perpetual increases in the national debt, and instead fighting for a serious reduction in spending and debt.”

Wilson referred to McConnell’s interview last week with FOX News’ Brett Baier, where he spoke on increasing the national debt limit, “I think it will not be without some strings attached, if it happens, because they’re going to have to seriously address spending and debt.”

Wilson said that means “attaching serious spending cuts to an increase in the national debt.” Periodically, Congress acts to increase the national debt, thus authorizing the Treasury to borrow more money in order to pay off the principal owed on the debt.

“We’re paying the credit card bill with the credit card, and so every year the debt goes up. It’s gone up every year since 1958 as a result,” Wilson said.

Wilson said that “besides the budget itself, the debt limit is one of the few leverage points that House Republicans in particular will have. In the next three years, if spending is not cut, the Treasury will have to sell a record $8.8 trillion of U.S. debt. We’ve never sold that much. It’s the real reason the Fed has once again fired up the printing press with $600 billion of fresh bond purchases.”

Wilson added, “If spending is not cut, don’t be surprised if they have to come back next year with QE3, and QE4 the year after that.”

Wilson encouraged congressional Republicans “not to be bashful about attaching cuts to the debt limit increase,” pointing to a recent oped by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) in the Washington Examiner, where he wrote, “If Republicans vote to raise the debt without insisting on spending cuts, whatever credibility we may have will be gone.”

Wilson praised Coburn, saying, “Coburn is exactly right. Whereas Democrats have lost the House because they fulfilled their principles and implemented their statist agenda, Republicans lost it in 2006 for abandoning their principles and running up the national credit card.”

Wilson said that Barack Obama’s primary political strategy in the legislative branch would be “to get Republicans to quickly abandon their pledges to pay down the debt, end bailouts once and for all, repeal ObamaCare, make tax relief permanent and create jobs, and eliminate Fannie and Freddie.”

“The more Republicans compromise their principles, the weaker their political support will become with the tea party movement and other citizen activists who propelled them back into the majority,” Wilson explained. “Obama’s goal is to break up surging citizen support for reducing government.”

Wilson said that the debt limit should be used as leverage to enact sharp spending cuts, even if Obama threatens to veto the resultant legislation. “Republicans are going to increase the debt limit, although the need to do so would be mitigated if the budget were actually balanced. If Obama wants to veto a debt limit increase, even if it is tied to spending cuts, he’ll be the one who is causing the government to default.”

“The reason the government would default is because we’re broke,” Wilson said, adding, “We cannot meet our obligations without borrowing more money, thus creating new obligations. We’re on an unsustainable trajectory with the $13.6 trillion national debt. If something is not done, a temporary default will be the least of our problems.”

“By this time next year, the Federal Reserve will be the number one holder of U.S. debt, a sure signal that we’re printing money to pay our bills. In the next few years, the debt will soar past 100 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. By 2018, if not sooner,our Triple-A credit rating will be downgraded. All of these things will mean higher costs to paying the debt in the future, and a weaker dollar. In the end, the dollar will lose its special status as the world’s reserve currency,” Wilson concluded.

 

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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November 5th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the worsening unemployment situation in the U.S., with the rate of joblessness remaining at 9.6 percent andunderemployment at 17 percent:

“October marks the 18th straight month that unemployment has been at or above 9.4 percent—the longest period of time of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression. That is as remarkable as it is sad for millions of American families who increasingly cannot make their mortgage payments. Foreclosures are still at all time highs, even as Barack Obama claimed that the worst of the crisis was behind us. Obama’s policies have failed to put America back to work.

“It is time for the Obama Administration to change course, and for the newly elected Congress to plot a new direction. ObamaCare and its many mandates are getting in the way of hiring decisions by employers. The automatic tax increases at the end of year are aimed directly at small business owners and other job creators. The foreign income tax credit that Congress all but eliminated in August is preventing a trillion dollars of capital from being repatriated into the domestic economy.

“Moreover, the endless government spending binge is misallocating resources away from the private sector and giving the federal government an increasing share of the Gross Domestic Product. To get back the millions of jobs lost in this recession, the private sector needs to be growing faster than government. Unfortunately, government right now is growing twice as fast as the private economy, which cannot even keep up with new entrants into the workforce. In the next three years alone, government will have to borrow $8.8 trillion just to keep up with its obligations.

“The Obama ‘stimulus’ program has failed, and has only contributed to an unsustainable $13.6 trillion national debt. With the economy only growing at an anemic 2 percent rate, and inflation taking root in commodities, the pressure on American families to keep up with their monthly payments will be growing. We need jobs, and we need them now. Government needs to get out of the way and let the private economy get to work.”

Click here for your FREE broadcast quality download:
www.getliberty.org/files/Wilson_unemployment.mp3

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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Thanks Boehner and McConnell for “leading the opposition during the first two dark years of the Obama presidency.”

November 3rd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today thanked the American people for “doing their parts in the midterm elections to begin the process of rolling back the big spending of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid’s Congress.”

“The American people have spoken, and because of their efforts, House Republicans and a growing number of Senate Republicans have been offered a second chance to bring the nation’s fiscal house into order,” Wilson said.

“But the work is not over with a mere election,” Wilson added. “Now, the American people must hold the new Congress accountable for their pledges to pay down the debt, repeal ObamaCare, create jobs, and end the bailouts once and for all.”

Wilson urged tea parties and other citizen activists “to continue their patriotic efforts rein in what has been an unaccountable government, and to hold them responsible for what happens next.”

Wilson said the early indications are “favorable,” praising House Republican Leader John Boehner’s statement today, “Our pledge is to listen to the American people, and to focus on their priorities, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Boehner, in a joint press conference with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour outlined what he viewed as “the people’s priorities: creating jobs, cutting spending, and reforming the way Congress does its business.”

“It’s not just what the American people are demanding, it’s what they are expecting from us,” Boehner added. “The real question now is this: Are we going to listen to the American people?”

McConnell said that Democrats “may have missed the message” of the elections. “I get the impression that they’re thinking — their view is that [Republicans] have not cooperated enough. I think what the American people were saying yesterday that they appreciated us saying ‘no’ to the things that the American people indicated they were not in favor of.”

McConnell put the pressure back on Democrats and the White House: “So, I think the group that should, hopefully, get the message out of yesterday’s elections is our friends on the other side of the aisle. We hope that they will pivot in a different direction.”

Wilson said he thought Boehner and McConnell “struck the right tone.” In an oped published this morning, Wilson wrote that the two Republican leaders “deserve praise for leading the opposition during the first two dark years of the Obama presidency.”

Wilson oped continues, “It was not a foregone conclusion that Republicans would unite against the $812 billion ‘stimulus’, ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank financial takeover, and the Waxman-Markey cap-and-tax. But they did, and it gave the American people confidence that they had representation — that they had a voice.”

Wilson urged Republicans to “continue their principled opposition to the Obama statist agenda.” He said that a key battle would be the budget: “House Republicans have an opportunity to present their budget to the American people, and to the Congress for consideration. They should balance it and set the stage for fulfilling their pledge to pay down the debt.”

Wilson said the new Congress would “need the American people’s help,” concluding, “Although the election is over, the work has just begun for the American people, to hold this new Congress accountable to the highest possible standard. They want Congress to rein in government from its excesses, and now their voices must be louder than ever.”

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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November 3rd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement condemning the Federal Reserve’s planned purchase of $600 billion of treasuries over the next eight months:

“The Federal Reserve’s reckless program to purchase $600 billion of treasuries over the next eight months is taking the U.S. into uncharted waters, where the nation’s central bank will be the largest holder of the national debt in the entire world next year. The Fed already holds $834 billion of treasuries, and was already on pace to have over $1 trillion in treasuries by August, 2011, more than China, Japan, or any other foreign creditor.

“With another $600 billion on top of the Fed’s expected trillion-dollar stake in the debt, the signal we are sending to the world is that to pay for our obligations is to print a ton of new money. In the next three years alone, $5.2 trillion of debt will be coming due. In addition, the Obama Administration plans on increasing the debt another $3.6 trillion over that same period. That means that the Treasury has to sell $8.8 trillion of debt over three years, or $2.93 trillion every year.

“$2.93 trillion a year is more than the Treasury has ever had to sell. Approximately $630 billion more than it has ever sold. So it is little surprise that now the Fed is coming out saying it is buying another $600 billion of treasuries. This action by the Fed has nothing to do with ‘a stronger pace of economic recovery,’ as the central bank claims. It has everything to do with the fact that we are broke, and we’re printing money to pay the bills.

“It is up to the newly electedCongress to rein in Washington’s unsustainable fiscal trajectory so that the possibility is eliminated of further Fed purchases of the debt. Otherwise, they will be signing up to have the U.S. triple-A credit rating downgraded, and will preside over the decline of the nation as an economic superpower. Spending must be cut, and the Fed has to be reined in and audited. The very solvency of the Treasury is in danger, and only Congress can reverse course and begin to pay down the debt, before it is too late.”

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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