Archives for May 2011

May 12th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) is appealing the Department of Labor’s refusal to turn over all documents related to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on enforcement of 185 laws the Department is required to follow.

The request covered the Department’s implementation of an online enforcement database, which should have included prosecutions of corruption in labor unions, ALG maintains, but was not.

“The FOIA is being stonewalled by the Labor Department,” said ALG President Bill Wilson. “That data should be in the database, and the question is why not.”

Wilson said “it’s possible they don’t want that information to be public because it makes union officials look bad. It may be embarrassing, but we want those documents; the public has a right to know.”

ALG filed the FOIA request in August 2010, the first to the Office of the Secretary (OSEC), which produced no initial response. This compelled the organization to file two follow-ups to the FOIA requests: one to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management in Feb. 2011 and the other to the Department’s Office of the Solicitor (SOL) in Mar. 2011.

“We initially requested information from the Department in order to better understand how the Department is communicating its enforcement statistics through its online enforcement database,” said ALG Counsel Nathan Mehrens. “This database is mysteriously missing certain critical information such as the number of union officials who were prosecuted by the Department for stealing from union members.”

The follow-up to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management again hit a stone wall. On April 18, they finally replied that “A search was conducted within the Office of the Secretary. No records were found responsive to your request.”

But then the Solicitor’s office did find responsive documents — through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy (OASP). According to the appeal, “Based on the evidence received from OASP it is clear that senior personnel from OSEC have in their possession federal records that are responsive to Appellant’s FOIA request. As such, the assertion from OSEC that they found ‘no documents responsive’ to Appellant’s request is either incorrect or the OSEC did not perform an adequate search for responsive records to Appellant’s request.”

Mehrens said the Department was not living up to Barack Obama’s vow for transparency in his Administration, who said Jan. 21, 2009, “Let me say it as clearly as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

Mehrens explained, “This was followed up by further guidance from both the President and the Attorney General on how the government was to handle releasing information to the public in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.”

In that guidance the federal government was instructed to quickly turn around information requests and that it should have a bias toward disclosure and not attempt to redact information merely because of technicalities.

Wilson said the Administration was “two-faced on transparency,” concluding, “This is not the kind of transparency we were promised by Obama. Based on our two years of work requesting records from the Obama Administration it appears that not everyone has received the message. It’s time for the Administration to stop stonewalling legitimate requests.”

Attachments:

Americans for Limited Government FOIA Appeal, May 10th, 2011 at http://washingtonalert.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/05-10-11-OASAM-Appeal-online-enforc-database-Binder1.pdf.

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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May 10, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising House Speaker John Boehner for attaching firm preconditions for spending cuts to offset any increase in the $14.294 trillion national debt ceiling:

“House Speaker John Boehner has taken the necessary step of attaching firm preconditions for spending cuts to more than offset any increase in the debt ceiling. This is precisely what the American people have been demanding, and we are pleased to see that Speaker Boehner is listening to the will of the majority that put him into power. This is very encouraging.

“Boehner correctly diagnoses the debt crisis that the nation faces, and is right that the budget cannot be balanced without tremendous spending cuts coupled with economic growth. He is also correct that growth will not be found if taxes are raised into the teeth of this recession and if real drivers of the debt remain unaddressed.

“Now is the time to act. The American people require that any increase in the debt ceiling be coupled with both big spending cuts and serious reforms that will prevent the debt from growing faster than our economy, and be balanced in a reasonable period of time so that the debt can begin to be retired. We urge the House to consider proposals that will balance the budget sometime this decade to give the American people assurance that Congress is serious about addressing the debt crisis now and not later.

“We thank Speaker Boehner for laying out the broad parameters of this debate, and for drawing a principled line in the sand. The American people are saying no more debt, and now they can have the confidence that their leaders in Washington — at least some of them — are listening.”

Attachments:

“ALG to Reid, Obama: How Much Do You Want to Raise the Debt?” May 5th, 2011 at http://getliberty.org/content.asp?pl=10&sl=5&contentid=681.

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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May 10, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement thanking Senate Republicans for helping to defeat the nomination of Paul Tiao for Inspector General of the Department of Labor:

“Because of overwhelming opposition in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has been forced to withdraw his nomination of Paul Tiao for Labor Solicitor General. Tiao was a political hack whose sole ‘qualification’ appeared to have been taking tens of thousands of dollars in donations from union bosses during the 2008 election cycle. This called into question his impartiality when it would have come to fulfilling the critical Inspector General role of investigating union corruption.

“With its important mission of impartially applying the law, the Inspector General’s office was no place for Paul Tiao. Senate Republicans are to be credited with objecting to and defeating this nominee, whose was totally lacking in integrity for the post.”

Attachments:

Paul Tiao Nominee Alert, Americans for Limited Government, December 2010 at www.getliberty.org/files/Paul Tiao NomineeAlert.pdf .

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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May 9, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the Zillow, Inc. report of a 22 percent increase in negative equity, a measure of homeowners owing more than their properties are worth and an increase in foreclosures for the first quarter of 2011:

“Zillow’s data confirms what Case Shiller reported two weeks ago, with home values plummeting to their April 2009 lows and foreclosures once again rising in the first quarter of 2011. We are in a double-dip housing recession. Zillow does not foresee any bottom in housing until 2012, at the earliest. The irony is that we would have already hit the bottom if government had just got out of the way, even if it meant that institutions that bet poorly on housing failed.

“Instead, we wasted more than $2 trillion on the faulty premise that the government could somehow stop the housing bubble from deflating. All of the ‘stimulus’, bailouts, foreclosure ‘prevention’ programs, and homebuyer incentives have failed at their stated objectives. We should have done nothing and let the chips fall where they may, and we’d already be in an economic recovery. Instead, we just have prolonged the recession, created slow-growth stagflation, and added trillions of dollars to the national debt unnecessarily.

“Once and for all, government must get out of the way, and allow this market correction to work itself out. No more ‘stimulus’. No more bailouts. No more foreclosure moratoria. Just get out of the way.”

Attachments:

Crashing Home Prices: The Obama “Stimulus” has Failed, Americans for Limited Government, April 26, 2011 athttp://getliberty.org/content.asp?pl=10&sl=5&contentid=676.

S&P/Case-Shiller housing price index chart shows double-dip, April 26, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/Case-ShillerHomePriceIndex4-26-11.PNG.

“Is it Jimmy Carter All Over Again?” By ALG President Bill Wilson, May 9, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?display=3313.

“Double-Dip in Housing, Rising Inflation, and Soaring Debt Disprove ‘Stimulus,’ Threaten Ship of State,” By ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?display=3281.

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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May 6th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the increase in measured unemployment from 8.8 percent to 9 percent by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“The bad economic news just keeps rolling in. With unemployment once again rising, this time to 9 percent, it is clear that the so-called Obama ‘recovery’ is a myth. The Bureau reports unemployment increased by 205,000 in March alone. As the so-called ‘stimulus’ and QE2 runs out this year, we expect more job losses will follow, particularly in the public sector, which shed 24,000 jobs last month.

“If the recession had been allowed to run its course to begin with, the economy would have naturally found its bottom, and resources would have necessarily been reallocated out of the public sector with greater speed. We’d already be in recovery.

“Instead, the federal government has seen fit to spend, borrow, and print more than $2.4 trillion to prop up the economyand save government ‘jobs’ that, in the end, could not be saved. The nation desperately needs a private sector recovery, but that will continue to remain elusive so long as government sucks up $2 trillion of resources a year to borrow at unsustainable levels. Instead of lending the government $2 trillion a year, the financial sector could be investing that money as equity, creating millions of jobs.

“As a result of these failed policies, growth slowed down to 1.8 percent in the first quarter, and inflation is up over the past year, with producer prices up 5.8 percent and consumer prices up 2.7 percent. Making matters worse, home prices are again on the decline as foreclosures rose 6.53 percent in March.

“The economy is in troubled waters, and Jimmy Carter stagflation is once again here. Until the government gets its spending under control, and removes unnecessary obstacles to capital formation, it will be impossible to conclude that the Obama ‘stimulus’ has been anything but a complete failure.”

Attachments:

“Double-Dip in Housing, Rising Inflation, and Soaring Debt Disprove ‘Stimulus,’ Threaten Ship of State,” ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, April 27th, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3281 .

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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May 5, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the reported start of talks on increasing the $14.294 trillion national debt ceiling:

“Congressional Republicans are wisely asking Barack Obama and Harry Reid how much, exactly, they would like the debt ceiling raised. It’s time for Reid and Obama to put up or shut up. If they refuse to put anything on the table, then Republicans should only offer enough of a debt increase to get through September 30, 2011, and then only with gargantuan, permanent spending reductions attached.

“We would suggest drastic cuts in return for increasing the debt ceiling, including $100 billion of discretionary spending cuts including the elimination of whole departments and agencies like HUD and Education, severe cutbacks in other areas like Energy, EPA, and Labor, and zero-funding things like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowments for Arts and Humanities, ending community block grants.

“But immediate cuts are not enough. Statutory spending caps are also needed on the total budget ratcheting down to 18 percent within five years, along the lines of the proposed Balanced Budget Amendment, or passing the Amendment itself. Only with real limits on Congress’ future spending can the budget ever be balanced some time in our lifetimes.

“Finally, hundreds of billions of dollars of cuts to so-called ‘mandatory’ spending must be included to prove a commitment to real fiscal responsibility.

“If Republicans are the only ones with the courage to actually put a proposal on the table, they should ask for everything that is necessary to bring the nation’s fiscal house into order. That proposal must include a path to a balanced budget some time during this decade. This will let the American people know what Republicans would do if Reid and Obama were not obstacles to passage, offering a clear alternative to simply borrowing and printing trillions of dollars until the nation is bankrupted.

“Whether or not Reid and Obama state an amount for increasing the debt ceiling, Republicans must in turn lay down their comprehensive approach to save the nation from insolvency in order to assure the American people they made the right choice in the November elections that sent House Republicans into the majority. If they stand with the American people and fight to balance the budget with spending cuts, the American people will stand with them.”

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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May 4th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged members of the House of Representative to support legislation reining in the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) effort to sue states that have enacted constitutional amendments protecting workers secret ballot rights, including Arizona and South Dakota.

“The NLRB has jumped to the front lines in its attempt to unionize America,” Wilson wrote in a letter to House members.

The bill offered by Representative Jeff Duncan (SC-CD3), HR 1047, specifically says, “No agency of the Federal Government may bring any challenge against a State statute or constitutional provision which protects the right of employees to choose labor organization representatives through secret ballot elections.”

Wilson said the issue of whether states wanted to have secret ballot unionization elections was a matter protected by the Tenth Amendment. “This bill would prohibit the NLRB from proceeding with a lawsuit against states whose citizens have chosen to put constitutional protections in place to ensure the right to secret ballot union elections,” he wrote.

The proposed legislation was prompted by notifications sent by NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe E. Solomon telling the four states that he had been authorized to file suit in federal court enjoining the states from enforcing state constitutional amendments passed by the voters in the respective states in November, 2010.

The states of Utah, South Carolina, Arizona and South Dakota have all passed such constitutional amendments, but so far the NLRB has only sued Arizona and South Dakota. Each passed decisively: Arizona (Prop 113 passed with 61 percent); South Carolina (Amendment 2 passed with 86 percent); South Dakota (Amendment K passed with 79 pcerent); and Utah (Amendment A passed with 60 percent).

So far, the bill has 30 cosponsors: Representatives Rob Bishop (UT-CD1), Dan Burton (IN-CD5), Jason Chaffetz (UT-CD3), Bill Flores (TX-CD17), Virginia Foxx (NC-CD5), Louie Gohmert (TX-CD1), Paul A. Gosar (AZ-CD1), Trey Gowdy (SC-CD4), Wally Herger (CA-CD2), Tim Huelskamp (KS-CD1), Steve King (IA-CD5), Jack Kingston (GA-CD1), Doug Lamborn (CO-CD5), James Lankford (OK-CD5), Patrick T. McHenry (NC-CD10), Mick Mulvaney (SC-CD5), Randy Neugebauer (TX-CD19), Kristi L. Noem (SD-CDAL), Joseph R. Pitts (PA-CD16), Mike Pompeo (KS-CD4), Todd Rokita (IN-CD4), Dennis Ross (FL-CD12), Tim Scott (SC-CD1), Pete Sessions (TX-CD32), Marlin A. Stutzman (IN-CD3), Scott Tipton (CO-CD3), Lynn A. Westmoreland (GA-CD3), Joe Wilson (SC-CD2), and Kevin Yoder (KS-CD3).

Wilson thanked Rep. Duncan and the 30 cosponsors, saying their support was “critical to protecting all states from the NLRB’s tyrannical imposition into state labor laws.”

Attachments:

Letter to U.S. House of Representatives, May 3rd, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/LetterNLRBLegislation5-3-11.pdf .

One-pager on NLRB taking legal action against states, May 2011 at http://www.getliberty.org/files/StateRightoVoteOnePager.pdf.

“National Labor Relations Board Facing Congressional Heat over Secret Ballots,” By ALG Communications Director Rick Manning, March 17th, 2011 at http://netrightdaily.com/2011/03/national-labor-relations-board-facing-congressional-heat-over-secret-ballots/.

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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May 2, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged the House of Representatives to pass legislation that would repeal a job-killing de facto moratorium on new oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico by the Obama Administration.

“The Obama Administration is currently stonewalling new requests to drill in the Gulf of Mexico,” Wilson wrote in his letter to House Speaker John Boehner and House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings.

The legislation will require the Secretary of Interior to act within 30 days on an application to drill.

“The Obama Administration embargo on Gulf drilling is having serious consequences on domestic production in the Gulf,” Wilson said, citing data from the Energy Information Agency (EIA). Gulf oil production will decrease over the next two years by 380,000 barrels a day from its 2010 level of 1.64 million to 1.26 million.

“That’s a 23 percent drop,” Wilson said. “Although partially offset by increases in on-land oil production, the decrease in Gulf drilling will result in a net decrease of U.S. oil production by 150,000 barrels a day over the next two years.”

Wilson said drilling in the Gulf would help the economy: “Increasing domestic oil production will help direct investment in the U.S., create jobs, and might place some downward pressure on prices.”

He cited a study by Dr. Joseph Mason from Louisiana State University predicted that if the Obama practical ban of deepwater drilling were sustained for 18 months, 36,137 jobs nationwide could be lost, including 24,532 jobs on the Gulf Coast alone.

Wilson concluded, “To be energy independent, the U.S. would need to more than double domestic oil production from its current level of 5.5 million barrels a day. Stepping up production in the Gulf is a good start.”

Attachments:

Letter to House Speaker John Boehner and House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, May 2, 2011 atwww.getliberty.org/files/LetterGulfOilDrilling 5-2-11.pdf.

“Obama’s Pain at the Pump,” ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, April 25, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3273.

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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