Archives for April 2012

April 17, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on a failed vote in the Senate to increase the capital gains tax to 30 percent for anyone who makes more than $1 million a year:

“Now that the Buffett rule has failed to go anywhere, it is time for Congress to enact real reform of the tax code. The irony is that it never occurred to Obama to cut the taxes of Buffett’s secretary. For all the talk of so-called ‘fairness,’ what about flattening the tax code to a lower rate for everybody? What would be fairer is for everyone to pay less. The government’s just going to waste all of our money on boondoggles and bailouts anyway.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

April 16, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement urging Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA) head Edward DeMarco to reject any bailout for 11 million borrowers who are underwater on their homes:

“The only thing standing in between the White House and a bailout of 11 million borrowers underwater on their mortgages to the tune of $717 billion is the FHFA’s Edward DeMarco, who has had the temerity of suggesting that the agency merely follow the law and protect taxpayers from unnecessary losses.

“DeMarco has steadfastly rejected a widespread mortgage bailout throughout Obama’s entire term of office, and now is coming under increasing pressure from congressional Democrats who are demanding an election year payout to a favored constituency.

“But it is false hope that is being generated. Even if DeMarco relented and implemented the bailout, in a recent speech to the Brookings Institution he suggested only 691,000 of the 11 million would even be eligible. Meaning, about 10.3 million people underwater on their homes would not even qualify for the program.

“This makes Obama’s promise of a bailout nothing more than an empty, cynical, election year promise. What a fraud.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

April 11, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on a Senate vote next week to implement the so-called Buffett rule, raising capital gains and income taxes to 30 percent for anyone who makes more than $1 million a year:

“Any fair reporting of Obama’s Buffett rule would reveal it to be a cynical election-year maneuver that bears no resemblance to a sound policy designed to either improve the economy or raise significant revenue to pay down the debt.”

“Obama’s tax-the-rich proposal, which will only collect $4.7 billion on average every year over the next decade according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, will cover less than 1 percent of the average $588.9 billion annual net interest owed on the national debt.

“It will not create a single job. Yet the Obama Administration is maintaining that this tax will somehow ‘pay down our deficit and invest in the things that help our economy grow.’

“At a time when more than 27 million people cannot find full-time work — 4.6 million of whom have dropped out of the labor force since Obama took office because they’ve simply given up looking for work — raising taxes on capital creation is exactly the wrong prescription.

“The fact is we’re talking about billions of dollars that could be reinvested in the economy by the private sector, creating tens of thousands of jobs. Instead, Obama wants to give it to the government so it can squander and waste it on more boondoggles. Is that fair to the American people struggling to get ahead in the Obama economy?”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

April 10, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to a vote next week in the Senate to implement the so-called Buffett rule, raising taxes on the wealthy:

“The budget cannot be balanced by raising taxes on the so-called wealthy, who happen to be the nation’s job creators. It won’t even come close. A recent Joint Committee on Taxation estimate found that raising the capital gains and income taxes to 30 percent for those who make over $1 million — the so-called Buffett rule — will raise just $3 billion the first year and just $47 billion over the next 10 years.

That compares with more than $10 trillion in new debt the government will take on over the next decade, when the national debt will rise to more than $26 trillion. Of the Buffett rule, Obama has said that ‘basic principle of fairness, if applied to our tax code, could raise enough money that not only do we pay for our jobs bill, but we also stabilize our debt and deficits for the next decade. And as I said when I made the announcement, this is not politics; this is math.’

“Well, the woefully inadequate revenues generated from his tax-the-rich scheme show that we cannot tax our way out of this debt crisis. Spending must be cut substantially to set us on a path to balance the budget. The problem is not that we tax too little; it’s that we spend too much. Yet, under Obama’s fiscal plan, the budget will never be balanced, and the debt will continue growing exponentially, far outpacing economic growth.

“If this taxing the hell out of job creators was the path to prosperity, Europe would be a paradise. Instead it’s a dystopian nightmare, and serves as a warning for American politicians who believe that our spending, borrowing and printing addiction can be ignored.

“We are quickly approaching a funding crisis, and we will not be able to fill the gap with gargantuan tax hikes. All that will do is make it harder for job creators to get us out of this mess at a time when already 27 million people cannot find full-time work.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

April 9, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to a new Obama Administration TARP program to bail out borrowers with taxpayer funds by reducing the principal owed on mortgages:

“This latest White House scheme to bail out borrowers with mortgage principal reductions using taxpayer funds is nothing more than a cynical election year ploy. This time, the goal is to build a constituency of borrowers underwater on their mortgages with the hope that they might — emphasis on might — be able to get some relief.

“Meanwhile, the Federal Housing Finance Administration under Edward DeMarco has thus far resisted such a bailout on the grounds that it would result in billions of losses to GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — putting taxpayers on the hook. The Obama solution? Take the money out of another pot of taxpayer money, give it to Fannie and Freddie, and pretend it did not add to the deficit.

“All without any vote in Congress. This is yet another egregious abuse of executive power by Obama and Congress must demand accountability, and rein in these bailout programs once and for all. The House Appropriations committee should act immediately to defund TARP and any related bailout programs, and the House Oversight Committee should investigate these existing programs for any other wastes of taxpayer money.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

April 6, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the just released March unemployment rate:

“Obama’s U.S. Department of Labor loses more credibility every month as they announced a lower unemployment rate in March, while at the same time 31,000 fewer Americans actually had jobs than the previous month. In spite of all the happy talk out of Obama’s official Washington, D.C., the fact is that fewer Americans were working last month than the previous one. That is not a recovery, it is an economic disaster for millions of families.

“The fact is, since Obama took office 4.683 million people have dropped out of the labor force. If they were included in today’s unemployment report, the jobless rate would be 10.8 percent, and the underemployed rate 17 percent. All together 27.1 million Americans cannot find full-time work in the Obama economy.”

Americans for Limited Government will be releasing an update of their article, “Understanding the Unemployment Rate” within the hour incorporating and providing analysis of the March unemployment data.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

April 5, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report showing $928 million in “unrecognized tax benefits:

“It is ironic that Warren Buffett continues to allow himself to be the front-man for Obama’s call for higher taxes, when his own company, Berkshire Hathaway, has outstanding tax bills going back a decade of almost $1 billion. While Buffett has every right to dispute the IRS’ tax charges, this makes him a particularly weak spokesperson for increasing taxes on others. If he sincerely felt that he was under-taxed, he could resolve this moral dilemma immediately by ordering his company to resolve its disputed tax debts.”

The Senate is preparing to vote on a tax increase bill, coined the Buffett rule, on April 16. Under the Buffett rule everyone making more than $1 million will pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes — whether it comes from income or investment.

Attachments:

“Buffett rule heads to the Senate; Let the tax season begin,” by Rebekah Rast, April 5, 2012, athttp://netrightdaily.com/2012/04/buffett-rule-heads-to-the-senate-let-the-tax-season-begin/

“Buffett’s Billion-Dollar Tax Hypocrisy,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, August 30, 2011, athttp://netrightdaily.com/2011/08/buffetts-billion-dollar-tax-hypocrisy/

“Warren Buffett’s taxing hypocrisy,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, August 24, 2011, at http://netrightdaily.com/2011/08/warren-buffett%E2%80%99s-taxing-hypocrisy/

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

April 4, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today praised the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for ordering the Obama Administration to submit a three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday addressing whether the Executive Branch believes courts have the power of judicial review:

“So alarming were Obama’s comments that the duly enacted health care law being overturned by the Supreme Court would be ‘an unprecedented, extraordinary step,’ the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals felt compelled to issue a homework assignment to the Obama Administration. It seriously wants to know if the White House even believes courts have the power of judicial review to strike down laws that exceed constitutional authority.

“This could be a constitutional crisis in the making. Obama may be setting the stage to defy the Supreme Court by refusing to comply with a ruling striking down the individual mandate or the law in its entirety. It would mean the executive views himself as supreme above the other two branches of government.

“Regardless which way the ruling on Obamacare goes, Obama needs to come out — immediately — and tell the American people that he will comply with the Court’s ruling.

“If the entire law is struck down, it will be up to Obama to direct affected departments and agencies, including HHS, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, the FDA, the Department of Labor, and the IRS to rescind any regulations that might also be nullified by the Court. Appointments to the death panel must be rescinded and the Independent Payment Advisory Board deconstituted. The Treasury must rescind hundreds of billions of dollars of appropriations that were made under the original statute.”

Attachments:

“Obama’s court intimidation scheme nothing new,” ALG President Bill Wilson, April 4, 2012, athttp://netrightdaily.com/2012/04/obamas-court-intimidation-scheme-nothing-new/

“Obama’s Court intimidation scheme: Calls action against health care law ‘unprecedented’” Americans for Limited Government, April 3, 2012 at http://getliberty.org/content.asp?pl=10&sl=5&contentid=866

“The real judicial extreme,” ALG President Bill Wilson, April 2, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/03/the-real-judicial-extreme/

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

April 3, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today responded to Barack Obama’s contention that “overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress” was “an unprecedented, extraordinary step:

“Woe unto law students who took Obama’s constitutional law class when he was a lecturer at University of Chicago Law School. His telling of history, where the Supreme Court would be ‘unprecedented’ in striking down a duly enacted law, ignores the entire 209-year history of jurisprudence since Marbury v. Madison. That was when the Court famously asserted the implicit power of judicial review to strike down acts of Congress that exceeded constitutional authority, writing in the words of Chief Justice John Marshall that the Court’s role was to ‘say what the law is.’ What was Obama even teaching?

“The fact is Obama had no problem when the Warren Court undid precedent—he even praised it while suggesting it did not go far enough.

“Now the Court is signaling it may overturn its 70-year experiment with the Commerce Clause dating back to Wickard v. Filburn, which was one of the first dramatic expansions of Congress’ power in that area. In that case, the Court invented the doctrine that even if commerce was not taking place among the several states — even if it was a farmer who was growing food merely for his own consumption — it could still be regulated.

“Obamacare is the natural extension of that doctrine, where even the passive decision to not purchase health care is being deemed to affect interstate commerce in some capacity. If the Court decides to undo this near-centurial expansion of totalitarianism, good for them. Godspeed.

“But for Obama to get on his high horse and complain that such a decision would be ‘unprecedented’ is just nonsensical. Now he is attempting to intimidate the Court by delegitimizing it. This is what you’d expect from a thug dictator like Hugo Chavez or Robert Mugabe, not from the President of the United States. Overtly attacking the Court in such a brazen way is beneath the dignity of his high office.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

April 2, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today reacted to a trial balloon floated by Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama to Reuters that House Republicans were considering reinstituting earmarks to help spending bills get passed:

“It is disappointing that within a mere 14 months into the House Republican majority, they appear to be giving up on the principles that got them elected in 2010. Rep. Mike Rogers has openly called for abandoning reforms to the appropriations process by potentially lifting the ban on earmarks.

“This is being proposed as a legislative sweetener so leadership has an easier time passing things like the transportation appropriations bill. This is an open acknowledgement that earmarks are nothing more than legislative bribery to buy votes. But what it represents is a further repudiation by leadership of the principles that got them into power in the first place. In 2010, Republicans pledged to ‘put us on a path to balance the budget and pay down the debt.’

“This trial balloon comes atop a minority of the House Republicans defeating a Republican Study Committee fiscal plan last week that would have balanced the budget in five years. It comes atop failures to enact significant reforms in the continuing resolution and debt ceiling debates. And the failure of the Supercommittee to achieve anything meaningful.

“Congress’ historically low approval rating is a warning that the American people will only put up with so much. House Republicans need to reconnect with the American people, and reject without delay Rep. Rogers’ earmark trial balloon.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.