Archives for May 2012

May 10, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement praising the House of Representatives for passing an amendment by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) to HR 5326 that protects state laws guaranteeing secret ballots in union certification elections from being challenged by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):

“Four states, Arizona, Utah, South Carolina, and South Dakota had the audacity to overwhelmingly pass state constitutional amendments that guarantee a secret ballot in union certification elections. Now, the NLRB has decided to sue two of them, Arizona and South Dakota. But thanks to Rep. Duncan’s amendment to an agency appropriations bill, the NLRB will be prohibited from using any funds to litigate against any state on the question of secret ballot union elections.

“This is one step necessary to defang the NLRB from using the force of law to impose Big Labor’s agenda on businesses and on states. We applaud the House, and Rep. Duncan, for their efforts. As for every member who voted no, now they have to explain to their constituents why think it’s okay for Johnny ‘Sack’-like union bosses to be looking over workers’ shoulders when they vote on union certification.”

Attachments:

“Secret ballot elections? Not if the NLRB has its way,” By Rick Manning, Director of Communications, Americans for Limited Government, Oct. 26, 2011 at http://netrightdaily.com/2011/10/secret-ballot-elections-not-if-the-nlrb-has-its-way/

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, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement blasting the House of Representatives’ passage of the $140 billion re-authorization for the Export Import Bank of the United States:

“The House had an opportunity to show that corporate welfare in any form is unacceptable, and yet again blew it by not only reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank, but by adding $40 billion to its lending capacity. Every member who voted yes now must explain to their constituents why they support a bank that gave millions to bankrupt Solyndra. Why they support a bank that gives foreign companies an edge over U.S. companies in the global economy. And why they support a bank that has wasted billions manipulating markets rather than allowing market forces to determine demand.”

Attachments:

“No place for Republican crony capitalism,” By Rick Manning, Director of Communications, Americans for Limited Government, May 8, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/05/no-place-for-republican-crony-capitalism/

“Axe the Ex-Im Bank,” By Howard Rich, Chairman, Americans for Limited Government, March 21, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/03/axe-the-ex-im-bank/

“Big Government is Making Boeing a Bad Actor,” By Howard Rich, Chairman, Americans for Limited Government, April 9, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/04/big-government-is-making-boeing-a-bad-actor/

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 8, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement urging the House of Representatives to reject the $140 billion re-authorization for the Export Import Bank of the United States on May 9:

“If House Republicans truly oppose corporate welfare, then they should oppose giving another $140 billion to the Ex-Im Bank.

“For House Republicans the vote to authorize $140 billion for the Ex-Im Bank is a moment of truth for the new majority, which has professed to oppose preferential guaranteed loans for bankrupt corporations like Solyndra and Ener1, green energy firms that produced no energy. If that’s true, if Republicans want to actually abandon corporate welfare and instead let market forces determine demand, then opposing reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank, which lends to foreign corporations, is a natural choice.

“The Ex-Im Bank, a relic of the Great Depression, as constituted today gives foreign companies an unfair competitive advantage over U.S. companies, and therefore serves little purpose in today’s global economy.

“Any member that votes for this is going to have to explain why they support a bank that lent over $10 million to bankrupt Solyndra to set up solar panels — in Belgium. Why they support a bank that apparently lent millions to a Mexican drug cartel and an oil company that may have had Russian mob ties. The Ex-Im Bank has outlived its usefulness and must be eliminated.”

Attachments:

“No place for Republican crony capitalism,” By Rick Manning, Director of Communications, Americans for Limited Government, May 8, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/05/no-place-for-republican-crony-capitalism/

“Axe the Ex-Im Bank,” By Howard Rich, Chairman, Americans for Limited Government, March 21, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/03/axe-the-ex-im-bank/

“Big Government is Making Boeing a Bad Actor,” By Howard Rich, Chairman, Americans for Limited Government, April 9, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/04/big-government-is-making-boeing-a-bad-actor/

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 4, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) today held an exclusive blogger briefing with U.S. Senate candidate Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock on his surprising, insurgent campaign against Sen. Richard Lugar, who has served for more than 35 years in the Senate.

Full audio is available at http://netrightdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/confcall.mp3 .

In the interview, Mourdock had a lot to say about the Tea Party, but topics also included international affairs, the Law of the Sea Treaty, environmental regulations, what he called the man-made climate change “myth,” the emerging threat of the national debt, and growing the economy.

Mourdock drew his race against Lugar in very stark terms as anti-establishment.

“This is an intraparty rebellion against a very senior senator who’s been there too long and who’s grown out of touch with the people he’s supposed to represent,” said Mourdock on the exclusive call.

The Indiana treasurer thanked the Tea Party for their help and said they’re not going anywhere: “Our campaign has over 3,000 volunteers, and most of them came from the Tea Party organizations. So people who think the Tea Party has died are about to find that the reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.”

Mourdock predicted victory on Tuesday: “We’re going to win this race because of the help of all those Tea Party folks.”

Attachments:

ALG interview with Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, May 4, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/confcall.mp3.

“Lugar’s Last Stand,” By Robert Romano, ALG Senior Editor, May 4, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/05/lugars-last-stand/ .

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 4, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement urging congressional appropriators to reject the Department of Health and Human Services $7.25 billion budget request for Obamacare co-ops, and to eliminate all existing funding for the program:

“By the Obama Administration’s own numbers, $3.1 billion would likely be lost from a $7.25 billion loan program for health care co-ops under the Obamacare law if fully funded. Not only should this budget request be rejected, but the existing $3.4 billion already in the program should be zeroed out by appropriators.

“An expected default rate of 43 percent is far too high for any loan program, let alone one that will be funding the Saul Alinsky-affiliated, Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative with $56.4 million. Another $341 million in loans will fund the radical Freelancers Union in three states, a group headed by Sara Horowitz, whom Obama served with as an adviser to the leftist group, Demos, along with former green czar Van Jones. These are just handouts to favored political constituencies.

“With a $15.6 trillion debt that is larger than the entire economy, we don’t have another $3.1 billion to pour down the drain to pad the pockets of Obama’s cronies. It is therefore incumbent on Congress to rescind all funding for the Obamacare co-ops, post haste — before we lose any more money.”

Attachments:

“Obamacare program asks for billions more while expecting to lose $3.1 billion; Congress investigates,” By John Vinci, ALG staff attorney, May 3, 2012 at http://obamacarewatcher.org/articles/389

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 4, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson reacted this morning to the U.S. Department of Labor’s report that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent almost solely due to more than half a million people dropping out of the labor force in the month of April.

“Obama’s idea of a recovery is when 522,000 Americans give up on getting a job, and drop out.  His claim that the unemployment rate has ‘dropped’ to 8.1 percent is either a delusion or a purposeful manipulation.  The truth is that there were 169,000 fewer Americans employed in April than in the previous month.  The truth is that there are more than 300,000 fewer Americans working today than when Obama took office.

Not shockingly, non-partisan independent groups that measure the unemployment rate like Gallup and ADP both say the unemployment rate is up, yet the Obama Administration’s counting team is continuing the charade that our nation’s unemployment rate is decreasing.

Even CNN/Money has noted that, ‘While it’s true that the unemployment rate is falling, that doesn’t include the millions of nonworking adults who aren’t even looking for a job anymore.  And hiring isn’t strong enough to keep up with population growth.’

It is literally dumbfounding that Obama and his Administration can get up with a straight face this morning and tout a drop in the unemployment rate when 169,000 fewer Americans are working.  Instead, they should be begging the people for forgiveness.”

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 3, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today responded to an Associated Press report predicting the nation’s jobless rate to drop to 7.9 percent by Election Day, which “would boost President Barack Obama’s prospects in November:”

“If the unemployment rate continues to drop, even to 7.9 percent, it will likely be on account of the continued decrease in the civilian labor force participation rate, which has dropped from 65.7 percent in January 2009 to 63.8 percent last month.

“That’s actually not good news. Almost 4.7 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force since Obama took office, because they have given up on looking for work. If they were included in the government’s measurement of unemployed, the rate would be closer to 10.8 percent, and the underemployed rate 17 percent based on April’s numbers. All together more than 27 million people cannot find full-time work in the Obama economy.

“Due to the drop in labor force participation the traditional jobless rate is meaningless as an economic indicator and does not reflect the economic misery facing the American public.

“Yet ‘leading’ economists predict continued drops in the jobless rate based on imaginary job growth rather than Americans giving up on the Obama economy. And this is supposed to help Obama? It seems likely those 27 million people will have some extra time on their hands come November 6 to let Obama know what they think of his 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.

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May 1, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the Occupy movement May Day protests:

“While the Occupy movement shares the same frustration with the Tea Party that the political system is broke, corrupt, and destroying the country, they have failed to generate sympathy with their disruptive tactics or public support without a coherent message for their agenda of ‘change’. They appear more occupied with breaking stuff, camping out in parks, and sitting in front of buildings than actually accomplishing something politically.

“Compare that with the well-organized Tea Party that has mounted successful primary challenges in 2010 and appears poised to knock off long-time Indiana Senator Richard Lugar next week. They are engaged in a long-term campaign to reconstitute Congress — one seat at a time — with candidates that are more likely to take on the entrenched establishment. Whereas the Tea Party has worked successfully to a certain extent within the system while taking it on, the Occupy movement has taken the line that it cannot be fixed within, and so does not bother.

“To be fair, given the poor performance of Congress so far at reining in the unsustainable spending and economically destructive regulations in Washington, D.C., it is hard to argue with the assessment that our political system is no longer representative. Clearly winning primaries and elections is not enough to undo the administrative state. But nobody said this would be easy. To win, the American people have to play the long game.

“The frustration of the Occupy movement is understandable. When one in two recent college graduates cannot find work in this economy, when waste of the public treasury is at an all-time high, and when our monetary system is controlled by an unaccountable bank cartel, who isn’t frustrated?

“But their tactics are misplaced, juvenile, and at times criminal. Plus, and this is the key point, they’re missing the primary target, which are the government policies that created the credit bubble, wrecked the economy, and left future generations with a debt so large it cannot be repaid. Frustration misdirected is not a strategy for retaking the Republic, it is a recipe for anarchy.”

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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