March 1, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to President Donald Trump’s statement that he favored an approach to “take the guns first, go through due process second”:

“President Trump’s statement that he wants to take away guns first and have due process later flies in the face of basic constitutional principles under the Fifth Amendment. The President knows better than anyone that a person is innocent until proven guilty, and to deny those basic rights is unacceptable under any circumstance. If he pursues legislation that tramples on due process, he will have cast aside constitutional protection of basic liberties in favor of perceived political expediency.

“The mental health issue is extremely challenging from a legal perspective, but one thing is clear, if the laws in place had been followed in Broward County, Florida, Nikolas Cruz would have received intervention that would have prevented this tragedy either for being adjudicated mentally incompetent, as the Gun Control Act of 1968 provides for, or being prosecuted for making terrorist threats.

“The great danger of President Trump’s confiscate first, ask questions later proposal is that it presumes that the possessor or potential purchaser of a firearm is mentally unstable and should be subjected to thousands upon thousands of dollars of legal fees, allowing simple allegations to be weaponized. This is why no person may be denied liberty without due process. To prevent this very thing from happening.

“When President Trump tries to figure out who’s right on this issue, he should look closely at those applauding him who have wished his political demise and wonder why. Without due process, and the presumption of innocence, the U.S. Constitution might as well be lit on fire because it would be worth less than the paper it was printed on.”

“Time for the nation to have an honest dialogue about violence,” By Rick Manning, Feb. 27, 2018 at http://netrightdaily.com/2018/02/time-nation-honest-dialogue-violence/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Feb. 28, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging President Donald Trump and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to block the hostile takeover of Qualcomm by Singapore’s Broadcom:

“The federal government should immediately reject attempts by Singapore’s Broadcom company to acquire San Diego, California-based Qualcomm Corporation.

“National security threats take many forms, and one area of increasing concern is the attacks on U.S. companies who are instrumental in building the nuts and bolts of the modern Internet.  Qualcomm, out of San Diego, CA, is one such company. The developer of both 3G and 4G technology, Qualcomm is at the cutting edge of creating the next technological leap to 5G. The future leap will see machines talking to and directing the activities of other machines pushing society into a world where driverless vehicles are the norm, and many aspects of life are literally on automatic pilot.

“Qualcomm is one of the companies most likely to create the software to make this system run, but China’s Huawei and South Korea’s Samsung are among those competing to be first.  This matters because whoever wins the battle in developing 5G, will be providing the guts of the world’s industrial future. It can be expected that an unscrupulous company controlled by a foreign government would use this advantage to put backdoors into various systems making the world’s economy vulnerable to blackmail.

“Given the national security importance of Qualcomm’s continuance as a U.S. company, the federal government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, should immediately meet and block any takeover of the company by its foreign rival.

“In 2016, President Obama succeeded in giving away operational control over the Internet’s domain name system to a foreign focused vendor, now it is up to the Trump administration to deny the foreign takeover of the one company in America that is building the guts of how business will use the Internet in the future. With all the threats around the world, this little discussed one is as important over the long-run as the nuclear threat posed by North Korea and others.  We simply cannot afford to have foreign governments through their managed corporations, have the ability to claim exclusive control the 5G technology that will be running the economy of the future.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Feb. 22, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the Justice Department to take into consideration Disney’s anti-competitive opposition to family-friendly content filtering when making a decision to approve or disapprove its proposed merger with Fox:

“Parents should be allowed to filter the content that flows into their kid’s minds if they believe it is too violent or otherwise. Disney has led the charge against content filtering for years, and now after this anti-competitive behavior, it is attempting to gain Justice Department approval for its megamerger with Fox. The Attorney General and Justice Department should take into account whether Disney has abided with the spirit and intent of the Family Movie Act in opposing content filtering technologies, and then act accordingly.”

Attachments:

Letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Jan. 15, 2018, at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Disney-Fox-Coalition-Letter-to-AG-Sessions.pdf

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Feb. 16, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the claim made in today’s indictments handed out by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that “Defendants’ operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump… and disparaging Hillary Clinton”:

“It is troubling that the Special Counsel ascribes a partisan agenda in his most recent indictments of the alleged Russians involved in buying Facebook ads using false names and bank accounts. The indictment states ‘Defendants’ operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump… and disparaging Hillary Clinton’ yet this statement appears to be untrue in light of anti-Trump ads that were also purchased by the groups named in the indictment. It is entirely possible that Russian actors hoped to create disharmony by pushing ads that incited both sides against one another, but Mueller’s turning a blind eye to this likelihood demonstrates his team’s inability to see beyond the 2016 campaign narrative about Russia involvement in the election.

“As Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein clarified in today’s press conference, ‘There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity,” meaning there was no tie to the Trump campaign or any other campaign for these activities. Mueller should also correct the record in his indictment. If the Russians were doing pro-Clinton ads, too, then it is impossible to deduce a partisan motive.”

To view online: https://getliberty.org/2018/02/muellers-blind-eye-is-troublesome-in-russia-probe-ignores-pro-clinton-russia-ads/

Attachments:

“MUELLER PUSHES DEEP STATE RUSSIAN COLLUSION BS: Numerous Sites Listed Were PRO-HILLARY not PRO-TRUMP,” by Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit, Feb. 16, 2018 at http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/02/mueller-pushes-deep-state-russian-collusion-bs-united-muslims-america-pro-hillary-group/

“Facebook ads reveal the real Russian game,” By Leonid Bershidsky, Chicago Tribune, Nov. 2, 2017 at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-russia-facebook-ads-20171102-story.html

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Feb. 16, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement declaring that Senate Democrats will own the DACA deportations when they begin because they couldn’t make a deal when they had the chance:

“Senate Democrats would rather deport DACA recipients than even do a minimal compromise with President Trump on extending DACA in exchange for building the wall proposed by Sen. Thune. The President has bent his campaign promises beyond the straining point by proposing a pathway to citizenship in exchange for basic reforms and security measures including the wall, and the Democrats would not take yes for an answer. The last two days have laid bare the reality of the Democrat Party that they would rather hold DACA recipients hostage than make any deal with President Trump.

“When the deportations inevitably begin, Senate Democrats will rightly own them notwithstanding their indignant press releases. It’s time to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and end the political gamesmanship and partisan manipulation by the radical left.

“It is time for President Trump and Republican leaders to take Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s no as his final answer.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Feb. 15, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in opposition to the Schumer-Rounds-Collins amendment:

“Everyone can remember the videos of train loads of illegal immigrants, as children, coming across the border when former President Barack Obama decided to crash our nation’s immigration system with DACA. The Schumer-Rounds-Collins amendment would create the greatest border rush in American history, with amnesty being offered to millions, and then tens of millions of individuals once chain migration is taken into consideration. On this point alone, this amendment should be defeated. This is not what the American people voted for in 2016.

“The only immigration proposal that would offer legal status to DACA recipients, while reforming the immigration system to prevent another rush, which means ending chain migration, the visa lottery and securing the southern border with the President’s wall is the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s legislation. The Schumer-Rounds-Collins amnesty amendment has earned opposition from the White House and a vote for it is a vote against any immigration bill as it would surely be vetoed, ending the debate for 2018 and ending DACA.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Feb. 14, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today urged Congress to make certain that the $131 billion of new, non-defense discretionary spending is only allocated to large, one-time projects that do not add to the baseline:

“Since Congress has decided to spend $131 billion in new, non-defense discretionary spending the next two years over Americans for Limited Government’s objections, it is clear that the limited government objective must be to not allow this spending to become permanent by being added to the baseline. To that end, Americans for Limited Government urges Congress to allocate the monies into one-time expenditures that otherwise might be too expensive to undertake.

“For example, allocating $7.5 billion for hardening the electrical grid against an EMP attack. In the era of a nuclear North Korea and a similarly threatening Iran, this is a critical need that could be met immediately using the already allocated dollars from the budget deal.

“While Americans for Limited Government would strongly prefer that these needs be met out of previously existing resources, Congress decided otherwise. To be clear, those funds should be rescinded, but if they’re not going to be, then it is Congress’ job to make certain that the spending is used to fill critical needs on a one-time basis rather than be wasted by hiring tens of thousands of new, permanent bureaucrats.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Feb. 12, 2018, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the President’s budget:

“A year ago, Americans for Limited Government effusively praised President Donald Trump’s proposed budget creating $4.5 trillion of substantive cuts in programs and creating a sober pathway to a balanced budget over the coming decade.

“However, the funding bill that was just passed by Congress and signed by the President makes the 2019 budget proposal interesting but not relevant. Specifically, the decision to increase spending by $143 billion for 2018, and $153 billion for 2019, makes the President’s newly released budget not worth the paper it’s printed because the obvious willingness to obscenely raise spending revealed in the latest government shutdown deal makes it clear that there is no political will to cut the budget in ways necessary to make the President’s spending cuts ever come to fruition.

“The only we will ever get control over the out of control spending is if we get rid of the Senate filibuster on appropriations bills and continuing resolutions. Absent that reform, the Democrat minority will always control America’s spending even when Republicans are in the majority.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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