Jan. 3, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging that India be removed from the General System of Preferences:

“Given India’s continued rhetoric on free trade and its $2.3 trillion Gross Domestic Product, it is time for the U.S. to consider removing India from the General System of Preferences, a federal program of which it is the number one beneficiary at $4.7 billion a year. Right now, the U.S. does not receive similar trade preferences in return, and it is time that India join the U.S. in pursuing shared interests on free markets, intellectual property and labor. A bilateral trade deal with India would be preferable to the blanket approach offered by the General System of Preferences, where India is treated the same as small, undeveloped countries.  It is time for India meet the promise of their Make In India campaign and leave the little kids trade table and join the adults in a bilateral deal with the United States.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Jan. 2, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting the failure in New Mexico of another health care law co-op:

“New Mexico Health Connections was founded using $77 million of taxpayer loans. Now, they’re seeking private sector funding to keep them afloat at some level. Obamacare co-ops were supposed to be the non-profit approach to health insurance to make certain that everyone had low-cost options for coverage. Not surprisingly, co-ops across the nation have failed as customer costs exceeded revenues. President Trump should demand that the New Mexico Health Connections the U.S. taxpayers at the front of the line for repaying the $77 million in loans they received. Naturally, these payments will never be received and the people who put their trust in a guaranteed to fail co-op business model will find in New Mexico as people have found in other states across the Union, that low-cost Obamacare was more hope than reality.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Dec. 21, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising Attorney General Jeff Sessions for reopening the Uranium One matter:

“Various reports that the Attorney General has ordered a review of the facts surrounding the sale of Uranium One to Russian interests demonstrates that not only will internal determinations about legality of the sale be examined, but potential conflicts of interests of those involved. Also, whether information was deliberately withheld from the Committee on Foreign Investment by the Justice Department. And if Hillary Clinton had any culpability in the process of the sale. Given that many of the same Department of Justice officials now overseeing major investigations at the department were a major part of the Rosatom subsidiary Tenex (the Russian atomic energy agency) corruption case, it is important to determine what, if any, Russian ties and conflicts they might have had.

“The Uranium One case has achieved notoriety in recent months as an FBI whistleblower has come forward with serious allegations of malfeasance in the handling of the case as persons affiliated with the deal gave approximately $145 million to the Clinton Foundation, while former President Bill Clinton received $500,000 for a speech to a Russian investment firm involved in the sale.

“Attorney General Sessions is right to look into these matters to ensure that the public interest and law were followed throughout the process in light of very credible whistleblower allegations.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Dec. 20, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning praised efforts by Congress and the Trump administration to repeal the individual mandate under the health care law:

“Thanks to President Trump and Congress, the tyranny of the individual mandate is coming to an end, which penalized individuals if they chose to opt out of purchasing health insurance. As a result more than 6 million Americans were being penalized more than $3 billion a year. Now, starting in 2019, every American will once again have what they are entitled to by right, a choice to participate in the insurance market. No more guaranteed customers. Now companies will have to compete on price to attract individuals to their plans. This is the first step to repealing the health care law. Ending the individual mandate takes away the cornerstone of Obamacare, and is another promise kept by President Trump and Congress. Although it is disappointing that the repeal will not occur for another year, this is a giant step in the right direction for the American people.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Dec. 19, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the Senate to override the Senate parliamentarian’s bid to strip three provisions out of the House-Senate conference legislation:

“The Senate parliamentarian does not get to write the tax law for America. The Senate needs to override the ruling and pass the tax cut bill as passed by the House. The parliamentarian is nothing more than an appointed bureaucrat who serves at the pleasure of the majority. She is unelected and directly accountable to the Senate majority, not the sole arbiter of the rules of the Senate.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Dec. 19, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on passage of the House-Senate conference tax cut bill:

“The passage of tax cut language will help our nation achieve robust economic growth that helps all Americans. The inclusion of the repeal of the notorious Obamacare individual mandate effective January 1, 2019 makes the passage even more sweet.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Dec. 19, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General to investigate allegations that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, without a warrant, seized Trump transition emails from the General Services Administration:

“The Department of Justice Inspector General is engaged in an investigation of misconduct by department officials who attempted to impact the 2016 election with a politically motivated counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign and then transition. Special Counsel Robert Mueller falls under the purview of the department, and he reportedly engaged in a warrantless all-encompassing collection of communications within the Trump transition team in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment and the 1987 O’Connor v. Ortega Supreme Court decision. Therefore, the Inspector General should immediately incorporate this abuse of power by the Special Counsel into its investigation. This is misconduct at the highest levels of the Justice Department, and a gross violation of the constitutional rights of everyone who participated in the transition, and the perpetrators must be held accountable.”

To view online: https://getliberty.org/2017/12/doj-inspector-general-should-investigate-mueller-warrantless-seizure-of-trump-transition-emails/

Attachments:

“[W]e reject the contention made by the Solicitor General and petitioners that public employees can never have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their place of work. Individuals do not lose Fourth Amendment rights merely because they work for the government instead of a private employer.”  O’Connor v. Ortega (1987) at http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/480/709.html

Warrantless searches by Mueller of Trump transition emails ‘stain on American jurisprudence’, Statement by Rick Manning, Dec. 18, 2017, at https://getliberty.org/2017/12/warrantless-searches-by-mueller-of-trump-transition-emails-stain-on-american-jurisprudence/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Senate committee should reconsider Garrett to head bank

Dec. 19, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today in a statement called on President Donald Trump to withdraw board nominees to the Ex-Im Bank in response to the Senate Banking Committee holding up the nomination of former U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to head the bank:

“The Senate Banking Committee’s decision to not move forward former Rep. Scott Garrett’s nomination to head the Ex-Im Bank is a major disappointment. The ultimate corporate cronyism is when big corporations like Boeing succeed in defeating the President’s choice to run a bank that they are the major beneficiary of. The truth is the Ex-Im Bank has not been fully functional due to a lack of quorum on their governing board for two years and in response President Trump should immediately withdraw the other Ex-Im Bank board nominations that would provide a quorum in the absence of someone to lead the bank. The U.S. economy has been thriving this year without the Ex-Im Bank’s ability to make large loans, including X trillion of exports despite little money from the bank.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Dec. 19, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting media sources false reports that a provision was added at the last minute to the tax cut conference report to personally benefit the finances of Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.):

“Can the left-wing media get anything right? The so-called Corker kickback, allegations by the International Business Times that the pundits and reporters at the New York Times, New York Magazine, MSNBC, Huffington Post, Politico and virtually every left-wing media outlet repeated, is patently false. Again. When the ready-shoot-aim left-wing hate media ever learn to check their sources? A simple call to the Senate Finance Committee would have revealed that the provision was already a part of the House tax bill, which was debated on the floor of the House, of which Bob Corker is not a member. Anyone who took basic high school civics knows that a conference report incorporates ideas from both the House and the Senate, along with some other provisions that are mutually agreed upon. To claim in a last-ditch effort to submarine passage of the tax cut bill that something nefarious had occurred makes me question their intelligence, integrity or their ability to tell the truth. This is fake news.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Dec. 18, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement expressing concern about reports that the Special Counsel obtained Trump transition emails from the General Services Administration, for which “This wasn’t a subpoena pursuant to a grand jury. GSA just turned them over” according to a White House adviser:

“As a member of the Trump transition team, I am deeply offended that Robert Mueller thinks that he can get away with snooping through confidential policy conversations without obtaining a warrant. What’s more, the General Services Administration’s choice to give away transition team documents without forcing a legal warrant to be issued effectively ends future transitions’ ability to consider policy in an open manner utilizing official resources. Mueller’s shotgun investigative approach which apparently assumes everyone is guilty until proven innocent will leave a permanent stain on American jurisprudence and end the illusion of a non-partisan justice system.

“Nothing less than the normal peaceful transition of power is at stake as a result of Mueller’s abuses, as future presidents-elect will be forced to assume that every internal consideration will be subject to public scrutiny. No incoming administration can ever again engage in the type of policy what-ifs necessary to assume the executive branch responsibilities now that the wall of confidentiality has been breached.”

Attachments:

“Any disruption occasioned by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and well-being of the United States and its people.” Presidential Transition Act of 1963, Section 2 at https://www.gsa.gov/governmentwide-initiatives/presidential-transition/legislative-overview/presidential-transition-act-of-1963

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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