FBI wiretapping National Security Advisor Mike Flynn in December ‘outrageous,’ ALG urges investigation into Obama intel witch hunt

Jan. 26, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting former Obama administration surveillance of then-National Security Advisor-select Mike Flynn in December and urging a Congressional investigation of the abuse of intelligence agencies under Obama:

“It is positively outrageous, that National Security Advisor Mike Flynn was under FBI surveillance in December because of normal foreign government contacts during a presidential transition, that were then leaked to the news media to create the appearance of sedition. Later the FBI found nothing illicit about the contacts.

“The question is why did the Obama administration put it to the news media when they knew there was nothing to it? This act appears to be evidence that on its way out the door, the Obama administration was engaged in a political witch hunt designed to hamper the incoming Trump Administration, abusing intelligence and utilizing surveillance against political opponents in the Trump campaign and transition.

“It is not at all uncommon for a President-elect’s national security team to have contacts overseas prior to taking office, as Henry Kissinger, who was no spy, can readily attest. Kissinger had backchannel contacts at the height of the Cold War in 1968 with a Soviet intelligence official prior to Richard Nixon assuming office, which created avenues that led to successful summits, détente and eventually the Strategic Arms Limitations and Anti-Ballistic Missile treaties in 1972. These sorts of contacts can facilitate the promulgation of foreign policy so that when the President takes office, the national security team can begin work immediately. There is nothing seditious about the practice.

“The Congressional intelligence committees, if they investigate anything, ought to be figuring out why the Obama administration apparently had the Trump campaign and transition under surveillance and then used it politically — for such a scandal was heretofore unthinkable in our nation.”

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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ALG urges DOJ investigation into voter fraud utilizing Social Security records

Jan. 26, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued statement urged for the Department of Justice to investigate potential voter fraud by utilizing Social Security records after President Donald Trump called for a “major investigation”:

“The Attorney General of the United States should get to the bottom of this voter fraud issue by conducting analysis of the voter files from all fifty states and the District of Columbia comparing them to Social Security records. They should also attempt to discern how many individuals voted in multiple locations due to the ease of postcard voter registration. The American right to vote is sacred, and when someone either votes illegally or votes multiple times in the same election, they put a stake through the heart of our representative government and should be subject to prosecution.

“If, as many claim, there was no voter fraud, the issue will be put to rest.  However, if hundreds of thousands or even millions voted illegally, the system must be reformed to ensure that the one person/one vote principle is upheld.”

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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Comstock ‘knee-jerk’ opposition to federal hiring freeze ‘unconscionable’

Jan. 24, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) for opposing a freeze of hiring non-security federal workers:

“One sure way to stop the growth of government is to freeze the number of new, non-essential, non-security personnel that are hired by the federal government, and Rep. Comstock’s knee jerk opposition to a short-term, common sense move to limiting the size and scope of government is unconscionable and indistinguishable from the Democrats she defeated in 2014 and 2016. If Rep. Comstock wants to be a viable statewide candidate in Virginia, she needs to start sounding a whole lot more like Ronald Reagan and a whole lot less like Barack Obama.”

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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Trump clearing way for Keystone XL ‘a step forward’ for energy independence

Jan. 24, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising President Donald Trump for approving the development of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines:

“President Trump’s executive actions clearing away the Obama administration obstacles to the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines are an important shift in U.S. policy, a step forward in achieving North American energy independence. Our nation’s economic future is tied to domestic and North American energy development and the low costs for consumers that result. President Trump promised to move ahead with Keystone XL and he kept his promise. American workers should be smiling today as an estimated 42,000 jobs will be supported as a result of this decision according to prior Obama State Department assessments.”

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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ALG praises Trump executive order withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact

Jan. 23, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising President Donald Trump for withdrawing the U.S. from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement:

“Elections have consequences, and the globalists lost with the victory of President Trump in November. The Trans-Pacific Partnership was always an ill-conceived attempt to usurp U.S. sovereignty and harm American workers by shifting more production overseas. President Trump’s withdrawal from the TPP keeps his promise to put America first and to refocus U.S. trade policy away from massive, multinational deals to bilateral agreements that serve U.S. interests. Many politicians say one thing in a campaign, and do another once elected. Ending the TPP was a foundational part of the Trump campaign agenda, and today, Trump has demonstrated to the American people that when he said it was a ‘bad, bad deal’ he meant it.”

Attachments:

Donald J. Trump Joins Americans for Limited Government in TPP opposition, May 7, 2015 at https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-joins-americans-for-limited-government

Trump joins ALG in fight against Pacific Trade Deal, May 6, 2015 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0wX7CqfAA

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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ALG congratulates President Trump and Vice President Pence on inauguration

Jan. 20, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement congratulating President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on being sworn into office:

“Americans for Limited Government congratulates President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in ushering a new administration that is committed to American renewal. The next four years promise to be a time where the proper, constitutional rule of law and the separation of powers are restored, bringing an end to executive branch pen and phone governance. President Trump’s vision for a growing, vibrant American economy that puts Americans first stands in startling contrast to the policies seen this century, where jobs and production have been shifted overseas.

“We also like to congratulate former Americans for Limited Government Foundation President Nathan Mehrens on his joining the Trump administration in the Department of Labor.”

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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ALG supports Rep. Gosar’s bill rescinding HUD income and racial zoning rule

Jan. 12, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government senior editor Robert Romano today issued the following statement supporting legislation by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) that would rescind the Department of Housing and Urban Development regulation “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” that conditions receipt of $3.2 billion community development block grants to 1,200 cities and counties on rezoning those municipalities along federal income and racial guidelines:

“Americans for Limited Government wholeheartedly endorses Rep. Gosar’s legislation to fully rescind the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulations by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that conditions receipt of Community Development Block Grants on rezoning municipalities along income and racial guidelines. It is vast overreach by the federal government, imposing its will on local communities, dictating what must be built where in order to advance a radical, utopian vision of where people should live. AFFH ignores the reality of the nation’s housing market, where individuals based on employment, family and other concerns determine for themselves where they would like to live, and the rule obscures the fact that real housing discrimination is already prohibited on an individual basis. Finally, the rule is not only unnecessary and overreaches in every regard, the federal government has no constitutional role in local zoning issues, which rightly belongs to the states, counties and cities.

“President-elect Donald Trump can and should start the process of rescinding this rule via the Administrative Procedures Act, but to stop it for good, Congress must prohibit this rule and anything substantially similar, with Congress asserting its Article I prerogatives. The Gosar bill meets that threshold and we hope that the administration including incoming Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson will embrace a legislative approach in addition to taking executive action to rein in this vast federal overreach.”

To view online: https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Local-Zoning-Decisions-Protection-Act-2017.pdf

Attachments:

“Obama finalizes plan to redraw your neighborhood,” By Robert Romano, July 9, 2015 at http://netrightdaily.com/2015/07/obama-finalizes-racist-plan-to-redraw-your-neighborhood/

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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ALG supports Lee-Rubio-Cruz principles for repealing Obamacare

Jan. 4, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government senior editor Robert Romano today issued the following statement support of the principles set out by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), defining that H.R. 3762, which President Barack Obama vetoed in 2016, should be the bare minimum of what the Republican majorities of the House and Senate consider in 2017 to put on President-elect Donald Trump’s desk when he assumes office later this month:

“If anybody has credibility on repealing the health care law, it is Sen. Ted Cruz who filibustered funding for it in 2013, and Sens. Marco Rubio and Mike Lee, who joined him on the floor in support. H.R. 3762 passed the House and Senate in 2015, and was vetoed by President Obama in 2016. Both chambers then failed to override the veto, but now there is a real opportunity to have that very same piece of legislation signed into law by President-elect Donald Trump when he assumes office later this month.

“That bill got rid of Medicaid expansion, premium subsidies, cost-sharing subsidies, the individual and employer mandates, reinsurance, risk corridors and risk-adjustment, and the many taxes and spending from the health care law. If that is the bill that is put on Trump’s desk, it would be a monumental achievement. If it was good enough in 2016 for Obama to veto, it should be good enough to put on Trump’s desk to sign. And if it is good enough for Lee, Rubio and Cruz, then it is good enough for Americans for Limited Government. Republicans would be foolish not to get everything they could under budget reconciliation.

“If states want to do Medicaid expansion for those with incomes in the middle of the spectrum, the so-called doughnut hole, that’s their business. Federal taxpayers should not be compelled to subsidize it. The bottom line is this is an historic chance to keep a six-year-old Republican promise to repeal the guts of Obamacare and Republicans should not blink at this rare opportunity the American people have given to them to limit the size and scope of the government. They should do no less than what they forced Obama to veto in 2016 and hopefully with the new majorities and the White House, they’ll do even more going forward, including allowing insurance to be sold across state lines.”

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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Internet chief ICANN making moves to go overseas or under international law, outside U.S. law?

Dec. 27, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government senior editor Robert Romano today issued the following statement condemning the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which administers the world’s domain name system, for refusing to rule out a proposal that would take ICANN out from under U.S. law as a California-based corporation and instead incorporate it overseas:

“One of the preconditions under which the U.S. transitioned administration of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions is that would remain under U.S. law as a California-based corporation. Now, the ink on the transition has barely dried, and ICANN refuses to rule out proposals to take the corporation out from under U.S. law, potentially sending ICANN overseas or governed by international law. This is exactly what opponents of the transition warned would eventually happen if the transition proceeded. Congress failed to stop the Obama administration from surrendering U.S. oversight of the Internet, and now sooner than anyone thought we could be paying the price for that negligence. Were those who assured Congress that ICANN would remain in the U.S. lying, or is this a new development, with the international community now being emboldened to finish the job of globalizing the Internet, free of any U.S. legal oversight including antitrust?”

To view online: http://getliberty.org/2016/12/internet-chief-icann-making-moves-to-place-itself-under-international-law-outside-u-s-law/

Attachments:

“While discussion of ICANN’s place of incorporation is not central to the work of the incumbent subgroup, as per the recommendations of our WS1 report, should the subgroup identify an issue where it appears that the only apparent solution would be a change in ICANN’s place of incorporation, then the issue would be discussed, since we don’t want to rule out any discussions that can help the subgroup produce a better and complete outcome.” Mathieu Weill, ICANN CCWG Accountability Co-chair, Dec. 22, 2016 in response to Seun Ojedeji at http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/accountability-cross-community/2016-December/013529.html

“Let me re-state my question again: ‘is change of ICANN’s current jurisdiction of incorporation open for debate within WS2 hence can be an (or one of the) outcome from the jurisdiction sub-group’? Greg [Shatan]’s Response was ‘somewhat yes’ – if there is an issue that warrants it then it will be recommended. While I have no problem leaving such option open for discussion in future (perhaps by other group even though it’s been discussed significantly in the past), and of course the actions of the new US govt could trigger such need especially if the ICANN Board is convinced as such but that is not the case as as today.” Seun Ojedeji, Chief Network Engineer at Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Nigeria, Dec. 14, 2016 at http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/accountability-cross-community/2016-December/013461.html

Index threads at http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/accountability-cross-community/2016-December/subject.html and http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/accountability-cross-community/2016-November/013409.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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ALG praises introduction of SB 13 in Texas to block government collection of union dues for certain agencies

Dec. 20, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government senior editor Robert Romano today issued the following statement praising introduction of SB 13 in the Texas legislature, which will block government collection of union dues for agencies besides police, firefighters and first responders:

“Texas is setting an example to other state governments across the country with introduction of legislation, SB 13, that will start to block some government collection of union dues. Governments don’t collect dues for other political and non-profit organizations, and there’s no reason it should happen here. Government unions should collect dues just like every other non-profit, on a voluntary basis, without the instrumentalities of the state involved. Americans for Limited Government praises Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for making this a top legislative priority in 2017. This is a step in the right direction.”

Attachments:

Texas Senate Bill 13, Dec. 16, 2016 at https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB13/2017

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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