Oct. 14, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to reports that the White House is considering military options in Syria without any authorization to use force being adopted by Congress:

“Any military action by President Obama in Syria must have the approval of Congress under Article One of the Constitution. Failure of President Obama to seek such approval puts into question his fitness to lead. In 2013, Obama sought and Congress explicitly did not vote to authorize force in Syria.

“If Obama wants a war with Russia so badly, he should call Congress into special session to make his case and to vote on it. If he proceeds with any military options against Russian and Syrian targets without Congressional assent, the consequences could be too dire for any of us to contemplate. It is incumbent on House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell to immediately state publicly their opposition to any military action in Syria without an affirmative vote of Congress, as the Constitution requires.”

Attachments:

“Exclusive: Obama, aides expected to weigh Syria military options on Friday,” Reuters, Oct. 14, 2016 at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-options-exclusiv-idUSKCN12D2B2

“How Hillary’s Russian reset now has us on the brink of Armageddon in Syria,” By Robert Romano, Oct. 13, 2016 at http://netrightdaily.com/2016/10/how-hillarys-russian-reset-now-has-us-on-the-brink-of-armageddon-in-syria/

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 including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Oct. 13, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement noting the timeline of deleting Hillary Clinton’s emails on her private email server apparently occurred after a Congressional subpoena was served on those records on March 4:

“Hillary Clinton would lie if it were in her interests to tell the truth. The fact that there was a criminal conspiracy in the State Department to delete Clinton’s emails the same day the Congressional subpoena for those records was served, shows that Clinton’s cover-up, where she claimed the emails had been deleted for months, would have made Richard Nixon blush. This is a smoking gun The emails apparently were not deleted until they were prohibited by law not to be deleted. This is destruction of evidence, which in itself is criminal. Given this information, the Department of Justice must appoint a special prosecutor today to investigate Clinton, her team, and the Justice Department that covered it up of obstruction of justice in order.

“Where is the generation of journalists that was supposedly inspired by Watergate? Do your jobs.”

Attachments:

Subpoena issued March 4, 2015 at https://benghazi.house.gov/sites/republicans.benghazi.house.gov/files/Kendall.Clinton%20Subpoena%20-%202015.03.04.pdf

Clinton officials discussing deleting emails, March 4, 2015 per Wikileaks: https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/6391

In the meantime, Hillary Clinton claimed on March 10, 2015 that the emails had been deleted months earlier: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/us/hillary-clinton-email.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 including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Oct. 12, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President today issued the following statement urging Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to stand with Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona:

“We live in an upside down world, where the U.S. Government is threatening to jail Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for following and enforcing our nation’s immigration laws. In the meantime, the same Justice Department has refused to prosecute Hillary Clinton for breaking our nation’s security laws. If I were advising Donald Trump, I’d encourage him to go to Phoenix, Arizona, and stand by Sheriff Arpaio, noting that the same Clinton press corps that has attacked him for saying that Hillary should be in prison at the debate are now silent as Obama attempts to jail Sheriff Arpaio for enforcing the law.

“We have truly gone through the looking glass, where enforcing immigration law is now a crime and breaking that law gets you a free pass into our country.”

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 including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Oct. 7, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest jobs numbers:

“Since 1997, the labor force participation rate for 16-64 year olds, that is, excluding seniors, has declined from 77.4 percent to 73.2 percent, accounting for 8.7 million working age adults who have either left the labor force or not entered on a net basis. These are Americans in their prime working years but are simply not participating, and when some of them do try to participate, the unemployment rate increases, as it did today. If they were included into today’s jobs report in full as unemployed, the unemployment rate would be about 9.8 percent, not 5 percent as reported.”

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 including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Oct. 3, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Virginians strongly support American sovereignty and voters across the Commonwealth sense that current trade deals do a poor job of protecting American interests, a poll conducted on Americans for Limited Government’s behalf by Norman Research and Analytics finds.

The poll was conducted among 1,062 registered voters telephone surveyed on both landlines and mobile devices from Sept. 2 to Sept. 11.

The ramifications for President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are stark as voters by a 59 percent to 35 percent across all demographic groups agreed with the statement, “We can bring jobs back to America by reducing our nation’s participation in trade deals that make it easy for other countries to flood our markets with cheap goods.”

This sentiment that our nation should adopt a broad set of “America First” policies runs deeply throughout the state with a significant majority wanting lawmakers to worry about the impact to America’s economy when considering or reconsidering trade deals.

Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government argued, “The fact that people from all age, gender, racial and education agree with this basic statement should give strong pause to Congress if it should attempt to pass the TPP during a lame duck session.  While we didn’t micro-target down to this level, it appears that the only segments of the Virginia electorate that might support the TPP are those who are paid to lobby for it by the multi-nationals who would most benefit from the deal.”

The most encouraging aspect of the survey is that it shows the basic American concept of self-determination runs deeply in the electorate with support from conservatives, moderates and self-described liberals.

The polling also explored the general notion of who should make the laws and regulations that impact Americans, with 69 percent to 26 percent agreeing with the statement, “America must have the ability to set its own laws and regulations and not be bound to standards set by foreign nations and international organizations.”

“It is refreshing to see that regardless of political leaning, Virginians are committed to the Constitutional construct that our nation’s laws should be made through the consent of the governed, and not imposed by foreign, unaccountable bodies empowered by trade deals,” Manning continued.

The study clearly demonstrates that the public has little trust that existing trade agreements have been beneficial on the whole, and while respondents do not reject international trade, they are highly skeptical that America’s interests have been served through recent trade deals.

The study concludes by stating, “It is clear that any legislation or proposal that cedes U.S. authority to international bodies and allows those foreign bodies to exert authority over American citizens and commerce will be met with strong opposition. As the debate over various trade arrangements goes forward, these trends and attitudes will be tested in other states.  But using Virginia as a guide, moving to enact the Trans-Pacific Partnership would be a serious political mistake for those advocating it.”

Manning concluded, “That is something for Congress to consider should Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell push forward with President Obama’s attempt to rewrite the rules of the world’s economy by jamming the TPP down the public’s throats after the election. Every member of Congress should tell their constituents now, how they would vote in a lame duck session and be held accountable to that promise.”

Attachments:

Voter attitudes toward trade in Virginia, Norman Analytics on behalf of Americans for Limited Government, Sept. 2-Sept.11, at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/TradePollVa10-3-16.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 including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Sept. 28, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for a deal to fund the Flint, Mich. water supply with $170 million and not getting anything in return:

“So, Democrats block the continuing resolution, demand money for the Flint, Mich. water supply. House Republicans led by House Speaker Paul Ryan relent and agree to add it to the House water bill after that proposal was defeated in the House Rules Committee, and got nothing in return.

“Republicans have majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats were actively demanding extra add-ons for these bills, and they couldn’t even get a rider stopping the irreversible transition of U.S. oversight of the Internet’s domain name system. That, even though the Department of Justice has repeatedly failed to respond to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on a number of outstanding legal concerns with the Internet transition of U.S. oversight of the domain name system. These issues risk either creating an unaccountable global Internet monopoly or a potentially fractured domain name system if antitrust does come into play. The transition proposal contemplates neither scenario, and these issues cannot be addressed once the transition occurs on Oct. 1.

“Did they even try? Ryan and McConnell have not issued any public statements on the matter, so we must assume they actively agree with surrendering U.S. oversight of the Internet. They didn’t even put up a fight. House and Senate Republicans are not what they say, they are what they do. And what they are doing is allowing President Obama to give away the Internet to the international community, threatening the American people’s vital Internet freedoms. And don’t let any Republican tell you different.

“Moreover, now former defense and Congressional officials, national security professionals and cyber experts are warning that the transition of the domain name system threatens our national security, which depends on private sector infrastructure, by exposing the nation to new cyber vulnerabilities. This lapse in U.S. oversight of the domain name system and IP addresses then not only threatens censorship on the Internet, but also poses new dangers to U.S. communications in the event of an attack. What could go wrong?”

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 including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Sept. 27, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Congress to reject any continuing resolution that fails to stop the Internet surrender:

“It is now or never to stop the Internet surrender. Given the Department of Justice’s failures to respond to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on a number of outstanding legal concerns with the Internet transition of U.S. oversight of the domain name system, delaying the transition for at least a year while these issues are addressed and letting a new Congress and Administration take a look is in order. These issues risk either creating an unaccountable global Internet monopoly or a potentially fractured domain name system if antitrust does come into play. The transition proposal contemplates neither scenario, and these issues cannot be addressed once the transition occurs on Oct. 1.”

Attachments:

“Last chance to save the free and open Internet,” By Robert Romano, Sept. 27, 2016 at http://netrightdaily.com/2016/09/last-chance-save-the-free-and-open-internet/

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 including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Sept. 26, 2016, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the House Rules Committee to block any amendment to the water bill that funds Flint, Mich. water:

“If House Republicans approve dollars for Flint, Michigan in the water bill today, they will lose any leverage they possess to block the Internet surrender in the continuing resolution and fuel perceptions that the fix is in. House Republicans should vote down any rule that includes the Kildee amendment to fund Flint, Michigan water. This is not out of animus to the Kildee amendment but rather the inappropriateness of giving Senate Democrats their last spending want in the continuing resolution without their agreeing to stop the Internet giveaway. Dumping the water bill rule that includes Flint spending is the only leverage the House may have over the Senate continuing resolution, since no amendments will be allowed on the House side on the spending bill. It is somewhat stunning that House Democrats are allowed to offer and pass amendments for their priorities but House Republicans are not, including stopping the Internet surrender. It’s almost as if we’ve returned to 2009 with Nancy Pelosi in charge.”

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 including ALG President Rick Manning.

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