July 23, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement urging members of the House of Representatives to adopt an amendment offered by Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash to the 2014 Defense Appropriations Act that would defund FBI and NSA domestic surveillance to collect communications data “if such things do not pertain to a person who is the subject of an investigation”:

“The amendment offered by Amash will defund domestic surveillance under the Patriot Act. We urge its adoption by House members of both political parties. Nobody’s records should be collected unless there is specific investigation into that person taking place for crimes that have been committed and a lawful warrant has been issued by a judge upon probable cause.

“It is time that members of Congress weigh in on and reject this ubiquitous surveillance state that is being built. For more than ten years, this program has operated in secret without any explicit congressional authorization. After top secret court orders revealed that the FBI and NSA were collecting intelligence broadly on every single person in the country, many members of Congress claimed they had no idea just how pervasive the surveillance really was. This is information about everyone, not just those who are suspected of crimes. That is not what the Fourth Amendment says.

“Now members have an opportunity to rein this in before it is too late. They can no longer hide behind the veil of secrecy. This is an up or down vote on whether Congress will allow the FBI and NSA to operate an omniscient secret police or not. The American people cannot afford for members to get this one wrong. No less than the liberty of every single American is at stake.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (202) 744-4427 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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July 22, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement responding to the bankruptcy of Detroit, Mich.:

“Detroit’s bankruptcy should serve as a wakeup call for all Americans.  The motor city’s failure is conclusive evidence that our nation cannot continue to take for granted that we will remain the wealthiest nation in the world.  The Obama Administration plus many state and local governments continue to assume that they can engage in a full-fledged assault on our nation’s job and real energy producers using both the tax code and environmental regulations, meanwhile creating an almost $3 trillion unfunded pension liability. It is nothing more than a pathway to disaster.

“Hopefully, Detroit’s example will cause Americans to reject the pervasive attitude in the Obama Administration and at the state and local level that the free enterprise goose that has laid the American golden egg cannot be killed no matter how many lead weights are put around its neck.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (202) 744-4427 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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July 11, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today urged passage of legislation by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the “Defund Obamacare Act,” and urged the House of Representatives to adopt similar language and attach it to a must-pass continuing resolution:

“The Cruz bill can be distinguished from other proposed ‘defunding’ efforts that merely target agency budgets but leave untouched insurance subsidies under the state exchanges, Medicaid expansion and other ‘mandatory’ entitlement spending required under the law. It acknowledges that changes to the law are necessary outside the appropriations process in order to actually defund it. Senator Cruz is to be applauded for this effort.

“The House of Representatives should adopt similar language and attach it to the must-pass continuing resolution this September to force a showdown on the issue. If the Obama Administration believes it can arbitrarily delay the employer mandate for a year, then the House should force an immediate debate on whether the rest of the bill should be funded as well. If Republicans are committed to stopping Obamacare before it takes effect in 2014, this may be their last chance.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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July 5, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement responding to the latest job numbers:

“Today’s unemployment report is clear proof that doomsayers who predicted that the federal government spending cuts contained in the sequester would harm economic growth were spectacularly wrong.

“The report shows that the private sector gained 202,000 jobs, and taxpayer funded employment continues to fall.  This is great news, and an affirmation that the size and scope of government has been a drag on economic growth.

“Even with this good news, it is clear that business hiring is still in a wait and see mode as employment increases largely centered on temporary workforce hiring.

“Private sector hiring is clearly still in a wait and see mode with Obamacare implementation and a promised regulatory explosion slowing job opportunity creation.

“It cannot be lost that the damage done by Obama’s $14 trillion four year spending spree is not easily fixed.  It is unacceptable that after all the promises, deficit spending, and massive Federal Reserve money printing, the unemployment rate remains at 7.6 percent, with 16.9 million Americans either unemployed or underemployed.

“These 16.9 million who have been left on the sidelines of economic recovery need Congress to act aggressively in defunding those agencies that are killing jobs through Obama’s misguided regulatory agenda.

“This is a battle worth fighting, because every American deserves a shot at the American dream, and no one should be robbed of hope by the job destroying Obama regulatory state.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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July 3, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement responding to the White House’s decision to arbitrarily delay implementation of the employer mandate under Obamacare:

“Americans for Limited Government strongly opposes the implementation of Obamacare, and welcome’s the President’s admission that the law is too unwieldy to put in place in the legal timeline that he fought for, and that he agreed to meet when he signed it into law.

“However, no president, not even this one, has the constitutional prerogative to just arbitrarily change the law of this country.  That is what separates a representative democracy from a third world dictatorship where the elected Congress is largely just meaningless apparatchiks.

“Obama’s audacious assumption that he can just set aside portions of a law through a blog post is extremely disturbing, because it cuts to the heart of his disrespect for the constraints on his presidential powers.  In America, a president cannot just announce that magically the law is being changed by promising not to enforce portions of it, and it is time for Congress to take action to protect the Constitution.

“Now that Obama has admitted that his health care law is not ready for prime time, Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Reid should immediately pass legislation that delays implementation of the entire law not just for one, but for three years to ensure that bureaucratic bungling doesn’t collapse the health care system costing America’s most vulnerable citizens their lives.

“The danger to the American public, and the complexity of the implementation of the Obamacare law is too important to allow a cavalier Administration blog post to dictate its outcome.

“It is time for Congress, on a bi-partisan basis, to reassert its constitutional role, and save the nation from the health care train wreck that is bearing down on the American public in 2014.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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June 26, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government today delivered a letter to House Speaker John Boehner today signed by leaders of eight major organizations urging his “opposition to legislation that would drive up healthcare costs and line the pockets of trial lawyer by opening generic drug manufacturers to frivolous lawsuits.”

The letter signed by leaders of Americans for Limited Government, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Hispanic Leadership Fund, American Commitment, King Street Patriots, LessGovernment.org, Independent Women’s Forum and Congress On Racial Equality is particularly relevant given today’s Supreme Court decision in Mutual Pharmaceutical v. Bartlett.

One of the underlying cases for today‘s decision was the PLIVA, Inc  v. Mensing case in 2011 where the Court held that it was impossible for generics to change (much less strengthen) safety warnings to comply with state law and still comply with the federal law’s requirement that their labeling be “the same as” FDA-approved brand drug labeling.

Nathan Mehrens, president of Americans for Limited Government explained, “Attempts by the trial bar to open up generic drug manufacturers to liability because they followed U.S. Food and Drug Administration labeling standards are absurd on their face.  If Congress allows this to occur, those who depend upon low cost generics will likely see the prices skyrocket as attorneys across the nation go wild suing manufacturers for following federal law.”

The letter asks the Speaker to “actively oppose such legislation when it is introduced and stop any momentum that it might hope to gain.”

It is anticipated that legislation overturning Mensing will be introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

Attachments:

Letter to House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, June 24, 2013, at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Generics-Labeling-Legislation-Letter-6-26-13.pdf

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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