Dec. 17, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today thanked 32 states for not implementing a state-run health insurance exchange under Obamacare:

“32 states representing 63 percent of the population, a clear majority Americans, are to be praised for rejecting state exchanges under Obamacare. Because federal exchanges lack statutory authority to issue insurance subsidies and enforce the employer mandate, businesses in these states now will have the chance to challenge these regulations in court.

“This will help protect job creators from penalties and other costs under the law’s employer mandate, affording them a competitive advantage over those which have state exchanges. This is a wholesale rejection of Obamacare at the state level.”

States with federal exchanges:

ALABAMA
ALASKA
ARIZONA
FLORIDA
GEORGIA
INDIANA
KANSAS
LOUISIANA
MAINE
MISSOURI
MONTANA
NEBRASKA
NEW HAMPSHIRE
NEW JERSEY
NORTH DAKOTA
OHIO
OKLAHOMA
PENNSYLVANIA
SOUTH CAROLINA
SOUTH DAKOTA
TENNESSEE
TEXAS
VIRGINIA
WISCONSIN
WYOMING

States establishing partnerships:

ARKANSAS
DELAWARE
IOWA
ILLINOIS
MICHIGAN
NORTH CAROLINA
WEST VIRGINIA

Attachments:

“Why governors should not implement state insurance exchanges under Obamacare,” By Bill Wilson, Nov. 14, 2012, at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/11/why-governors-should-not-implement-state-insurance-exchanges-under-obamacare/

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

 

Dec. 12, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Taxpayers are footing the bill for thirty five union officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation, which spent $4.8 million dollars in union salaries in 2012, paying an average salary of $138,175 per year according to a report released by Americans for Limited Government today.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association accounted for twenty one of the taxpayer funded employees with eight people making in excess of $170,000 a year.

Of the thirty five, only three make less than $100,000 a year, with the lone National Federation of Federal Employees representative registering the low annual union salary of $80,748.

Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government questioned why taxpayers are paying union salaries at all saying, “It is obscene that in one Department alone, taxpayers are being stuck with almost $5 million in public employee union salary costs, these unions collect member dues and should pay for their own employees.”

Labor unions have become increasingly dependent upon the public employee sector as their presence in the private sector has fallen to near record lows with fewer than 7 percent of non-government employees belonging to a union.  While private sector union membership has collapsed, government union membership has grown so rapidly that more than 50 percent of AFL-CIO membership is now comprised of public employees.

This shift explains organized labor’s increased stridence against reasonable measures to rein in government spending, as they are one of the chief beneficiaries of larger government payrolls.

The scrutiny of taxpayer funding of labor union employees’ salaries comes on the heels of historic losses for Big Labor in the states of Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin in 2012.  These losses in formerly heavily unionized rust belt states signal that organized labor will be even more dependent upon their federal public employee base for the dues money that fuels their political clout.

“Big Labor has been a primary financier for the far left advocates of expanded government, it is time for elected officials to cut off the gravy train of having the taxpayers pay for union salaries.  It is simply wrong for American workers who have a median household income of just more than $50,000, to pay the freight for non-productive government workers who make more than two and a half times that amount,” Wilson concluded.

The report on Transportation Department union employee salaries was created using Department responses to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Americans for Limited Government.  The FOIA history can be found at www.algfoiafiles.com.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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Dec. 11, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising the Michigan House of Representatives for passing right-to-work legislation that leaves it up to workers whether or not they wish to join a union when hired:

“The Michigan House of Representatives passage of right-to-work legislation is a momentous step forward for worker rights.  The tyranny of having to pay dues to a labor union just to be able to have a job is being ended in the state that is most synonymous with the labor movement.  In this case, the symbolism is reality.

“With fewer than 7 percent of all privately employed workers belonging to labor unions, the far left movement is taking its last gasping breaths.  Out of their death rattle, it is not shocking to hear those who cling to the past, making threats like the one heard in the Michigan House chamber that, ‘there will be blood’ when the bill becomes law.  These kinds of threats are the norm for Big Labor, but today in Michigan, they ring hollow, as the people and their elected officials have decided to give workers a choice of whether to pay union dues.

“History shows that when workers have this choice, they reject union membership as being irrelevant, and that is why Big Labor is in a state of shock.  If they can lose Michigan, they have lost not only the battle, but the entire war.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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Dec. 7, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on November’s unemployment rate:

“122,000 fewer Americans had jobs in November than in October, yet the government reports that the unemployment rate declined to 7.7 percent.  This simple fact is why the unemployment rate has become one of the least relevant economic statistics that the federal government releases.  Instead of being a benchmark for the nation’s employment situation, Instead of being a benchmark for the nation’s employment situation, the unemployment rate has become nothing more than a statistical anomaly.  Anyone who continues to take it seriously as a meaningful measure of our nation’s economy is either fooling themselves or trying to fool others.”

Below is the data from Schedule A of the Labor Department unemployment report (bolding added for emphasis):

Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted

HOUSEHOLD DATA
Summary table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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Dec. 5, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today praised Sen. Lindsey Graham’s warning to the Obama Administration that congressional Republicans are “not going to raise the debt ceiling ever againuntil we address what got us in debt, and that’s government spending and entitlement growth.”

“All Americans should thank Sen. Graham for taking such a strong stand. Americans for Limited Government urges his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate to follow his lead,” Wilson said, noting that without an increase in the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling, “Obama’s second term will be on hold.”

Graham’s call to action was heard on the nationally-syndicated Sean Hannity program on Dec. 4.

“By Sen. Graham’s own word, there will be no additional debt until this rogue administration is reined in. That is the right position for any responsible legislator to take. We need real reform now,” Wilson said, calling for the debt ceiling to be tied to making tax relief permanent, enacting entitlement reform, and balancing the budget within 10 years.

Graham, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, took Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to task for proposing that Congress eliminate the debt ceiling all together. “Suggesting that we never have a say about raising the debt limit again, that it be raised in perpetuity, when it’s a constitutional requirement that Congress only can borrow money, shows to me that he’s trying to create a situation for unlimited power rather than bipartisanship,” Graham said.

Wilson called Graham “absolutely correct,” adding “the debt limit is the one check on the government’s power to borrow unlimited amounts of money. It is time Congress use that check against Obama before it is too late.”

“Obama wants an unlimited credit card. Instead, Republicans should freeze his account,” Wilson charged.

The debt ceiling was last raised in August 2011 by $2.1 trillion, the largest such increase ever, and the Obama Administration has burnt through all of that in just 16 months.

By 2022, the national debt will soar to $26 trillion under the current baseline.

Wilson concluded, “Left unchecked, the debt will consume us. This is the hill for Republicans stand and fight on. It’s now or never to rein in unchecked government borrowing, before the debt is so large it cannot be refinanced, let alone repaid and drowns out any chance at real growth and prosperity.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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(Washington, DC – December 3, 2012) Apparently, gas isn’t expensive enough yet-at least for one environmental interest group that is now suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to force the creation of Cap-and-Trade. The Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law last week told EPA to expect the lawsuit.

“They want to make cheap energy expensive, so that expensive energy will seem cheap,” said Ryan Houck, executive director of Free Market America.

“We’ve seen this play before, and inventing fictitious markets that traffic imaginary products is bad enough. But asking the EPA to assume quasi-legislative powers so that it can unilaterally enact Cap-in-Trade is a deeply troubling step, even for radical environmentalists. Proponents of this lawsuit absurdly cite Hurricane Sandy as a reason for Cap-and-Trade.

But what Hurricane Sandy truly illustrates is the human hardship that results from communities losing power and fuel. This measure aims to render Sandy’s fuel shortages and soaring energy prices commonplace.”

Politico posted its story on this backdoor Cap-and-Trade lawsuit late last week. It can read here<http://www.politico.com/story/2012/11/84346.html>.

Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government expressed concern that, “This lawsuit is nothing more than a pretext for the EPA to continue expanding their power through ginned up judicial actions.”

The practice of using litigation to enact policy has become commonplace on environmental matters.

Here’s how it works: Environmental interests sue the EPA to compel a particular policy outcome (such as “Cap-and-Trade”).

Sympathetic bureaucrats (who often have ties to the litigants) gleefully settle the suit, and agree to enact new policies without bothering with nasty details like “Congress.” For more information (and for examples), click here<http://www.freemarketamerica.org/free-market-flashpoints/the-sue-and-settle-formula.html>.

Free Market America is a project of Americans for Limited Government that produced the 2.6 million-hit viral video, “If I wanted America to Fail,” http://www.freemarketamerica.org/free-market-flashpoints/if-i-wanted-america-to-fail.html  which debuted on Earth Day earlier this year.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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Nov. 28, 2012, Fairfax, VA—The Intellectual Property subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee yesterday in a hearing considered legislation by Rep. Jason Chaffetz that would compel the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to reassess royalty rates paid by Internet radio providers, bringing their costs more in line with fees paid by cable and satellite providers.

In a recent oped for The Daily Caller, Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson called the current arrangement “unfair, anti-competitive royalty rate discrimination” that favors satellite and cable radio.

“Rather than organically promoting supply and demand within the free market, the current system is based on the government imposing an unfair and discriminatory burden on one segment of the economy so that another might benefit,” Wilson added.

Wilson also fingered three foreign-owned record labels he said dominate the industry. “These three labels collectively control roughly 80 percent of the music that’s played over America’s airwaves — and for years they have relied on the CRB to impose music rate structures that guarantee the preservation of this monopoly,” Wilson wrote.

Urging the House to pass the legislation, Wilson called the Internet the future of radio. “The Internet has become a vibrant component of virtually every marketplace on earth — removing barriers, expanding consumer choices and enhancing economic competitiveness.”

In a statement Wilson said “It is not up to the government to preserve the legacy media and hold Internet providers back. This type of cronyism only suppresses innovation when it is time for government to get out of the way.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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Nov. 28, 2012—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged the House to tie all pieces of the fiscal cliff into a single piece of legislation increasing the debt ceiling, making tax relief permanent, enacting entitlement reform, and balancing the budget within 10 years:

“The only leverage the House has on the fiscal cliff is the debt ceiling. If they are unwilling to use it, Obama will win, taxes will go up, and Republicans will get blamed. Leadership should tie all aspects of averting the fiscal cliff — including making tax relief permanent for all Americans and replacing any sequester cuts with entitlement and welfare reform — to a vote on the debt ceiling and balancing the budget within 10 years.

“And then Republicans should dare Obama to take it or leave it. He needs financing to fund his second term in office. If he wants it, he needs to sign whatever debt ceiling the House is willing to pass.

“But it will only work if the GOP is willing to stand on principle. Otherwise, it is going to lose this battle.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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Nov. 16, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Ding Dong, the company’s dead, the company’s dead, Ding Dong, the Hostess Company is dead.

You can almost hear the union bosses of The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union singing this song gleefully celebrating the destruction of one of America’s most enduring brands – Hostess – the maker of Twinkies, Cupcakes, Wonder Bread, and yes, the Ding Dong.

Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government (ALG), commented on this development:

“More than 18,000 workers are unemployed today because of the greed and short-sidedness of labor bosses and their followers who have chosen to destroy their own jobs rather than make concessions that would allow the company to survive.

“It is common for parasites to kill their hosts, but it rarely happens in a way where so many people can see it.  This union did what many others have done outside of the spotlight, they have forced a company to go out of business directly due to their irresponsible actions.

“No member of this union who is laid off due to this strike should receive a dime of unemployment compensation.  They are anything but victims, in fact, they are responsible for the demise of Twinkie the Kid.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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Nov. 14, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement calling upon the Republican Governors Association (RGA) to oppose the implementation of Obamacare at the state level in response to a letter from the RGA requesting more time from the Obama Administration to make a decision on state exchanges:

“It is incredible that the Republican Governors Association is struggling trying to figure out what to do about Obamacare’s provision that states form a health insurance exchange.  If a majority of Republican governors simply followed Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s lead and refused to implement a state exchange, one of Obamacare’s most repressive mandates would fall apart.

“The statute provides that the enforcement of Obamacare’s employer mandate rests with the state health insurance exchange.  If a state refuses to establish the exchange, there can be no enforcement under the actual law that was passed by the Pelosi-Reid Congress and signed by President Obama.

“This effectively destroys the employer mandate, which is the lynchpin of Obamacare’s implementation.  The employer mandate dictates what health insurance businesses must provide their employees as well as cost sharing options with massive penalties for failure to comply that can only be imposed by state exchanges.

“The failure by the RGA to take a strong stand right now against the state health insurance exchanges brings into question their commitment against the federal takeover of our nation’s health care system.

“Incredibly, the RGA has already asked the Obama Administration to clarify issues regarding the state health insurance exchanges on two other occasions with little if any response.

“Clearly, the Obama Administration is playing chicken, and Republican governors should call their bluff by refusing to take any action to implement the federal statute.

“To do anything else would make Republican governors complicit in the extortion of their own private businesses through Obamacare.

“This is Obamacare’s last stand, and it’s time for every Republican governor to protect their own citizens from its effects.  Anything else is would make them equal partners in the destruction of our nation’s health care system.”

Note: Yesterday, ALG sent 26 letters to Republican governors either urging them not to implement, or praising for not implementing state exchanges in the health care law.

Attachments:

“Why governors should not implement state insurance exchanges under Obamacare,” By Bill Wilson, Nov. 14, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/11/why-governors-should-not-implement-state-insurance-exchanges-under-obamacare/ .

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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