Jan. 4, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to today’s unemployment report:

“With the number of people unemployed jumping by 164,000, it is clear that the economy under Obama’s stewardship continues to struggle. Supposedly the recession ended in June 2009, but more than three years later, the economy is still shedding jobs, with 22.4 million who cannot full-time work, and another 5 million who have given up looking all together.

“Moreover, labor force participation remains very low at 63.6 percent, as Baby Boomers engage in early retirement and young people fail to enter the workforce. If the labor force participation rate had remained steady at the 65.7 percent level when Obama entered office, today’s unemployment rate would have come in at 10.7 percent, and the underemployed rate at 17 percent. This is a depression. We’re still dead in the water.

“This, despite trillions of dollars fiscal and monetary ‘stimulus’ by the government that was supposed to get the economy back on track.

“The American people have every right to be outraged at this pathetic performance, and now it is time for Congress to chart a new course. With the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, a sinking dollar, and a regulatory environment that would make Soviet Russia blush, the U.S. is rapidly becoming a terrible place to do business.

“Unless the cost of doing business here can be reduced, through lower taxation, reining in new health care, labor, and environmental regulations, and sound money, a robust economic recovery will continue to allude policy makers.”

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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Jan. 3, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to the Obama Administration’s vow that it “will not have another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they have already racked up,” referring to an increase of the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling:

“The arrogant argument that the White House is making, that Congress is racking up all of these unsustainable increases of the national debt, and so all debt ceiling votes ought to be rubber-stamped, is a bit disingenuous. 60 percent — some $2.2 trillion — of the $3.65 trillion budget will be spent automatically without any vote in Congress this year and every year that follows. This so-called ‘mandatory’ spending — the constitutionally questionable process of baseline budgeting — is the true driver of our debt crisis.

“Also, nearly one-fifth of the House will be new members, and with the exception of former members who have regained their seats, have never voted for any of this spending. But even the ones who have been there for years have never really voted on the Social Security budget, or the Medicare budget, and on down the line, because these are not subject to the annual appropriations process. They are determined by eligibility formulas enacted in some cases decades ago.

“The fact is, the debt ceiling is the only means Congress has to have any say on whether this automatic spending will be financed. Whereas, if the Obama Administration gets what it wants — which is to eliminate the debt ceiling all together — we may as well just abolish Congress all together. Then, it will have become little more than a useless puppet theater, a means to control the masses through the illusion of representation. Why even have elections at all if representatives are not even allowed to vote on the only budgetary matters of significance?

“No matter what Obama says, Congress has to perform its constitutional duty. The Constitution empowers it, not the President, in Article 1, Section 8 to ‘borrow money on the credit of the United States’. Article 1, Section 9 states that ‘no money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.’ Contrary to what Obama seems to believe, it is not his choice whether this debate will take place. It is a debate Congress must have, and whether Obama chooses to participate in it or not is irrelevant.”

Attachments:

“Is ‘mandatory’ spending constitutional?” by ALG President Bill Wilson, Dec. 12, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/12/is-mandatory-spending-constitutional/

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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Jan. 2, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government, a non-partisan group dedicated to limiting the size and scope of government at all levels, blasted members of Congress who voted in favor of the tax increase measure that passed both the Senate and House of Representatives on New Year’s Day.

Bill Wilson, president of the group denounced the law saying, “This so-called ‘deal’ is typical Washington, D.C., laden with pork including a subsidy for Obama’s Hollywood buddies and even NASCAR, while increasing taxes on every working American. Incredibly the law will be classified as a tax cut because it passed after the Bush tax cuts expired, so in D.C. doublespeak, politicians will claim to have cut taxes when everyone’s taxes are actually going up.”

An initial analysis of the legislation utilizing estimates from the Joint Committee on Taxation conducted by ALG showed that while the tax increases on those making more than $400,000 a year will generate approximately $30 billion in revenues a year, the cost of servicing the projected increased federal debt of $1.2 trillion will actually eat away about 88 cents of every new dollar raised.

“By avoiding actually dealing with Washington’s spending addiction, they have raised taxes to do little more than pay the increased interest on the debt over the next year. Meanwhile, the head in the sand types on Capitol Hill will be clamoring to spend this ‘new money’ on their favored special interests. We are truly through the looking glass.”

Attachments:

“Landing on the fiscal rocks below,” by ALG senior editor Robert Romano, Jan. 2, 2013 at http://netrightdaily.com/2013/01/landing-on-the-fiscal-rocks-below/

Senate roll call on H.R. 8 at http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00251

House roll call on H.R. 8 at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/roll659.xml

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teloewe@amcguild.org

Dec. 28, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging the Senate to finally act on legislation that would actually avert the fiscal cliff of tax increases on every single American:

“Although the Senate has passed legislation that would affect tax rates at the start of the new year, the bill itself is unconstitutional, as S. 3412 never originated in the House of Representatives. Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution requires that ‘All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.’ House Speaker John Boehner could not act on this bill, or amend it, even if he wanted to due to this constitutional delegation of authority.

“The Senate has been provided many pieces of legislation by the House, such as H.R. 8, that it could lawfully amend or pass, allowing the Senate and House to convene a conference committee to resolve differences. That is how constitutionally a bill becomes law.

“What can be inferred from Senate Democrats’ refusal to act on any House legislation to avert the fiscal cliff is that Harry Reid has every intention of raising taxes on every American one way or another.  Or else he would have simply amended an H.R. bill, like the Senate did to pass Obamacare, to include his preferred resolution to the fiscal cliff.

“Obama, who has failed to demand the Senate take further action, is therefore complicit in increasing taxes on all Americans. Even if the House did pass S. 3412, as many Senators have demanded, and the President signed it, it would later be held to be unconstitutional, and then everyone’s taxes would go up anyway. Reid and Obama know this. They want to go over the cliff.

“The House has done its job. Now it is up to the Senate to take up H.R. 8 and pass it or amend it. The Senate need not agree with everything the House has done, but Reid’s method of averting the fiscal cliff would not pass muster in a basic civics class, let alone a court of law.”

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. 21, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to the failure in the House of the Plan B tax increase:

“Nobody takes any joy in the embarrassing failure of Speaker Boehner’s Plan B tax increase, but he was willing to trade the only brand Republicans have as the anti-tax party—in exchange for nothing.

“Now his only salvation is to rally his conference around a strategy that ensures the American economy will be on sound footing in 2013. When Congress returns after the New Year, the only legislation considered by the House should contain permanent tax relief for all Americans, accepts the sequester cuts, defunds Obamacare, and includes a 1-to-1 ratio of $1 trillion of immediate spending cuts for a $1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling.

“The House will have acted responsibly in the face of Obama’s desire to go over the cliff. The least they can do is ensure there are no more such cliffs in the future, and that this will never happen again. If House Republicans can find the courage to lead, the American people will follow.”

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. 20, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in response to the rejection by the House Rules Committee of the Jordan-Scalise-Mulvaney alternative to the Plan B tax increase:

“We are disappointed that the House Rules Committee will not be allowing a vote on the Jordan-Scalise-Mulvaney alternative to the Speaker’s Plan B. In light of this decision, we urge a no vote on the Speaker’s Plan B tax increase.”

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. 20, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging the House of Representatives to support an amendment to the Speaker’s Plan B bill:

 “Republicans must not fall into the trap of increasing taxes and doing nothing to cut spending. The Jordan-Scalise-Mulvaney amendment to the House bill will make tax relief permanent for all Americans, averting the fiscal cliff, and address the dire state of the nation’s finances through real spending reductions.

“The Senate is going to reject the so-called Plan B anyway. The House might as well give them something that actually solves the real problem—which is spending—instead of a tax increase on job creators that will wreck the economy and drive investment overseas. Even if Plan B passes the House, everyone’s taxes are still going to go up at the end of the year, and Republicans will still get blamed if we go over the cliff.

“Republicans are missing an opportunity to lead the nation on real fiscal reform. There should not be a single tax increase on any American when the government will be borrowing $1 trillion every year for the rest of our lifetimes until we can no longer afford to service it. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, conservatives and Republicans need to raise the banner of bold colors, not pale pastels.”

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. 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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