March 6, 2012, Fairfax, VA — Americans for Limited Government (ALG) today announced the launching of SaveTheBarredOwl.com, a website devoted to exposing the harm done by federal government regulations designed to “help” the environment.

The website is inspired by the case of the Barred Owl, which has been given the federal government death penalty due to its rudely sharing the habitat with the “sacred” Spotted Owl.

“The federal government has wiped out almost the entire timber industry in the northwestern United States in an effort to save the spotted owl only to discover that the endangered owl thrives in land where timbering occurs. Now, years later, the federal government is back trying to wipe out the Barred Owl so it won’t compete for food with the favored Spotted Owl,” said ALG President Bill Wilson.

Young and old alike will remember the Barred Owl, which was used as the model in the federal government’s beloved “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” campaign. In homage to this government advertising effort, Americans for Limited Government has named its Barred Owl campaign, “Give a Hoot, Don’t Shoot!”

Ironically, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s decision to kill Barred Owls is a response to their own failed policy that destroyed the habitat that the endangered Spotted Owl actually thrives in.

Wilson summarized the campaign saying, “The case of the Spotted Owl is just one more example of the federal government acting at the behest of environmental extremists and the wake of destruction that they leave in their paths. The Barred Owl campaign will put a spotlight on these lowlights and hold those government agencies responsible and accountable for the consequences of their actions.”

The website launched by Americans for Limited Government will provide a place for Americans to voice their concerns about the government’s actions with a specific petition calling on Congress to defund all actions pertaining to the planned annihilation of the Barred Owl species.

Attachments:

“Whoooo’s No. 1? Government says Northern spotted owl,” ALG contributing editor Rebekah Rast, March 1, 2012 athttp://netrightdaily.com/2012/03/whoooos-no-1-government-says-northern-spotted-owl/ .

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

March 5, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged the U.S. director on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board, Meg Lundsager, to vote against providing more assistance to Greece when it meets on March 13:

“It requires a simple majority of the IMF Executive Board to approve lending to any nation, including Greece. With only 16.75 percent of the vote, the U.S. via Meg Lundsager can do nothing to stop more taxpayer-funded bailouts of socialist governments in Europe and their lenders. This is why the Pelosi-Reid led Democrat Congress in 2009 never should have approved an additional $108 billion of U.S. taxpayer money for the IMF to play with. But, the U.S. should nonetheless demand a public vote, and Lundsager should vote no.

“Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has recently said ‘it’s unlikely you’re going to see the major shareholders of the IMF be prepared to have the IMF play a larger response’ in Greece. Yet it is widely reported that the IMF will be providing between €18 billion and €21 billion of the new €130 billion loan for Greece when it meets on March 13. Geithner clearly does not have the pulse of a majority of the IMF.

“It’s time for the Obama Administration to put its money where its mouth is. If Obama does not support bailing out Greece, then the U.S. representative at the IMF should vote against it on the record. The IMF rarely holds votes. In this case, the lack of a public vote will be viewed as tacit approval of bailing out Greece.

“To date, the IMF, with U.S. approval, has already committed €30 billion to bailing out Greece and its creditors in previous lending arrangements. We’re already throwing good money after bad, and it’s time it stopped.”

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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March 5, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government filed a Freedom of Information Act request of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking for records related to former deputy assistant director of the Bureau of Competition Randall Long’s communications with Microsoft Corporation.

It was announced last week, that Microsoft has hired Long to be its director of regulatory affairs in Washington, D.C.

Bill Wilson, President of Americans for Limited Government filed the FOIA because, “Microsoft’s hiring of Long is suspicious, given Long’s long history of advocating within the FTC in favor of Microsoft’s interests. It is important to the integrity of the regulatory process that it be clearly established that there is not even a hint of a quid pro quo relationship.”

The FOIA specifically asks for:

1. All records of communications and the communications themselves between Randall Long and any official or personnel of the Microsoft Corporation, and;
2. All records of meetings between Mr. Long and any official or personnel of the Microsoft Corporation.

“Any time you see a regulator become known as a leading internal critic of a rival corporation who gets a revolving door hire to a competitor who benefited from his advocacy it is troubling, and this FOIA seeks to get to the bottom of whether there was any improper conduct between Microsoft and Mr. Long,” Wilson added.

The time period covered under the request is on or after Jan. 1, 2009.

Click here for a copy of the FOIA request at www.getliberty.org/files/03-05-12-FTC-FOIA.pdf .

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

Mar. 1, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged House Financial Services Chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus to allow a vote on legislation that would rescind a $100 billion U.S. credit line to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that is being used to bail out bankrupt nations in Europe like Greece, Portugal, and Ireland:

“It is simply inexplicable that House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus has not brought up for a vote legislation that will stop the U.S. bailout of Europe. Where is the urgency? The IMF, which the U.S. funds, has already committed over $100 billion to bailing out Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. Now with more money promised to Greece, that means the U.S. stake in propping up Europe will only grow.

“The U.S. needs to rescind its own $100 billion line of credit to the IMF, only $7 billion of which has been used, before it is too late and any more of it is wasted refinancing the debts of profligate countries that refuse to cut spending. We should not be subsidizing socialism.

“Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Senator Jim DeMint have taken the lead on this critical issue, gathering over 110 congressional cosponsors to stop this bailout. Now it is time for these pieces of legislation to get finally their proper airing on the floors of both houses of Congress.

“That will not happen on the House side unless Rep. Bachus decides to take a leadership role in bringing this bill to a vote. As chairman of the committee, he has the power to move this bill and save taxpayers $100 billion — or not.

“With a national debt now larger than our entire economy, it is time members answered the question: should taxpayers be bailing out Europe? A failure to bring these bills to the floor is a tacit acceptance of bailouts, which Republicans promised to bring an end to in 2010.”

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

Feb. 24, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today responded to recent data by the Senate Budget Committee showing the U.S. has a higher debt per capita than Greece and other troubled sovereigns in Europe:

“At more than $49,000 per person using the most recent data from the U.S. Treasury and Census, we have a higher debt per capita than any of the PIIGS nations. Elected officials and other central planners attempt to comfort themselves with the false notion that the debt never needs to be repaid. That this $15.4 trillion debt can continually be absorbed by an ever-expanding global financial system. So why worry?

“The larger the debt gets, because it is not being repaid and has actually increased every single year since 1957, the more of it needs to be refinanced over time. That eats a larger and larger share of the economy every year, diverting resources away from more productive facilities and into a useless paper trade. As bloated as international financial institutions have become, there will come a point when not even they can afford to lend us more money, as is already happening in Europe.

“While it is hard to say where that tipping point is, when it comes—not if, but when—we will be left with two choices: to repay the debt, or to default. To avoid a default, the only solution is to balance the budget now and begin paying the debt down.

“This will be a difficult transition for the economy, and to cope with it, it must be accompanied by measures to reduce the cost of doing business in America to attract investment and create jobs. That includes slashing the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, undoing the burdensome regulatory regime in energy, the environment, health care, and labor, lifting restrictions on capital creation, and strengthening the dollar.

“As hard as it will be, at the end of that process, we will be more competitive globally, unemployment will be lower, government will be more limited, and we will be more prosperous.”

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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Feb. 23, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s assessment of rising oil and gas prices, who said, “We need to take strong action to protect consumers from this speculation”:

“Congressional Democrats are once again resorting to the tired line of price manipulation by so-called speculators and oil companies to explain why Americans are paying more at the pump. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is accounting for rising prices by market forces, saying alternatively that it’s because the economy is recovering and includes increased demand overseas, particularly China.

“They need to get their stories straight, because they are entirely inconsistent. Are prices being manipulated, or are they rising as supply fails to keep up with increased demand as the economy recovers?

“Meanwhile, both of these contrary explanations miss the underlying weakness of the dollar that is the real cause for price pressures in commodities, including food, oil, gasoline, and is observable in precious metals like gold. While demand did rise globally from 88.3 million barrels a day in 2010 to 89 million in 2011 according the Energy Information Agency, so too has global production increased to 90 million a day in Dec. 2011. So, market forces alone do not explain the price swing.

“Of course, this happens every time the nation experiences price shocks: government officials thrash about looking for anyone to blame but themselves for a problem they helped to create with their big spending, money printing ways.”

Attachments:

“Obama says high oil prices evidence of improving economy, ALG responds,” Feb. 21, 2012 at http://getliberty.org/content.asp?pl=10&sl=5&contentid=841.

“Weak petrodollar threatens economy,” ALG President Bill Wilson, Feb. 22, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/02/weak-petrodollar-threatens-economy/.

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

Feb. 21, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to Barack Obama’s recent assessment that“as the economy strengthens, global demand for oil increases”:

“Obama thinks the current run up in gas prices is a good sign, evidence that the economy is improving. Except, in 2011, the global economy slowed down while oil and gas prices were rising along with a broad range of other commodities including gold even while domestic consumption was declining. Additionally, just last month, the International Energy Agency has cut its projections of the growth of global oil demand for 2012, and Saudi Arabia is once again lowering its production this year. With oil traded in dollars, that all indicates inflationary pressures and a weak dollar are moving prices, not increased demand.

“In addition, last year, another part of the run-up in prices was the Libyan crisis. This year, the Iranian crisis is in effect, with the U.S. and Europe placing de facto embargos on Iranian oil exports. This too has an effect.

“Then there is the domestic regulatory environment that makes these price spikes all the more acute here in the U.S. The nation’s refining capacity is declining along with continued restrictions on domestic oil production. We simply lack the domestic capacity to increase output when we experience these price shocks. In fact, we have declined from producing 9.6 million barrels of oil a day in 1970 to little more than 5.5 million a day now.

“Overall, these huge run-ups in oil and gas prices are not good for the economy. They did not work well in the 1970’s and again in 2008, when the roof blew off the economy. They always lead directly to increased producer and consumer prices, both of which take money out of other parts of the economy, and are detrimental to the growth picture.”

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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Feb. 17, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement condemning House adoption of a deal to extend the payroll tax holiday, unemployment benefits, and the “doc fix” for another year without paying for it:

“This legislation the House has passed will add $165 billion to the debt over the next three years. This is simply inexcusable. They are promising partial pay-for’s down the road, such that the ten year cost will supposedly be brought down to $89 billion. That’s still too much. Republicans took a majority in the House promising to reduce the debt. This bill speeds up the bankruptcy of Social Security, adds significantly to the debt, and betrays the voters who demanded fiscal responsibility in 2010.

“The economy is beleaguered by excessive debt, both public and private, and we will not work our way out of this malaise with yet more debt. This legislation is counterproductive and denies the growing body of evidence that too much debt has become severely detrimental to economic growth. The spenders in Washington, D.C. are completely clueless to what ails our economy. We need new leadership.”

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