Obama to Rule by Decree Over Economy, ALG Responds

October 13, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement blasting the Obama Administration’s decision to impose its will over the economy in response to its failure to enact a $35 billion states bailout:

“The New York Times is reporting that the Administration, in response to the bi-partisan rejection by the U.S. Senate of its latest economic stimulus bill, will be announcing a series of regulatory actions designed to help the economy. What is ironic is that Obama’s EPA, Department of Interior, Labor Department and National Labor Relations Board, along with his support for ObamaCare and the Financial Services Reform legislation have been prime culprits in crippling an already weak economy.

“If Obama truly wants to get the economy moving in 2012, and save his job, he will roll back the job killing regulations and rulings created under his watch over the past three years and support repeal of ObamaCare. Unfortunately, that is highly unlikely as it would require taking responsibility for his failures and acknowledging that his Big Government agenda has failed.

“As Obama begins his rule-by-decree tour around the western United States, it will be important for watchdogs in Congress to ensure that this wild attempt to gain votes doesn’t overstep his Constitutional authority.”

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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Foreclosures Rise in Third Quarter, Slump Continues

Oct. 13, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the increase in foreclosure filings in the third quarter to nearly 196,000:

“The truth is the rise in foreclosure filings is not surprising. These foreclosures would have already cleared had the government moratoria and foreclosure ‘prevention’ schemes at the federal, state and local level never been implemented. All they accomplished is slowing down the process and prolonging the housing downturn by almost a year, and thus the recession. In the meantime, they prevented younger homebuyers from entering the market, forestalling a recovery. Government needs to get out of the way once and for all and allow this process to work itself out.”

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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ALG: No Fed Bailout for European Creditors, U.S. Banks

October 11, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement warning of a potential Federal Reserve bailout for European and U.S. banks that bet poorly on European sovereign debt:

“With Belgian bank Dexia being nationalized, Spain and Italy having its ratings cut by Fitch, public opposition to bailouts mounting in Germany, Slovakia, and elsewhere, and a Greek default all but inevitable, it is becoming increasingly likely that Europe will be unable to contain the sovereign debt crisis to its shores.

“When it fails, U.S. financial institutions are said by the Congressional Research Service to be on the hook for over $640 billion in exposure to the European crisis. Without question the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and others will be called in to once again prop up financial institutions here in the U.S. and around the world. Already, the Fed is intervening by providing dollar liquidity to European banks. In 2009, the Fed propped up banks with $1.25 trillion of printed money to buy bad mortgage paper, $442.7 billion of which went to foreign banks.

“This must not be allowed to happen again. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke must not be allowed to fire up the printing presses once again to prop up the financial institutions responsible for the crisis we are in. Congressional committees should haul in Fed governors to testify and ask them point blank what the central bank is doing to prop up creditors in Europe that bet poorly on the debt of socialist governments like Greece — and secure a commitment of no more bailouts. The bankers made the bad bets. They should pay. Not the taxpayers.”

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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ALG: Nation Stuck in a Ditch, Unemployment Numbers Show

October 7, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement onthe latest unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing a 9.1 percent rate of joblessness:

“If not for 45,000 telecommunications workers coming off a strike, the Bureau of Labor Statistics would only be reporting a gain of 57,000 new jobs, hardly a cause for joyous celebration. The bottom line is that the amount of people unemployed again increased by 25,000, this time to nearly 14 million, and no amount of funny numbers can obfuscate that fact. The underemployment number — those looking for full-time work but can’t find it — was even worse, rising to 25.4 million.

“This marks the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression, which marks a catastrophic failure of the Obama and Bernanke ‘stimulus’ programs. They cannot print and borrow enough money to turn this ship around when the problem is that government has rendered the nation uncompetitive globally with some of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, the most regulations, and whose inflationary policies have increased the cost of doing business.

“To get out of this ditch and create jobs, we must restore America’s global competitiveness by decreasing the cost of doing business, reducing the tax and regulatory burdens, and restoring sound money based on price stability. Until then, we will continue to bleed mercilessly.”

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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Wall Street Protestors Follow Obama’s Class Warfare Lead

October 6, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement regarding the ongoing protests on Wall Street and elsewhere:

“The Wall Street protestors need to open their eyes to the fact that they are being used as pawns to promote a radical class warfare agenda. They are nothing more than tools for big labor organizations like SEIU, Marxist groups, radical environmentalists, MoveOn.org, and others. These are the professional left.

“In many ways, the frustration being vented against Wall Street is a natural consequence of Barack Obama’s class warfare rhetoric. They are following his lead. But what protestors should realize is that Wall Street’s investment banks are merely bit players in the financial mess we are in. They are only scratching the surface.

“It was government policies that loosened lending, weakened underwriting standards, pushed loans on those it turned out could not afford them, and allowed the obscene levels of leverage to creep into the system. It will be impossible to address the weakened state of the economy today without addressing these government-directed policies.”

Attachments:

Wall Street protesters scratch the surface,” by ALG President Bill Wilson at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3730 .

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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$500 million ‘green’ jobs training program a failure, Inspector General report says

Oct. 5, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) today urged both houses of Congress to repeal the Department of Labor’s $500 million “green” jobs training program in response to an Inspector General report highlighting the program’s failures:

“When a program’s own Inspector General is calling for its elimination, you know it’s bad. The Department of Labor was given $500 million to find 80,000 people a so-called ‘green’ job, and instead has only found a fraction of that, at a cost of $25,000 per job placed. But even then it rigged its methodology to claim ‘green’ jobs that weren’t. The remaining $300 million should be returned to taxpayers, who were sold a hoax of a ‘green’ economy and ‘green’ jobs that don’t actually exist.

“We praise Congressman Darrell Issa for looking into this scam, and we urge a full investigation, including bringing Labor Secretary Hilda Solis before his committee to explain how she allowed hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to be wasted.”

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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ALG Urges House to Reject $575 Million Big Labor Payoff

Oct. 4, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged the House of Representatives to reject a $575 million expansion of trade adjustment authority:

“The $575 million expansion of social welfare, job training, and relocation expenses for allegedly outsourced workers is just a payoff to union bosses upset over trade agreements. Those who supposedly qualify get lavish benefits above and beyond what most Americans receive in the way of traditional unemployment, giving preference to unions that work the system to their advantage. This is not a wise use of limited taxpayer resources.

“The decision by congressional leadership, including the House, to accept a blatant payoff to a special interest bodes very poorly for the future of our nation. The American people are questioning the commitment of Congress to reducing any spending and the size of government. This is an outrage.”

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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NC Governor Floats Trial Balloon for Tyranny, ALG Calls for Impeachment

Sept. 28, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today reacted to North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue’s call to suspend congressional elections for two years:

“The North Carolina legislature should impeach Governor Beverly Perdue, who has called for the suspension of the U.S. Constitutional requirement for federal elections. This is all a part of a disturbing trend on the hard left, showing their antipathy toward the people’s right to choose the direction of their country rather than the elites who think they know best.

“Recently, former White House OMB director and Pelosi CBO director Peter Orszag similarly stated that ‘we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic’. This is a trial balloon for tyranny.

“History has shown that elite-driven government always leads to authoritarianism. It’s time for the North Carolina legislature to stand up for the American principle that legitimacy can only be conferred through the consent of the governed by impeaching Perdue immediately. Perdue and Orszag’s attack on representative government is a desire to go back to the days before the American Revolution when the nation suffered under taxation without representation.”

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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ALG Condemns FDA for Banning Use of Over-the-Counter Asthma Inhalers

September 26th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement condemning the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to ban the use of over-the-counter epinephrine asthma inhalers effective Dec. 31:

“This is a telling decision by the FDA to ban the use of these asthma inhalers, as it places a higher priority on spurious and questionable effects on the atmosphere than on protecting human life itself. Why is the Food and Drug Administration concerned with promoting the radical environmentalist agenda?

“Now 25 million asthma sufferers in the U.S. will have to pay more for non- epinephrine inhalers, all to supposedly save the atmosphere. That is because the alternative inhalers are only available via prescription. So, in addition to paying more for the inhaler, the cost of the doctor’s visit and insurance costs must also be taken into account.

“Once government agencies begin placing higher primacy on the near-religious ‘green agenda’ than on saving lives, it ceases all its legitimate functions. We need to reconsider the far-reaching international accords we have entered into, and just what they mean to preserving our species.”

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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ALG Urges House Members to Cosponsor Bill Abolishing NLRB Judicial Powers

September 21st, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged members of the House of Representatives to cosponsor legislation proposed by Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) that would remove the quasi-judicial powers from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to act against employers, the “Protecting American Jobs Act”.

“For 75 years, the NLRB has worked to facilitate the organization of labor unions at the expense of private employers, with the overreaching powers to act as prosecutor, judge, and jury against those companies at the behest of union bosses,” Wilson said.

The law would strip the Board of all its judicial authority, making federal courts the sole arbiter of alleged infractions of labor law.

“The NLRB is not a court, it is an agency of the executive branch, and yet for nearly a century, its rulemakings have been granted the weight of court decisions. No longer,” Wilson declared.

In an exclusive interview with ALG, Rep. Scott described the bill and said the labor disputes were better handled in the courts. “It takes away the judicial authority of the National Labor Relations Board, [and] puts the decisions in the courts,” he said, adding, “Taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for this agency. The unions and corporate America can fight it out in the courts without doing it on the taxpayer’s dime.”

Rep. Scott thanked ALG for its support of the bill, saying, “I don’t think this bill would be where it is without Americans for Limited Government. I can’t thank them enough for their support in moving this legislation forward.”

The bill, HR 2978, has already attracted 26 cosponsors, whom Wilson praised, saying, “These representatives are embracing the most comprehensive legislation this session to rein in the NLRB’s abuses against private industry.”

A poll conducted by the polling company™, inc./WomanTrend on behalf of ALG found that 66 percent of respondents thought the agency had too much power “to officiate legal proceedings over private U.S. companies in its own court system”.

“The results of the poll are overwhelming. Although the Board is not widely known, the more respondents found out about the agency, the more they opposed it,” Wilson said. He urged members of Congress to continue to educate their constituents of the “NLRB’s excessive authority to act against employers on behalf of big labor.”

The NLRB has come under increasing scrutiny due to its case attempting to bar Boeing from setting up a manufacturing facility in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, which Wilson called “a teachable moment.”

“Sadly, the Boeing case, as horrendous it is, is only a symptom of the problem — which is that this agency has far too much power to begin with to issue rulings against privately owned companies to directly benefit unions. Congress needs to strip its quasi-judicial powers at the source so similar abuses no longer occur,” Wilson concluded.

Attachments:

“Treating the NLRB symptoms not enough,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, September 21st, 2011 athttp://netrightdaily.com/2011/09/treating-the-nlrb-symptoms-not-enough/ .

the polling company™, inc./WomanTrend poll on behalf of Americans for Limited Government regarding National Labor Relations Board, Aug. 19-23, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/NLRBPoll8-19to8-23-11.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.

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