Fairfax, VA, July, 8th, 2011—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged passage of HR 2417, a bill that would repeal the federal ban on incandescent light bulbs that begins to take effect in Jan. 2012.

“The American people don’t want the federal government telling them which light bulbs they must use, and yet that is exactly what Congress did when it passed the ‘Energy Independence and Security Act’ in 2007,” Wilson said.

“The federal government has no power to micromanage the decisions of the American people, and to force them by dictate to use unsafe, mercury-laced bulbs,” Wilson added.

A poll released by ALG on the light bulb ban issue shows the ban remains exceedingly unpopular, especially amongst both core Republican and Independent likely voters. 72 percent of self-described Republican voters and 57 percent of the Independent voters oppose the ban.

“Unless you’re a leftist Democrat, there really is no support for a federal ban on light bulbs,” Wilson noted.

Conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, the survey showed that 46 percent of likely voters were aware that Congress had banned traditional light bulbs beginning in 2012, and 58 percent respondents opposed banning the bulbs.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote today on HR 2417, “The BULB Act.”

The June 21, 2011 survey measured the responses of 1,000 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.

The topline responses to the three questions can be found at:
www.getliberty.org/files/LightBulbBanBillToplines6-21-11.pdf

The crosstabs can be found at:
www.getliberty.org/files/Crosstabs_20110621_Light Bulbs.csv

Wilson concluded, “It’s time for Congress to get out of the way and let individuals choose what kind of light bulbs they want, free of federal dictates.”

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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Fairfax, VA, July, 8th, 2011—A poll released today by the free enterprise group Americans for Limited Government showed the potency of the light bulb ban issue amongst both core Republican and Independent likely voters.

Conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, the survey showed that 46 percent of likely voters were aware that Congress had banned traditional light bulbs beginning in 2012, and 58 percent respondents opposed banning the bulbs.

The issue would repeal mandates in legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007, which had the effect of banning the domestic production and sale of the incandescent light bulb in favor of fluorescent bulbs.

Controversy over the ban has intensified across the nation with Texas Governor Rick Perry signing a state law that allows incandescent bulbs to be manufactured in the state for sale only in the state. Similar legislation is also pending in South Carolina where it has passed one house of the legislature.

Bill Wilson, President of Americans for Limited Government called repealing the light bulb ban, “a big political winner for elected officials like Governor Perry with 72 percent of self-described Republican voters and 57 percent of the Independent voters opposing the ban.”

40 percent of respondents indicated that they would be less likely to vote for a politician who supported the light bulb ban.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up the ban next week when they consider HR 2417, “The BULB Act.”

The June 21, 2011 survey measured the responses of 1,000 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.

The topline responses to the three questions can be found at:
www.getliberty.org/files/LightBulbBanBillToplines6-21-11.pdf

The crosstabs can be found at:
www.getliberty.org/files/Crosstabs_20110621_Light Bulbs.csv

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July 7th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) today launched an online petition urging citizen involvement in efforts to reform the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today.

The campaign at www.reformthenlrb.com includes informative articles and videos relating to NLRB activities as well as a petition effort supporting reform efforts.

“ReformtheNLRB.com will provide citizens a voice in opposing the NLRB’s attempts to bypassing state legislation and push a Big Labor agenda that was rejected in both Congress and in state legislatures across the nation,” said ALG President Bill Wilson.

Wilson cited the NLRB’s recent actions against Boeing necessitating urgent action by Congress. Boeing’s planned creation of a second assembly line for their new Dreamliner aircraft in South Carolina has been challenged by the NLRB.

“The NLRB has challenged the private company’s right to build aircraft in the Charleston area due to the state’s laws which allow workers to choose whether to pay union dues or not,” said Wilson.

Wilson continued, “This worker choice, known as right to work, has been a target of labor unions for decades and the recent NLRB actions show that rather than being an independent agency, they have become nothing more than a front for organized labor.”

Reform efforts would restrict the NLRB’s power, and narrowly define the role that they are able to play in labor management relations.

ALG has urged passage of legislation seeking to protect states that have passed laws that protect their citizens’ right to secret ballot elections, the “State Right to Vote Act”. The bill, introduced by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), seeks to ensure that the NLRB cannot bypass the role of state legislation in determining employer’s responsibilities.

Wilson called on the American people to sign the petition, saying, “We need the help of everyone to show the NLRB that the American people are tired of their job killing regulatory overreaches and want a change.”

“Now is the time to reject the job killing NLRB’s one-sided attack on our nation’s job creators by contacting their elected representatives using the www.reformthenlrb.com petition advocacy tool,” Wilson concluded.

You can follow the latest NLRB news on Twitter at @ReformtheNLRB.

Attachments:

“Craig Becker Should Recuse Himself from NLRB-Boeing Case,” Americans for Limited Government, July, 5th, 2011 athttp://netrightdaily.com/2011/07/craig-becker-should-recuse-himself-from-nlrbs-boeing-case/

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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July 6, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement warning the Obama Administration against invoking the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution to arbitrarily ignore the congressionally enacted $14.294 trillion debt ceiling:

“Any attempt by the White House to issue Obama bonds will trigger a constitutional crisis and call into question the validity of the new debt being issued. Even if one were to interpret that the Fourteenth Amendment applied to the validity all debt, and not just Civil War debt, it would not authorize the government to borrow as much as it likes.

“The amendment simply means that money, which has already been borrowed, shall be paid back on time and in full. Spending is not borrowing, but the Administration fails to make that distinction. It may wish that Congress would authorize more borrowing to pay for government’s reckless spending, but the fact remains that it has not yet. It is a political question with which Congress has discretion.

“Moreover, if one were to invoke the provision, the Fourteenth Amendment would actually tie the Obama Administration’s hands from borrowing more if the debt limit is not raised.

“That is because under the amendment, the validity of the existing debt cannot be questioned. So, the government would be required to pay interest first out of revenue since it is not allowed to voluntarily default. And existing debt would have to be refinanced up to the limit. After that, without the authority under law to borrow more, the budget would have to be balanced.

“Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole power to originate ‘the raising of revenue.’ And there is no question that new debt is new revenue. So, only Congress can authorize the government to borrow more money.

“This is actually confirmed by the Fourteenth Amendment, which only refers to debt ‘authorized by law.’ Congress has not authorized the government to borrow more than $14.294 trillion. Therefore, anything above that would be unauthorized borrowing, and would be nothing more than illegal junk bonds lacking the full faith and credit of the nation.

“The White House needs to consider carefully the consequences of issuing its own debt without any congressional authorization. The full faith and credit of the United States depends on the consent of the governed through their representatives to borrow more. Without that, there is no guarantee the unauthorized debt will ever be nor should it ever be repaid or honored.”

Attachments:

“The Empty Obama Ploy,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, July 5th, 2011 at http://netrightdaily.com/2011/07/the-empty-obama-ploy/.

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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June 27th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s proposal to increase taxes on small businesses:

“Rather than ‘shrink the overall size of government programs’, Treasury Secretary Geithner wants to raise taxes on small businesses, as if the reason the deficit has skyrocketed to $1.5 trillion is because tax rates were too low. It is not.

“The deficit has skyrocketed because spending has increased by more than $1 trillion since 2007. The other $400 billion of the increase in the deficit was because of slower economic growth and millions of lost jobs, which decreased revenue. Tax rates are pretty much the same they were before the recession.

“That means three-quarters of the solution to balancing the budget are spending cuts. The other 25 percent of the solution is to grow the economy and create millions of jobs, which will not occur by raising taxes on small business job creators.”

Attachments:

“Debt Cannot Be Paid With Tax Hikes,” By Robert Romano, ALG Senior Editor, June 24th, 2011 athttp://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?display=3447.

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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June 24th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement commenting on an ALG studyestimating what the release 60 million barrels of oil over a 30 day period would save consumers about $.10 a gallon for gasoline:

“If one is generous and assume yesterday’s $4 drop was solely because of Obama and the International Energy Agency, at best it will save consumers $.10 a gallon for gasoline. That works out to about $1.50 per fill up, or $6 for the month the additional gasoline is available.

“In other words, Obama has jeopardized national security by drawing down the strategic reserves to, at best, save consumers about $1.50 per fill up when this ‘flood’ of new gasoline hits the market. To call this irresponsible would be an understatement.”

Attachments:

“ALG Estimate on Price Impact of Releasing Strategic Oil Reserves,” June 24th, 2011 athttp://www.getliberty.org/files/ALGEstimateonImpactofReleasingStrategicOilReserves.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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June 23rd, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged the Senate to roll back a $100 billion expansion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that was enacted in 2009.

“It is simply outrageous that the world’s largest debtor, the United States, is bailing out creditors in Europe that bet poorly on Greek and Irish debt,” Wilson said.

“We need to get our own fiscal house in order before we get in the business of bailing out the world from its own foolish overspending,” he added.

The expansion that passed in 2009 contained the SDR equivalent of $100 billion on the date of the agreement and increased the U.S. share in the IMF by Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 4.97 billion at a cost of $8 billion. This compares to the $10 billion line of credit to the IMF worth SDR 6.6 billion prior to the expansion.

The amendment, offered by Senator Jim DeMint, would roll back the $100 billion credit line to the IMF, and is expected to be voted on later today.

The expansion had fulfilled an Obama Administration G-20 pledge as part of a $550 billion global effort to bolster the international bank. The G-20 then approved a new $250 billion general allocation of SDR — the bank’s reserve asset.

Since then, the IMF expansion has been used as part of the European Union and European Central Bank’s (ECB) bailouts of international creditors of Greece (€110 billion), Ireland (€85 billion), and Portugual (€78 billion). “The IMF-EU-ECB bailouts are nothing more than kick-the-can refinance loans that do nothing to help these insolvent sovereigns to restructure their debts,” Wilson noted.

After receiving its €110 billion in refinance loans, Greece still cannot sell its debt privately, and that nation’s creditors are back for another bailout that could total anywhere from 80 to 100 billion.

Proposals that creditors instead take losses on their loans and allow these countries to restructure their debts have been overruled by bank ministers including the ECB Jean-Claude Trichet and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Wilson explained the danger, “Whichever states borrow money from these creditors are risking losing their sovereignty. They should be allowed to restructure their debts, the creditors should take their losses. Nobody forced them to lend the money.”

“Senators who refuse to rein in the IMF bailout of European creditors are foolish. They are enabling a new faceless global ruling elite of financial institutions to run roughshod over representative governments in Europe and elsewhere,” Wilson added, concluding, “The sad truth is American taxpayers, by financing the IMF, are underwriting the destruction of representative government in Europe that their fathers and grandfathers fought and sacrificed their lives to defend.”

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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June 22nd, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement commenting on the Congressional Budget Office’s latest long-term projections on the growth of the national debt:

“The debt crisis is worse than we are being told. The CBO analysis does not take account of the gross $14.344 trillion national debt, nor does it reflect the $430 billion in gross interest payments we are paying every year. In addition to ‘debt held by the public,’ there is debt owed to the Medicare and Social Security trust funds, and which interest is owed to as well.

“These are real liabilities that the American people are expected to honor, and do honor under CBO’s analysis. But they are not revealed until 2024 and 2036, when the trust funds are fully exhausted. Why? It’s just an accounting gimmick that hides the full extent of the debt crisis.

“Because those liabilities are not fully taken into account, even the dire scenarios that are presented to the American people are actually rosy. We cannot afford to wait 15 to 25 years to be honest about the debt burden we have taken on. It’s real, and the problem is now, not in 2021, nor 2024, nor 2036. It’s now.

“For example, the American people are not advised that the national debt will actually be larger than the entire economy in 2012 if not sooner. At $14.344 trillion, the national debt already represents 95.5 percent of the $15.010 trillion Gross Domestic Product. Yet the CBO reports the debt will not be larger than the economy until 2021.

“Nor are the people warned that total interest payments already exceed the 18 percent of revenue red flag level Moody’s has explicitly warned against as being unaffordable. Will Moody’s wait until 2024 and 2036 to discover that interest payments suddenly jumped?

“That said, the CBO’s projections are really, really bad. They point to the need for every member of Congress to take the ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ pledge, which would immediately cut spending by hundreds of billions, cap it at 18 percent of GDP, and send a Balanced Budget Amendment to the states for adoption. Time is running out for Congress to take meaningful action to avert a true crisis.”

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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June 21st, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson will be joining Senators Jim DeMint, Marco Rubio, Orrin Hatch, and House Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan tomorrow, along with other free market and limited government leaders at a press conference in support of the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” Pledge.

Wilson called on all members in Congress to take the pledge. “In exchange for any vote to increase the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling, it is imperative that Republican leaders demand hundreds of billions of immediate spending cuts, statutory spending caps to no more than 18 percent of GDP, and a Balanced Budget Amendment with strong tax and spending limitations,” he said.

The pledge is targeted to all federal elected officials as well as candidates for federal office including the presidency.

“With the national debt rapidly spiraling out of control, rising to more than $26 trillion by 2021, the nation’s obligations are becoming too large to finance without a printing press,” Wilson warned, adding, “Congressional Republicans need to use the leverage they have — now — before the debt gets too large to even refinance, let alone be repaid.”

Wilson praised Senators Jim DeMint, Orrin Hatch, Mike Lee, Jerry Moran, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Pat Toomey, along with Representatives Jason Chaffetz, Jim Jordan, Ron Paul, and Joe Walsh for being the first members of Congress to sign the pledge.

“The sovereign debt crisis is coming to America. One need only look at Europe to see what is in store for the nation, and these Senators and Representatives deserve the thanks of the American people for their courageous stand to restore order to the nation’s fiscal house,” Wilson said.

“There should be no vote to further increase the debt ceiling unless the American people have the assurance that it will not need to be increased again, and again, and again,” Wilson said, concluding, “Now it is time for Republican leaders in Congress to draw a line in the sand and take the pledge. The only way Republicans’ leverage on the debt ceiling will work is if they’re willing to not increase the debt ceiling.”

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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June 20, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued a statement urging the House not to cave in to calls to scale back its demands to make far-reaching spending cuts in exchange for any vote to increase the $14.294 trillion national debt ceiling:

“House Speaker John Boehner cannot afford to flinch in the debate over the debt ceiling. There is too much at stake. The debt ceiling is the battle of our time, and will determine whether the nation’s future is one of unsustainable debt, catastrophic default, and decline, like Europe, or one of prosperity, growth, and fiscal prudence.

“For Republicans to concede an increase in the debt ceiling without far-reaching spending cuts would be to sacrifice the only leverage they have to restore order to the nation’s fiscal house. Speaker Boehner must hold firm for the sake of all Americans.”

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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