Biden’s recession is here and now

July 28, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ report showing the second quarterly decline in a row of real, inflation-adjusted Gross Domestic Product, with GDP contracting by another 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022:

“The United States economy is officially in a recession with the past two quarters contraction being reported by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.  Most Americans already knew that the economy was in trouble due to the forty-year high inflation that has bloomed due to unnecessary federal government spending splurges since December of 2020, intractable supply chain issues that are exacerbated by a Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg,  who is more interested in his next hoped for job than the one he currently holds, and U.S. based multinationals obstinate insistence in having their supply chains dependent upon the Chinese Communist Party rulers of mainland China.

“Joe Biden and his apologists will try to blame everyone from Putin to businesses for this economic contraction, but the ugly truth is that recession was the only possible outcome of his fundamental transformation policies which are putting a regulatory chokehold on domestic production.  Democrats used to depend upon blue collar workers and the unions that represent them for their electoral success, and Joe Biden might be the last Democrat presidential candidate elected who outwardly appealed to workers in hard hats.  Unfortunately, his administration’s determination to sentence America to global dependency, most notably but not only in the energy sector, is an economic death sentence to much of middle-class America.

“The Biden administration’s determination to outsource all environmental risk is guaranteed to outsource all of the jobs that come with that risk.  Joe Biden argues that there cannot be a recession without job losses.  What will he say when the full impact of his policies trickle down to workers later this year when the unemployment lines are the only things that are growing.  I hope this does not happen, but it is the inevitable consequence of an administration at war with the engine of the American economy.”

Attachments:

“U.S. falls into recession after GDP contracts another 0.9 percent in second quarter,” By Robert Romano, Vice President of Public Policy, Americans for Limited Government Foundation, July 28, 2022 at https://dailytorch.com/2022/07/u-s-falls-into-recession-after-gdp-contracts-another-0-9-percent-in-second-quarter/

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Jobless claims point to Biden recession

July 21, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest unemployment claims numbers:

“The U.S. Labor Department reported that the steady climb of initial unemployment claims continued last week to 251,000 newly unemployed up from 244,000 the week prior.  Since April 2022, the number of new weekly unemployment claims has risen by 85,000 from 166,000 to 251,000.  The chart doesn’t lie.  From July 2 to July 9, the number of Americans on unemployment insurance has increased on a net basis by a non-seasonally adjusted 122,000 to 1.45 million.  President Joe Biden’s sole claim to economic success has been our nation’s low unemployment rate, but the economic pressures put onto employers by the inflation caused Biden’s war on oil, natural gas and food production is putting an end to this one bright spot.

“The first week of July signaled the beginning of the end of the jobs economy, and unfortunately, today’s report does nothing to change this forecast as our nation slides into a Biden policy induced recession.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Congress must hold the federal bureaucracy accountable

House Government Reform and Oversight Committee is holding a hearing meant to highlight government employee productivity today. Subcommittee Chairman Gerald Comley (D-public employee union) is supposed to highlight a positive story about public employee work ethic during the pandemic. The Biden Whitehouse Director of Office of Management and Budget and the Director of Office of Personnel Management are both scheduled to testify. It is unlikely that Conley will ask these Biden officials about a study that found that 25 percent of Department of Health and Human Services employees failed to logion to their emails even a single time during the height of the pandemic between March and December 2020.

Congress must hold the federal bureaucracy accountable by forcing an audit to determine how many taxpayer-paid (workers) stole their pay by failing to check-in with the office once in ten months. You cannot implement a work-from-home policy if you do not hold those who violated the public trust accountable.

https://dailytorch.com/2022/07/25-of-federal-bureaucrats-at-hhs-never-checked-their-computers-during-first-ten-months-of-pandemic/

Biden attempts to repair U.S.-Saudi relations that he damaged

July 15, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to President Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia:

“President Joe Biden decided on day one of his administration to effectively declare war on Saudi Arabia. He did this by canceling the sale of defensive weapons like patriot missiles, ending the terrorist designation of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, and undermining the Abraham accord by reinstating tariffs on U.A.E. aluminum.

“Now, Biden claims that he wants to establish better relationships between Israel and Saudi Arabia. President Trump already did that, and Joe Biden cannot pretend that he has done anything except fund Iranian terrorism aimed at taking down the House of Saud.

“I hope that President Biden has a successful meeting in Saudi Arabia., However, any problems or pushback he receives are the sour fruits of his disastrous middle eastern policy.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

Initial jobless claims continue creeping upward

July 14, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest jobless claims:

“Initial jobless claims continue to climb and are beginning to reach alarming levels. The three-month climb takes jobless claims from a very low 166,000 a week in March, to a steadily rising 244,000 a week now. With President Biden desperately clinging to jobs growth as his economic proof point, the White House must be beginning to hit the panic button over the gathering dark clouds over labor markets. The increasing number of layoffs is fortunately still being offset by the number of job openings that are being filled. But with more employers slowing hiring, expect those numbers to come down soon. Nothing lasts forever.”

Attachments:

“How bad will Biden’s recession be?” By Robert Romano, Vice President of Public Policy, Americans for Limited Government Foundation, July 12, 2022 at https://dailytorch.com/2022/07/how-bad-will-bidens-recession-be/

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Biden’s inflation wrecks economy

Real weekly earnings down 4.4 percent.

July 13, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest inflation data:

“President Biden’s continued wrecking of the U.S. economy is evidenced by prices going up 1.3 percent in June and 9.1 percent for the past twelve months. Real wages after inflation as calculated declined by a full 1 percent in June alone, and dropped a whopping 3.6 percent over the past year. Even worse, employers are scaling back hours by 0.9 percent over the past year, making weekly average earnings or take-home pay 4.4 percent less than they were a year ago. Whether the hours are being scaled back due to the supply chain failures, slack demand, or both, this may indicate that the robust jobs economy may be at its end because people don’t pay people to stand around.

“A desperate Biden is meeting with the Saudi ‘s today to try to convince them to open their oil spigots, even as he has closed America’s while selling our Strategic Oil Reserve to China. The one good thing that could come from the Biden-Saudi meeting is that it is rumored that Hunter Biden may be joining the new Saudi-backed LIV professional golf tour if the price is right.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Texas and California Agree: Depend on Wind Energy and Prepare for Blackouts

July 11, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to the latest power outages in Texas:

“It might shock people to discover that the state of Texas has fallen into the same green energy dependency cycle which has captured California.  At least that is what the agency overseeing utilities in Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), is reporting.

“ERCOT is urging Texans and Texas businesses to conserve energy this week due to a projected capacity shortage.  How could Texas, the king of oil and natural gas, be facing an electricity shortage, you might ask?  A combination of record high demand, failure to add new coal, natural gas and nuclear thermal capacity and the failure of the wind to blow is the answer.  Remember this is the same Texas ERCOT which has encouraged the growth of wind and solar without increasing the capacity of coal, natural gas and nuclear over the past decade putting all of the future electricity needs of the oil state at the whim of the wind and sun gods.  Just two winters ago, it was Texas which suffered from massive power outages due to wind and solar shortages and a cavalcade of other operational mistakes, and now they find themselves in the same exact vice.

“California is well-known for being whacko-stupid in their pursuit of unreliable energy displacing coal, natural gas and nuclear, but the fact that the nation’s second most populous state has allowed its own internal electricity generation system to fall into the green abyss is beyond absurd.  The difference is that Texas legislators are supposed to be smart enough to allow markets to work.  Unfortunately, they decided on a state run electricity generation plan years ago which is now bearing the sour fruit of shortages, like all socialist systems do.  It is time for Texas to revisit their state electricity generation strategy before they become the laughing stock of the country.  A state which has mocked California for a generation suffering because they didn’t understand that to have a reliable grid, you need reliable energy sources.  As an oil and natural gas producing state, you would think the politicians in Austin might have read their own brochures.”

Attachments:

“Texas hasn’t expanded baseline electricity generation capacity in a decade, boosted wind and solar instead,” By Robert Romano, Vice President of Public Policy, Americans for Limited Government Foundation, March 8, 2021 at https://algresearch.org/2021/03/texas-hasnt-expanded-baseline-electricity-generation-capacity-in-a-decade-boosted-wind-and-solar-instead/

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Economic warning sign: Unemployment insurance claims continue steady three-month rise

July 7, 2022, Fairfax, Va.- President of Americans for Limited Government Rick Manning issued the following statement reacting to the release of weekly Unemployment Insurance Claims by the US Department of Labor.

Weekly unemployment insurance claims filed in the week ending July 2 by the US Department of Labor sent another warning sign that the overall economy is tipping toward recession as jobless claims continued their gradual creep upward.  The seasonally adjusted claims climbed by 4000 to 235,000, while the four-week average nudged up 750. In a vacuum these numbers are not bad, but the steady increase of claims since April second’s low water mark of 166,000 cannot be ignored. What is more, the overall number of people on unemployment insurance rose by 51000 last week, indicating that the ability of the economy to fully absorb newly unemployed may have reached a tipping point.

It must be noted that the weekly unemployment insurance claims report is notoriously volatile, but a trend that lasts for almost a full quarter cannot be ignored.

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Labor Market Predicto

July 6, 2022, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in anticipation of the latest jobs figures to be released on July 8:

“I predict that the June jobs report that comes out this upcoming Friday, July 8, will signal the beginning of the end of the jobs boom.  This won’t likely show up through a massive uptick in the unemployment rate, but rather by a continued downward trend on hours worked by the average worker with perhaps a slight increase in the unemployment rate.

“The news is providing scattered reports that job offers are being rescinded, and some prominent companies, like Tesla, are beginning the layoff process. The new unemployment insurance claims report remains in what would traditionally be described as low, it is troublesome that claims have crept up steadily and significantly over the past three months in almost stealth increases.

“Independent economic analysis by Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow is predicting that our economy is likely currently in a recession, and employers feeling the combined pinch of anticipated sky-high labor cost increases due to inflation and uncertain economic times ahead, will likely be shifting labor resources to pay the most productive employees and shed those who contribute least to the bottom line.  This is the natural course of business, and I expect the upcoming June unemployment report to reflect the beginning of this cycle.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Supreme Court restores Article One lawmaking power, freedom of religious expression, the right to bear arms and federalism in a week

June 30, 2022, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following on the conclusion of the Supreme Court’s 2021 term which included West Virginia v. EPA, Kennedy v. Bremerton School Dist., New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization:

“Today ends the most consequential Supreme Court term in more than a generation, as the Court eviscerated the power of the administrative state to contrive regulations outside the intent of Congress in the West Virginia v. EPA case, ended the federal legal onslaught against the free exercise of religion in the Kennedy, made it clear that individual liberties enumerated in the Constitution extend across state lines in the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association case, while rejecting the Court’s power to write legislation by ending the inferred right to abortion and returning the issue to the states in the Dobbs case.

“This Court restored individual First and Second Amendment rights, federalism and took a giant swipe at the power of the Article II executive branch of government to write laws through regulation.

“It is a great day in America and as we head into Independence Day weekend, the fireworks will shine a little brighter and pop a little louder as they proclaim the reclaimed freedom primarily due to the efforts, clarity and vision of Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. America is more free today than it was six months ago, and all liberty loving Americans should look at this day as a watershed in turning the tide against the ever-encroaching administrative state’s encroachment on individual liberty.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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