April 26, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the S&P/Case Shiller housing price index showing another 1.1 percent decline in home values for the month of February:

“The Obama ‘stimulus’ has failed to achieve its always unrealistic and yet essential goal of propping up home values closer to their bubble highs. Housing prices are still deflating to more realistic levels. The irony is that we should have just let prices hit the bottom without intervention in the first place, and we would already be in recovery. Now, Obama and Bernanke have prolonged the recession in housing by avoiding this necessary correction. They wanted a soft landing and, well, they got one. Good job.

“We have wasted more than $2 trillion on a lie. The American people were sold the bailouts on the basis that they were saving the value of their homes, and what they are learning now is the only effect of propping up failed institutions was to reward those who failed so remarkably. The proper course of action was always to allow a market-based correction to run its course, even if that meant allowing financial institutions that bet poorly on housing to fail.

“Now we are in a double-dip recession in housing, which Obama promised would be avoided if all his policies were implemented, which they were. Obama got everything he wanted, and he has failed. Unemployment remains high, home values continue to slowly contract, and the so-called ‘recovery’ is nowhere to be found. America needs new leadership, and less government ‘assistance’ that only makes the problems it claims to address even worse.”

Attachments:

S&P/Case-Shiller housing price index chart shows double-dip, April 26th, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/Case-ShillerHomePriceIndex4-26-11.PNG.

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

###

April 25, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement blaming the Obama Administration and the Federal Reserve for weakening the dollar and increasing oil and other commodity prices:

“The Obama Administration once again wants to blame so-called ‘speculators’ for the commodities inflation caused by its own weak dollar policies. Oil is soaring because of the weak dollar — it’s the only explanation that makes any sense. There is no oil supply problem, and demand is only slightly increased from a year ago.

“Yet, prices are soaring. U.S. crude alone has more than tripled from a low of about $35 a barrel in 2009 to over $110 a barrel today, and today gasoline prices are soaring quickly to $4 a gallon, and soon $5. The reason is the weak dollar.

“Since the last commodities bubble in 2008, the Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet by $1.78 trillion to $2.73 trillion, a whopping 188 percent increase. Prices for food, gold, oil, and other commodities have all behaved accordingly. Price increases in a broad range of commodities indicate a clear inflationary problem, caused by the expansive monetary policies of the Federal Reserve.

“If there should be any investigation, it should be into the Obama Administration’s weak dollar policies that are destroying the purchasing power of average American families, who now have to pay even more for staples like food and energy.”

Attachments:

Obama’s Pain at the Pump, ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, April 25th, 2011 at http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=3273.

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

###

April 21, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising the New Hampshire Senate for passing right-to-work legislation:

“The New Hampshire Senate is to be commended for adopting a right-to-work law by a veto-proof majority that will give workers the choice of whether or not they want to pay union dues. The issue comes down to individual choice, and whether New Hampshire and other states are going to respect the right of the freedom of association.

“This follows the House’s passage of similar right-to-work legislation, and the historic passage of a balanced budget that reins in out-of-control public sector unions. The budget also takes the necessary step of increasing public employee contributions to their own pension funds, and now needs Senate approval.

“New Hampshire is taking the lead in pushing back against the excesses of public sector unions, and restoring the freedom of choice to its citizens to decide for themselves who they associate with. Now, the House and Senate need to work together to produce a right-to-work bill that will pass both houses by veto-proof margins.”

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

###

April 18th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on S&P’s decision to downgrade the outlook on U.S. debt to “negative”:

“Sovereign credit rating agencies have repeatedly warned the U.S. to get its fiscal house in order or else face a downgrade of its Triple-A credit rating. Now the agencies are preparing to do just that by taking the first step of downgrading the outlook on U.S. debt to negative. That means a full credit downgrade is now substantially more likely in the next year or two.

“The time for half-measures has long past. Credit rating agencies are through issuing warnings, and now are taking action. But elected leaders have not presented any budget to meet the challenge of an imminent credit downgrade. The Obama proposal will never balance the budget, and the House-passed budget will take 26 years to do so. We just don’t have that kind of time.

“With a $14.2 trillion gross national debt that will be larger than the entire economy by year’s end, growing to over $25 trillion by 2021, soon our obligations will become too large to refinance, let alone be repaid.

“S&P is explicitly telling us that ‘[b]ecause the U.S. has, relative to its ‘AAA’ peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us,’ that we do not match up to other Triple-A rated nations. They’re preparing to downgrade us, but we are not prepared to balance the budget any time soon. Today’s statement by S&P signifies a catastrophic failure of leadership in Washington that is risking the very solvency of the American people.”

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

###

April 15th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in support of the Republican Study Committee 2012 budget proposal that will achieve a balanced budget by 2020:

“Americans for Limited Government supports the Republican Study Committee budget proposal by Representative Scott Garrett as it is the only comprehensive approach to the budget that achieves balance within the next ten years. Our nation can no longer afford for politicians to just mouth the words balanced budget, it is time to get serious, and the Jordan budget proposal puts America back on the path to fiscal sanity.”

Attachments:

H. Con. Res. 37 at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hconres37ih/pdf/BILLS-112hconres37ih.pdf .

Honest Solutions, Republican Study Committee, April 2011 athttp://rsc.jordan.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Honest_Solutions_2_Pager_FINAL.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.

###

April 14, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the new Obama budget:

“Barack Obama wants to pretend that the reason we are spending more than we take in is because we don’t take in enough, when the real problem is that we are spending too much. In 2007, the budget deficit was just $160.7 billion, but this year it will rise to $1.645 trillion, a 923 percent increase. How can that be when tax rates have been relatively the same since then?

“Since 2007, annual spending has increased $1.119 trillion, and revenues have decreased by $394 billion. Put simply, 75 percent of the increased shortfall is because spending increased and only 25 percent is because revenue dropped because of the down economy. That means we have a spending problem, plain and simple.

“The implication is that 75 percent of the solution will need to include spending cuts, and the other 25 percent of the solution will be growing the economy so that revenue increases. And in order to get spending under control, Congress will need to rein in mandatory spending, which accounts for $745 billion of the increased shortfall.

“The next time Congress considers a budget, everything needs to be on the table, because that is the only way to get this monstrosity under control.”

Attachments:

“Obama’s ‘Adult’ Conversation,” By ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, April 14th, 2011.

“Debt a Vexing Can of Worms,” By ALG Senior Editor Robert Romano, March 22nd, 2011.

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

###

April 13th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the new Obama budget:

“The new Obama budget is just like the old Obama budget. It’s just smoke and mirrors. A charade. Just like the old budget, under the new budget, every single year, spending will increase, taxes will rise, and the government will expand. The national debt will increase by about $1 trillion a year such that by 2021, the debt will be more than $24 trillion. It never anticipates a balanced budget, nor does it foresee ever paying down the debt, which will soon become too large to even refinance.

“The Obama Administration once again has proven that it cannot be taken seriously when it comes to restoring order to the nation’s fiscal house. If elected officials cannot find a way to balance the budget sometime during their terms of office, their claims of ‘fiscal responsibility’ truly are preposterous.”

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

###

April 12th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on a proposed increased in the $14.294 trillion national debt ceiling:

“A big lie being perpetrated by the Obama Administration and mainstream media is that if Congress does not raise the $14.3 trillion national debt ceiling, the nation will default on its obligations. This is nothing more than a scare tactic. Just like a consumer credit limit, if the debt ceiling is reached, this will simply mean that the Treasury cannot issue new debt. The existing debt could still be refinanced, but interest owed on the debt would have to be paid out of revenue and the budget would also have to be balanced immediately. That is not a default.

“The Obama Administration needs to stop lying about the debt ceiling, and level with the American people about the dire fiscal catastrophe the nation faces with a debt so large that it cannot be paid.”

Attachments:

“The Debt Ceiling Dilemma,” ALG President Bill Wilson, January 7th, 2011.

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

###

April 9th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising House Speaker John Boehner for getting $38.5 billion in more cuts to the 2011 budget in a deal that will fund the military through the year and averts a government shutdown:

“Speaker Boehner is to be congratulated for forcing through more real budget cuts in the midnight deal to prevent a shutdown than even his own Appropriations Committee initially proposed. This is a good first step toward restoring fiscal sanity in our nation.

“As our nation faces a real government shutdown in just a few weeks as we reach the limit on how much money the federal government can borrow, we urge the Speaker to keep the pressure on to create institutional changes that permanently pull our nation back from the brink of financial disaster before agreeing to any increase in the debt ceiling. Speaker Boehner has the political momentum, and the American people will no longer stand for giving the politicians in DC a blank check.

“It is our hope that the Speaker will force the Senate and House Democrats to at a minimum send the Balanced Budget Amendment proposed by Senators McConnell and Hatch to the states for ratification in exchange for an increase in the government’s credit limit. Our nation can no longer afford to keep borrowing and a strong balanced budget amendment would force fiscal sanity and preserve our nation’s historic greatness.”

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

###