February 18th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging members of the House to approve a proposal by Rep. Jim Jordan to cut another $20 billion from the budget:

“Rep. Jordan’s proposal for an additional $20 billion in spending cuts improves upon the continuing resolution. It will keep to Pledge to America to ‘roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels’ by ensuring that all agencies operate at FY 2008 levels. And the amendment would bring the total cuts for the bill up to about $80 billion from current spending levels. We urge all members to support it.

“With a national debt of $14 trillion that cannot be repaid, and a $1.65 trillion budget deficit that cannot be balanced, House Republicans must aggressively make the largest amount of cuts as possible. A vote against the Jordan amendment is a vote against fiscal responsibility, and it is a vote against keeping the Pledge to America.”

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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February 18th, 2011, Fairfax,VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) praised Congressman Stephen Fincher (R-TN) today for introducing House Resolution 98 which demands that the Food and Drug Administration rely on legitimate science in making regulations or findings.

In an exclusive interview with ALG, Fincher explained that the sense of the House resolution is designed to put the FDA on notice that they, “need to be careful not to legislate from the Executive branch.”

The Resolution specifically urges the Commissioner of the FDA to, “give the greatest weight in making critical policy decisions to readily available hard science data, including evidence from the natural sciences, physical sciences and computing sciences.”

Bill Wilson, President of Americans for Limited Government noted, “Mr. Fincher’s resolution will put the FDA on notice that they need to be constrained by actual science and not political science, and it is a good first step in reining in their dramatic overreach.”

The U.S. Government Accounting Office has found numerous instances of the FDA failing to follow its core mission with respect to the oversight of products within its jurisdiction, and that they are not using up to date scientific technologies to make determinations.

Fincher expressed that he is “troubled” by the fact that the FDA may be acting upon “whim” and not following hard science. His resolution will put the FDA on notice that they should not take actions unless warranted by real scientific determinations instead of other considerations.

The Resolution concludes by stating that the Commissioner of the FDA should :

(1) give the greatest weight in making critical policy decisions to readily available hard science data, including evidence from the natural sciences, physical sciences, and computing sciences; and
(2) avoid paternalistic policy decisions that are not grounded in hard science.

The Resolution has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee for consideration.

Click here to read H.Res 98

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February 18th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement condemning 92 House Republicans for helping defeat a proposal by Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Marsha Blackburn to cut another $20 billion from the budget:

“Rep. Jordan and Rep. Blackburn’s proposal for another $20 billion in spending cuts would have helped House Republicans keep the Pledge to America promise to ‘roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels’ by ensuring that all agencies operate at FY 2008 levels.

“Although 147 Republicans, a broad majority of the conference, supported these cuts, incredibly, 92 members of their own caucus chose to protect funding for the government. Unfortunately, now the House will come far short of its pledge to cut at least $100 billion of spending this year.

“Americans for Limited Government will continue our fight to hold House Republicans accountable to keep their pledge of cutting $100 billion in spending this year. We urge all concerned citizens to contact their representatives atwww.keepthepledge.org.”

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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February 17th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government today commemorated the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Mt. Vernon Statement. Last year, ALG President Bill Wilson was among the original free market and limited government leaders that signed it.

Wilson said the statement “reaffirms that constitutional, limited government is the best means of preserving liberty, promoting prosperity, and opposing tyranny in America, and throughout the world.”

The Mt. Vernon statement was signed almost fifty years after the 1960 Sharon Statement by William F. Buckley, Jr. that many consider to be one of the founding documents of the modern conservative movement. More than 200,000 people have signed the statement in the past year.

Wilson said the statement remains relevant to the current political climate: “The rise of the tea party movement and increasing citizen participation shows that the people of the United States remain vital to preserving the Constitution. The Mt. Vernon statement reaffirms their natural rights to petition their government.”

According to the Mount Vernon Statement, “The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.”

The statement continues, “The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

Wilson praised former Attorney General Edwin Meese for putting together the coalition of national, grassroots leaders to pen the document. “Attorney General Meese deserves the thanks of the American people for bringing so many together behind a strong message promoting the proper, limited role of government.”

Wilson concluded saying, “The need for that discussion remains urgent. The continued support of the Mount Vernon Statement shows that Americans continue to be committed to constitutional, limited government. The unbridled and dangerous expansion of central power in Washington has gone unabated, and without constitutional limits being exercised, the liberty of every American is threatened.”

Wilson urged citizens to sign the statement themselves at www.themountvernonstatement.com.
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The Mount Vernon Statement

Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century

We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.

These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people. They are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other in the world. They are our highest achievements, serving not only as powerful beacons to all who strive for freedom and seek self-government, but as warnings to tyrants and despots everywhere.

Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The selfevident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.

Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead — forward or backward, up or down? Isn’t this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?

The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature’s God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man’s self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.

The conservatism of the Constitution limits government’s powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic.

A Constitutional conservatism unites all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles. It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America’s safety and leadership role in the world.

A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.

• It applies the principle of limited government based on the
rule of law to every proposal.
• It honors the central place of individual liberty in American
politics and life.
• It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and
economic reforms grounded in market solutions.
• It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom
and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that
end.
• It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood,
community, and faith.

If we are to succeed in the critical political and policy battles ahead, we must be certain of our purpose.

We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America’s founding principles.

February 17, 2010

Edwin Meese, former U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America
Edwin Feulner, Jr., president of the Heritage Foundation
Lee Edwards, Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation, was present at the Sharon Statement signing.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council
Becky Norton Dunlop, president of the Council for National Policy
Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center
Alfred Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator
David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union
David McIntosh, co-founder of the Federalist Society
T. Kenneth Cribb, former domestic policy adviser to President Reagan
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform
William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government
Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness
Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
Kenneth Blackwell, Coalition for a Conservative Majority
Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring
Kathryn J. Lopez, National Review

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February 16th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging adoption of an amendment to the continuing resolution by Rep. Denny Rehberg defunding the implementation of ObamaCare:

“House Appropriations Labor and Health Subcommittee Chairman Denny Rehberg has taken an important and necessary step in offering an amendment to the continuing resolution that stops federal implementation of ObamaCare.

“Rep. Rehberg is to be praised for keeping this promise to the American people. It is outrageous in light of Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling voiding the law that Obama continues to spend federal money and issue new regulations on something that is no longer the law of the land.

“Today, I am sending a letter to every governor involved in the Florida and Virginia suits, as well New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, urging them to return to court. Obama must cease and desist from all implementation of this defunct law. To waste taxpayer money putting something into effect that has been found to be unconstitutional is a dereliction of duty. We urge Congress and governors across the nation to use all their resources to stop Obama’s illegal continuance of regulation writing.

“And we urge every member of Congress to support the Rehberg amendment to stop ObamaCare.”

Attachments:

ALG Letter to 29 Governors, February 15th, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/ObamaCareImplementationLettertoStates2-15-11.pdf.

“New ObamaCare Regulations Defy Court, ALG Urges States to Take Immediate Action,” February 11th, 2011.

“Obama Defies Judge, Implementation Continues,” February 7th, 2011, ALG President Bill Wilson.

“The Week Ahead Analyzes Judge Vinson’s Ruling,” Video News Segment, February 1st, 2011.

“Judge Stops ObamaCare, but Who Will Stop Obama?” February 2nd, 2011, by Robert Romano, Senior Editor, Americans for Limited Government.

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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February 15th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) urged the recusal of four members of an FDA panel deciding whether to ban menthol flavored tobacco products for “blatant conflicts of interest” in comments submitted today to the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC).

ALG President Bill Wilson clearly defined the issue stating, “The integrity of the process is the issue, and the American people need to be assured that those making regulatory decisions and recommendations are not doing so to line their own pockets or those of their current or former clients.”

Wilson states in the submission that, “at least four members of TPSAC have conflicts of interest by virtue of receiving payments from special interests with billions of dollars riding on the outcome of the committee’s analysis.”

ALG communicated the conflict of interest issues in a July 13, 2010 letter to Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D., of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which stated, “These irreconcilable biases jeopardize the neutrality that examination of this issue demands and requires. It also threatens to erode Americans’ confidence in government. It creates an anti-government sentiment that leads the public to question decisions, a dynamic that certainly is not healthy for our democracy….We can envision no greater conflict. We urgently request that you revisit these disqualifying conflicts of interest.”

“As we have made clear from the outset, the conflict of interest within the panel is the problem, and the failure of the Obama appointed FDA Administrator to take her responsibility to provide conflict of interest free decision making is just further evidence of the political agenda, rather than fact, driven power grab that this panel represents.”

Americans for Limited Government is a non-profit corporation dedicated to free market principles and rolling back the massive overreach of government that threatens individual freedom.

Attachments:

ALG Letter to Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee, February 15th, 2011 at http://www.getliberty.org/files/TPSAC-21511.pdf .

ALG Letter to FDA, July 13th, 2010 at www.getliberty.org/files/ALGLettertoFDA.pdf .

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February 15th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising a proposal by Rep. Jim Jordan to cut another $20 billion from the budget:

“Rep. Jordan’s proposal is a big step in the right direction, and will cut about $20 billion more from current spending levels. Coupled with House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers’ proposal to cut $60.8 billion in the continuing resolution, House Republicans are coming close to fulfilling their pledge to cut $100 billion. All members should vote in favor of Rep. Jordan’s amendment. These are excellent first steps by the new House majority.

“But more must be done. With a $14 trillion national debt, fast approaching 100 percent of the entire economy, and a $1.5 trillion deficit, Congress will need to find a whole lot more than $100 billion of cuts anyway. There will come a point where the debt becomes so large that it can no longer be serviced. The nation is already spending $413 billion a year in interest payments, which will likely rise to over $1.2 trillion by 2021. This is unsustainable, and will sink our finances sooner than anyone thinks.

“The only solution is to get the budget as close to balanced as possible and begin repaying the debt. House Republicans in their pledge also promised to ‘pay down the debt’. It is a promise they must keep if America is to remain the world’s number one economic superpower. We urge all citizens to continue to go to www.keepthepledge.org and urge House Republicans to keep their promises. There is too much at stake.”

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

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February 14th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to the Obama Administration’s ten-year budget:

“By 2021, under the Obama budget, the national debt will balloon to $26.3 trillion from its current level of $14.1 trillion, an 86.5 percent increase. In fact, this year, in 2011, the national debt will grow to $15.4 trillion, larger than the entire economy. Thereafter, the debt-to-GDP levels will stay above 100 percent, growing every single year.

“In fact, under the Obama budget, the national debt will never be repaid. It will continue to grow into perpetuity. Even under the rosiest of scenarios projected by the Obama Administration, the debt will be growing faster than the economy and be larger than the economy — forever.

“If spending is not cut drastically and the debt paid down at fixed intervals like a mortgage payment, one day the debt will become too large to service, let alone be paid down. Net interest alone will be $844 billion annually by 2021, a number that will easily double by 2030 if not triple.

“Congress must consider real proposals that will prevent these numbers from becoming reality. Because once they do, and once the debt becomes so large that it cannot be serviced, the U.S. will default on its obligations.

“While nobody can say for certain where that breaking point is, what is certain is that no system can be sustained that always spends more than it takes in and never repays any debt. It has never happened in history, and it never will happen.”

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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February 11th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, as well as the 26 co-plaintiff states, to take immediate action against the implementation of new regulatory processes forbidden by Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling:

“Despite the ruling of a federal court striking down the bill in its entirety, the Obama Administration has continued with the regulatory implementation of the health care takeover. Instead of the rule of law, we now have the rule of Obama.

“Today, published in the Federal Register, the Obama Administration has introduced a new regulation affecting student health plans. The problem is that the executive branch has no power to implement regulations based on voided legislation. These actions are barred by Judge Vinson’s ruling. The Obama Administration has not even taken the basic step asking the courts for a stay of that decision.

“This lawlessness must not stand. Without a stay or being overturned, the Administration must follow Judge Vinson’s decision.

“It is now evident that the Department of Health and Human Service is taking further steps to execute the law expressly forbidden by Judge Vinson’s ruling. Obama has called the states’ bluff by continuing with implementation. If the states are serious in their opposition to ObamaCare, they must take immediate action.”

Attachments:

“Obama Defies Judge, Implementation Continues,” February 7th, 2011, ALG President Bill Wilson.

“The Week Ahead Analyzes Judge Vinson’s Ruling,” Video News Segment, February 1st, 2011.

“Judge Stops ObamaCare, but Who Will Stop Obama?” February 2nd, 2011, by Robert Romano, Senior Editor, Americans for Limited Government.

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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February 10th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging House Republicans to amend and build upon a proposal to cut current spending levels by $35 billion as the organization launched the grassroots petition site, http://keepthepledge.org/, to enable activists and concerned citizens to easily contact their members of Congress:

“A House Republican proposal to cut only $35 billion from current spending levels is very disappointing. The American people were promised $100 billion of initial cuts, and it was widely understood that proposal would be attached to an upcoming vote on the budget continuing resolution.

“House members should keep their pledge and cut $100 billion, as they promised to do when they were running for office. Then they said they would ‘roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone and putting us on a path to balance the budget and pay down the debt.’ Unfortunately, now only a third that amount is being proposed.

“In November, the American people sent House Republicans back into the majority on the premise that they would bring order to the nation’s fiscal house. They need to keep the pledge and cut at least $100 billion. Representative Jordan has a solid, well conceived proposal that will meet and exceed that goal. The Jordan proposal must be incorporated into the Continuing Resolution.

“To the American people, a promise broken is rarely forgotten. Now, members must choose. Will they pretend they kept their pledge? Or will they amend this legislation to include the full $100 billion of they promised? The choice they make may well determine whether Republicans will sustain and build on their majority, or once again lose touch with the American people and lose the opportunity to bring the nation’s fiscal house into order.”

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

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