January 12th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged the Senate to enact legislation that would repeal an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finding classifying carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

Wilson said “the EPA has set itself up as a legislator by arbitrarily amending the Clean Air Act, when it is up to Congress to make determinations about what the law should be. This is about the constitutional principle of the separation of powers.”

Politico reports that the issue may come up again this session. Last year a similar proposal by Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski failed by a vote of 53-47. “Four Senate Democrats still serving this session supported it, and with 47 Republicans in the Senate now, it will be more difficult for Senate Democrats to block a bill that a majority of the Senate supports,” Wilson said of the proposal’s chances.

Wilson thanked Senator Murkowski for her prior proposal and urged her to bring it back. He also praised the four Senate Democrats still serving who voted for it, led by Senator Jay Rockefeller (WV). Senators Mark Pryor (AR), Ben Nelson (NE), and Mary Landrieu (LA) joined with Rockefeller.

“It’s going to take bipartisanship to defeat the EPA, and Americans for Limited Government thanks Senators Murkowski, Rockefeller, Pryor, Nelson, and Landrieu for working together to save the U.S. economy from being strangled via regulation,” Wilson said.

Senate Republicans would need every single one of the votes on their side, along with eight other Democrats besides the four that voted last time to overcome a filibuster and repeal the EPA endangerment finding. “It can be done,” Wilson said, noting that the vote would be a difficult one for 23 Democrat senators up for reelection in 2012.

Wilson urged the Senate in upcoming months to take on the EPA, regardless of how they feel about the climate change issue. “Even if a senator believes that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are pollutants, he or she should still rein in the EPA, which simply declared that those gases are covered under the Clean Air Act,” Wilson explained.

“Carbon dioxide, just like water vapor and other greenhouse gases, are not pollutants, nor was it Congress’ intention to regulate greenhouse gases when the Clean Air Act was authored. Instead, it was a baseless court ruling that allowed the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA to seize this power,” Wilson noted.

In 2007, the EPA was sued to regulate greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide. “At the time,” said Wilson, “the EPA did the right thing and said it did not have the unilateral authority to make the Clean Air Act apply to CO2, that it was up to Congress to make such a determination.”

As reported by the American Spectator, the EPA changed the way the Clean Air Act applies to CO2: “The plain language of the Clean Air Act would apply the regulations to anyone who emits more than 250 tons of CO2 in a year. That means fast food franchises, apartment buildings, and hospitals would be subject to regulations aimed at clamping down on pollution from large industrial facilities. Even the EPA recognized the absurdity of this result. It took it upon itself to rewrite the law, saying that what the Clean Air Act meant in this case was 25,000 tons, not 250, and issued what it called a ‘tailoring rule’ to this effect. This represents a significant assault on the principle of separation of powers.”

Democrat Senators last year had used the threat of unilateral EPA action to influence lawmakers to act on legislation restricting carbon emissions, including Senator Mark Begich of Alaska who said, “We need a comprehensive energy plan and if this keeps the fire under these guys to get something major done, I’m all for it.”

Wilson fired back, declaring, “It’s not up to the EPA to hold the American economy hostage. Arbitrarily restricting carbon emissions without any vote in Congress is a violation of the public trust, and it must be repealed.”

Attachments:

“Earth Not on Fire: The Threat Posed by the EPA’s CO2 Endangerment Finding on the Individual and the Economy,” Americans for Limited Government, June, 2010.

ALG Letter to U.S. Senate, June 8th, 2010.

“Apocalyptic EPA Should Not Be Setting Energy Policy,” Editorial by ALG News, June 9th, 2010.

“The EPA’s Reckless Endangerment,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, June 8th, 2010.

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

###

January 10th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned the efforts by pundits and politicians to link the murderous rampage by Jared Loughner to politics:

“Our thoughts and prayers as a nation should be with the victims of the Tucson slayings by Jared Loughner, and their grieving families. Instead, soulless partisan hacks are attempting to cast these attacks in some political context, seeking to blame everyone from Sarah Palin, the tea parties, to the Republican Party at large for somehow inciting Loughner’s killings, the motive of which may never be clear.

“Meanwhile, the motive for linking Loughner to the political right is more than transparent, it is a sick political agenda that seeks to take advantage of this tragedy. Once again, the shameless strategy is to blame a horrendous act of carnage on conservatives, Republicans, or tea parties for the purpose of delegitimizing their philosophy of governing. Enough is enough.

“The American people should not even dignify this twisted strategy as legitimate discourse. It is nothing more than fear-mongering. To try to politicize this tragedy is to scapegoat millions of Americans who only have legitimate objections to their government. The American people will not be bullied from protesting their government, even as they condemn and mourn the needless slaughter by a lone lunatic.”

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

###

January 6th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising House Speaker John Boehner for promising to attach spending reductions to an increase in the national debt ceiling:

“House Speaker John Boehner has taken the courageous step of promising to attach spending cuts and budget process reforms to an increase in the $14.294 trillion national debt ceiling. While the size of the cuts on the table remains to be seen, this is a tremendous step in the right direction for the new Congress to take. House Republicans need to use the leverage they have to begin balancing the budget, and that includes attaching spending cuts to the debt ceiling increase.

“Now, Speaker Boehner needs to go a step further and insist on dramatic reductions that will substantially reduce the $1.3 trillion budget deficit. The new House Republican majority cannot afford to allow another trillion-dollar deficit in 2011 without a fight. The American people will not stand for it.

“House Republicans will have two opportunities this year to extract spending cuts from the Senate and White House: the debt ceiling increase and the continuing resolution that expires on March 4th. These two votes need to have big cuts attached to them in order to cut the deficit, say, in half, as a starting point. That would mean at least $325 billion in cuts in each of the two votes. The American people would stand by the House in such a courageous stand, because they took a similar stand in November when they sent House Republicans back into the majority.”

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

###

January 5th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in reaction to the speech given by Rep. John Boehner upon being elected the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 112th Congress:

“Speaker Boehner understands that to serve as a representative is a trust with the American people based on the consent of the governed, not an entitlement for the powerful. In his words, it is the ‘People’s House’ that he will be leading, merely as its caretaker, mindful that if the House Republican majority does not act on the express wishes of the people, that it will indeed be a temporary majority.

“The challenges are great. Washington now has its claws in health care via ObamaCare, the financial sector via Dodd-Frank and the takeovers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and energy via the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon endangerment finding. These must be undone and repealed, and we praise Speaker Boehner’s commitment to these issues.

“John Boehner is one leader in Washington who did get the message of November’s elections, and Americans for Limited Government congratulates his elevation to the House Speaker’s chair. His leadership in the minority against the Obama agenda in 2009 and 2010, against the ‘stimulus’, ObamaCare, carbon caps and taxes, and Washington’s unsustainable spending, is one of the major reasons why Republicans regained a majority in November.

“Americans for Limited Government looks forward to working with the new Republican majority in the House and responsible Democrats to bring the nation’s fiscal house into order, begin to pay off the national debt, and roll back an ever-expansive government.

“It will be up to Mr. Boehner to lead the charge to return the government to its limited constitutional functions, to the states, and most importantly, to the people.”

Attachments:

Excerpts of House Speaker John Boehner’s Speech, January 5th, 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.

###

January 4th, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the national debt topping $14 trillion:

“This is where we are. With the national debt topping $14 trillion, it stands at 95 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, which is almost a full year of all goods and services the entire economy can produce. As it approaches the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling, incoming House Speaker John Boehner has a decision to make. Attaching $100 billion of spending cuts to that vote may sound nice, but it isn’t one-tenth enough of what needs to be done.

“Instead, House Republicans should use that leverage to extract at least $800 billion of across the board cuts, bringing the budget to 2007 spending levels of $2.7 trillion. Then if lawmakers wished to keep entitlement and defense spending where they currently are, they would have to find about another $200 billion of cuts or so to make from the discretionary budget. And then after that, keep cutting until the budget is balanced, no more debt needs to be contracted, and the debt can finally begin to be paid off.

“The way to begin to do that is to attach the $800 billion of spending cuts to the debt ceiling increase legislation. That includes ending the bailouts, ‘stimulus’, and selling government ownership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The House will have done its job and increased the debt ceiling to help refinance current debts. Then Harry Reid and Barack Obama will have the choice to make: Accept the spending cuts or block the debt ceiling increase and default. The burden will be on them, and the blame will be on them should they fail to raise the debt limit. Those are the terms of the American people.

“The alternative is to just kick the can and raise the ceiling without any cuts or too little cuts attached, and watch as the debt becomes larger than the entire economy this year or next. As the Federal Reserve becomes the government’s top lender, printing hundreds of billions of dollars just to refinance the debt. And, as the national credit rating is eventually downgraded. The dollar will continue to sink, interest rates will have nowhere to go but up, and the ultimate collapse that occurs will be on the heads of every politician who refused to cut spending when they had the chance.”

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

###

January 3rd, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged the incoming Republican Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, to investigate Obama appointee Arturo Valenzuela for “the weak appeasement policies of the Obama Administration in Central and South America.”

Wilson, in his letter to Representative Ros-Lehtinen, blasted the Obama Administration’s failure to respond to the invasion of Costa Rica by Nicaragua, and urged her to bring Barack Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, to the House to testify.

The letter contends that the Obama Administration’s failure to respond to the invasion, and instead to announce Nicaragua’s candidacy for U.S. aid from the Millennium Project, has emboldened America’s enemies in the region, including Venezuela dictator, Hugo Chavez. “The ineptitude of the Obama Administration has not gone unheeded in the region,” Wilson wrote.

In December 2010, U.S envoy Larry Palmer was banished for being “disrespectful,” according to Chavez. “In reality, Palmer was voicing U.S. concerns that Columbian drug cartels are being financed by Venezuela,” Wilson wrote.

Wilson noted the invasion of Carelo Island along the San Juan River by Nicaraguan military forces had no basis: “In fact, according to the official maps of both countries, the land has always been Costa Rican. It is in fact an illegal invasion by Nicaragua of Costa Rica, an historically peaceful country which has no standing military.”

But according to a recent Washington Post editorial, the Obama Administration “has not condemned the Nicaraguan land grab. In fact, the State Department has yet to say anything about the matter.” Wilson called the silence “inexcusable” in a statement

Wilson also brought forward concerns that Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega is cementing his rule on power so that he can serve for life by arbitrarily flouting constitutional restrictions from running for re-election.

Blame can be laid at Valenzuela’s feet, said Wilson. “Weakness invites aggression,” he wrote to Ros-Lehtinen. “Valenzuela’s background indicated a very weak policy by the U.S. to defending free nations in Latin America from the Marxist regimes that seek to overthrow them” and provided the basis for ALG’s opposition to the appointment.”

“Valenzuela has argued for ‘dialogue and an opening towards Cuba,’ defended Venezuela’s cracking down on press freedom while serving at Freedom House, and sat on the advisory board of Americas Watch with George Soros, a group that supported reinstating Manuel Zelaya to power in Honduras,” Wilson noted.

“It’s time that Arturo Valenzuela be held to account for the Obama Administration’s appeasement of authoritarian regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and elsewhere,” Wilson concluded in a statement.

Attachments:

Letter to House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, December 3rd, 2011.

Arturo Valenzuela Background, Americans for Limited Government, July 2009.

###

December 22nd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Award-winning Americans for Limited Government (ALG) cartoonist William Warren is honored to have five of his best cartoons published in the book, Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 2011 Edition.

“William Warren is very deserving of this honor,” said ALG President Bill Wilson. “We are proud and privileged to have him work for ALG. He produces great work and it is no wonder that five of his cartoons were selected for the book.”

With new cartoons featured three days a week on ALG’s website, Warren’s cartoons are right on with the political issues of the day with an added dose of humor.

In an exclusive interview with ALG News, Warren talks about life as a conservative cartoonist, his influences, and his views on contemporary political events.

Warren gave his thoughts on what makes a funny political cartoon: “A funny and successful cartoon must be rooted in truth. If it’s a lie, no one will find it amusing. Secondly, it has to put a clever spin on an issue and twist that issue to the point of absurdity. And it has to be delivered well, which is where art, caricature, composition, and style come into play.”

Attachments:

“ALG’s Award-Winning Cartoonist Talks Skills, Passion and Talent,” December 22nd, 2010.

“Obama Monument,” February 2nd, 2010.

“Veered to the Left,” March 10th, 2010.

“Earth to NASA,” July 7th, 2010.

“How ‘Bout a Cold Drink,” July 27th, 2010.

“Insurmountable Odds,” September 2nd, 2010.

###

December 20th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in support of a 74-day continuing resolution to keep the government funded until March 4th:

“Senate Republicans have forced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrats to acknowledge the elections. The omnibus ploy was insulting to the people and dangerous for our nation. Now the hard work of cutting the federal budget begins. The 74-day continuing resolution under consideration will give the next Congress the opportunity to actually make spending cuts to begin to bring our fiscal house into order in 2011 instead of continuing to kick the can.

“It is no longer Congress’ job to borrow and spend billions of dollars it doesn’t have. Now, its job is to cut spending and to find a way to reduce the national debt so that we can return to a sustainable path as a nation. That is what the American people voted for in November.

“As a nation, we must stop heaping new debt on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren. That is what the American people expect, and that is the standard they will hold their representatives to, whether they are Democrats or Republicans. The fiscal crisis that looms and the hard choices we face are shared by 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.

###

December 17th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in support of a 60-day continuing resolution to keep the government funded until February 18th:

“The American people owe Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans a debt of gratitude for leading the charge against the 2000-page $1.27 trillion omnibus monstrosity. In November, the American people spoke out against increasing the national debt, and now they have been heard in Washington. But more must be done.

“Congress should now pass Senator McConnell’s 60-day continuing resolution, and then go home. After that, it will fall on the next Congress to begin the hard work of bringing our fiscal house into order, cut spending, and return the nation to a sustainable path in the New Year. Defeating the omnibus is just the beginning, and not the end, of the work ahead of us.”

Attachment:

“Sovereign Debt Crisis Can Happen Here,” ALG President Bill Wilson, December 14th, 2010.

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

###

December 17th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in opposition to HR 5116, a bill with $7.4 billion in new spending sponsored by Senator Jay Rockefeller and cosponsored by Senators Alexander, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jeff Bingaman:

“Not a day after the American people demanded that the wasteful spending come to an end with the omnibus bill, the Senate is already back to its old tricks. Now the so-called ‘America Competes Act’ has been put on the fast track to get unanimous authorization by the Senate. This is just more corporate welfare, even after omnibus was defeated, and it is outrageous. Where are the spending cuts the American people were promised?

“The programs funded in the bill, including increased spending of $7.4 billion for research grants, ‘green’ jobs and other items, are really irrelevant. No non-essential programs should be getting any additional funding while the nation has a $13.8 trillion national debt that cannot be paid.

“After November, it is no longer Congress’ job to borrow and spend billions of dollars it doesn’t have. Now, its job is to cut spending and to find a way to reduce the national debt so that we can return to a sustainable path as a nation. This $7.4 billion in new spending is completely unnecessary. There should be no new spending for unessential items like this. If the Senate cannot defeat smaller spending items, how will it tackle the larger ones? This is not what the American people voted for in November.

“If Congress cannot find a way to reduce spending and cut wasteful programs, the $13.8 trillion debt will soon be larger than the entire economy. Next year, the Federal Reserve will be the number one lender in the entire world to the government — more than China — with over $1 trillion of printed money. Moody’s has warned that it may downgrade its outlook to negative next year, and it could downgrade the Triple-A credit rating by 2018 if not sooner. Since there is a large bipartisan consensus not to increase taxes in this recession, that means our fiscal house can be brought into order with spending cuts. This $7.4 billion in new spending should be defeated.”

Attachment:

$7.4 billion in new spending, HR 5116.

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

###