November 17th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) is encouraging Republicans in the Senate to filibuster the nomination of judicial nominees Goodwin Liu and Robert Chatigny, for the federal bench. The full Senate is expected to vote on these judicial nominees tomorrow.

“Senate Republicans are under no obligation to support nominees or provide political cover for the other side of the aisle,” explained Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government (ALG).

“Goodwin Liu is an extra-constitutional thinker who believes that the eligibility requirements for ObamaCare and other ‘welfare rights’ are perfectly within the scope of courts to interpret,” Wilson noted. “With him on the bench, a single-payer system could be just one court decision away. The American people cannot take that chance.”

“Liu also has an expansive view of the Commerce Clause, and does not even hold as an ‘absolute requirement’ that an activity even be economic in order for it to be regulated. Guess what? That encapsulates all activity,” Wilson explained.

“Robert Chatigny told the American people everything they needed to know when he did all in his power to prevent the execution of a convicted serial killer and rapist. He even overturned Connecticut’s sex offender registry law, only to later have his own decision reversed,” Wilson explained.

Americans for Limited Government has run ads urging Senate Judiciary Committee members to oppose Chatigny.

Wilson concluded, “These radical judicial picks, re-nominated by Obama, remind the American people of why judges matter. It is up to the Senate Republicans to put the brakes on nominees whose extralegal views warp and distort the Constitution and thus undermine the rule of law. America does not need more ideologues on the bench.”

Attachments:
Senate to Reconsider Judicial Nominees Goodwin Liu and Robert Chatigny, Bill Wilson, September 22nd, 2010.

Goodwin Liu, Americans for Limited Government Nominee Alert, March 2010.

“Wonderland: The World According to Goodwin Liu,” Bill Wilson, March 24th, 2010.

“Why Goodwin Liu is Important,” ALG News Editorial, April 12th, 2010.

“Liu Guilty by Omission,” Robert Romano, April 8th, 2010.

ALG Nominee Alert, Robert Chatigny, March 2010.

Video: Oppose Confirmation of Serial Killer Apologist for Court of Appeals, June 22nd, 2010.

ALG Letter to U.S. Senate Against Judge Chatigny, June 21st, 2010.

“Editorial: Democrat Senate to Promote Rapist, Serial Killer Apologist to 2nd Circuit Court,” ALG News, June 21st, 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.

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November 16th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in response to the guilty verdict issued by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of Representative Charlie Rangel:

“The House ethics panel has issued a decisive verdict against Charlie Rangel, but it’s not over yet. It’s now up to the panel to recommend a punishment. If Rangel refuses to resign, the only proper punishment is expulsion.

“Charlie Rangel must go.

“Rangel used a rent-stabilized apartment for campaign activities, failed to pay taxes on rental property in the Dominican Republic, and improperly used congressional letterhead to raise funds for a City University center to be built in his name. These were not small infractions.

“The House ethics panel must err on the side of reestablishing public trust in Congress after this notorious corruption scandal by recommending Rangel’s expulsion from the House forever. Anything less than expulsion will be viewed as simply a slap on the wrist and an affirmation of the ‘good ol’ boy’ network. If Congress should have learned anything from the 2010 elections, it’s that the American people want members of the House to be held accountable for their actions. Rangel is as good a place as any to start.”

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November 15th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for his support of a moratorium on congressional earmarks:

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s sincere support of a moratorium on congressional earmarks is a welcome change in the posture of Senate Republicans on the critical issue of reducing government waste. It’s time to listen to the American people, who are demanding that Congress restrain itself when the nation has a $13.7 trillion national debt and trillion-dollar deficits projected every year for the next ten years.

“Americans for Limited Government thanks and strongly praises Senate Minority Leader McConnell. We now urge Senate Republicans to unanimously adopt the earmark moratorium to show a united a front in confronting government waste. Spending reform first and foremost must begin with individual members of Congress agreeing to do their parts by beginning to make sacrifices. Although earmarks are a small part of the budget, having a moratorium will free up members’ efforts to focus on critical budgetary reforms that must be enacted to protect the very solvency of the U.S. government.”

Attachments:

Speech by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), November 15th, 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.

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November 12th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging Senate Republicans to support a moratorium on congressional earmarks:

“Now is the time for Senate Republicans to lead by example in pursuing fiscal responsibility by enacting a moratorium on congressional earmarks. With a $13.7 trillion national debt and projected trillion-dollar deficits every year for the next ten years, now is the time for Senate Republicans to send a clear message to taxpayers that they care more about balancing the budget than delivering pork to their home states.

“Americans for Limited Government is urging Senate Republicans to carefully consider the express will of the American people who support a moratorium on congressional earmarks. The American people voted for change in November, and now they want to know if Senate Republicans have changed their ways.

“A moratorium on earmarks is needed so that Congress can focus on and dispense with critical budgetary reforms that must be enacted to protect the very solvency of the republic. Senate Republicans should support the earmark moratorium as a first step to balancing the budget. It will tell taxpayers that the new Congress is committed to changing the way it does business, starting with eliminating unnecessary pork. Earmarks weaken our political process by undermining public trust in our institutions. Earmarks are the grease that tempt members of Congress to vote for trillion-dollar budget busting bills and government takeovers.

“The American people want Congress to work on the big issues surrounding reining in Washington’s unsustainable spending. A moratorium on earmarks by Senate Republicans will send a signal that they are setting aside their own political self-interests in favor of the broader interests of all Americans, who want the budget balanced. It’s time for lawmakers to begin to make sacrifices.”

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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November 11th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson sent a letter to each newly elected Republican Member of the House urging them to oppose Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) as Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

In his letter to the new Members, Wilson highlights Rep. Upton’s voting record as conflicting with the new Republican agenda. “Fred Upton’s voting record on key issues demonstrates his destructive support for the bailouts, the stimulus, and job-crippling green legislation that sends American jobs overseas. This combined with his opposition to repealing ObamaCare make him particularly unsuitable to Chair the one committee with primary jurisdiction over many of the most important issues facing our nation,” Wilson wrote.

In his letter, Wilson reminded the Members about the importance of electing committee chairs who represent the values of limited government, the platform that got them elected to the majority Nov. 2.

“As a newly elected member of Congress, you have a unique opportunity to let Republican leadership know that you want an Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman who agrees with the basic limited government ideas that brought about the greatest Republican victory in the House of Representatives since 1894,” wrote Wilson.

He finished his letter with this, “The entire direction of the next two years is being set during these organizing meetings, and Americans for Limited Government strongly encourages you to not allow this historic opportunity to get lost before you are even sworn in.”

Background:

Wilson’s Letter to New Members

Fred Upton’s Voting Record

GOP Must Choose Leaders Wisely

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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November 11th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the preliminary recommendations of the Obama deficit commission:

“The deficit commission does not contemplate a balanced budget until 2040. It never contemplates reducing the overall $13.7 trillion debt, which will continue to grow year-on-end. The American people want to pay down and retire the national debt, not continue to grow it. We don’t have 30 years to balance the budget.

“If Congress does not act to balance the budget and begin reducing the debt immediately, next year the Federal Reserve will become the number one holder of U.S. debt. Failure to act now will mean the debt will soar past 100 percent of the Gross Domestic Product in just a few short years. By 2018, if not sooner, our Triple-A credit rating will be downgraded. In fact, China has already taken the step of downgrading us.  The commission’s recommendations, if enacted today, would not prevent one of these things from happening, meaning higher costs to paying the debt in the future, and a weaker dollar. Ultimately, the dollar will lose its special status as the world’s reserve currency.

“By failing to outline the consequences of doing nothing, the commission starts out in exactly the wrong place. Because it does not contemplate the real problems posed by the unsustainable debt, it offers the wrong solutions. The commission focuses on gradually reducing the deficit, which is the wrong premise, when Congress needs to focus on reducing and eventually paying off the $13.7 trillion national debt. Before it has even presented its final findings, Obama’s commission has failed.”

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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November 11th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson issued the following statement on the preliminary recommendations of the Obama deficit commission:

November 9th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged House Republican leadership to block Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) from taking over the House Energy and Commerce committee, noting “his abysmal voting record on energy issues.”

“At a time when Americans are rejecting the Obama anti-energy agenda, Representative Fred Upton has spent his career in Congress embracing radical environmentalism,” Wilson said, adding, “Fred Upton has repeatedly voted against expanding energy production in the U.S. as the nation’s dependence on foreign sources of fuel has only grown.”

Wilson praised House Republican Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor for “reaching out to conservatives and making good opening moves. But Fred Upton has not earned a promotion. He has consistently voted against conservative, pro-growth positions. His elevation would send the exact wrong signal to tea party members, conservatives and the tens of thousands of people who worked themselves to the bone to elect the GOP majority.”

Wilson pointed to Upton’s votes against offshore drilling in Florida and the Great Lakes, and his vote to block millions of acres of land from energy exploration and mineral leasing.

Wilson said “that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As gasoline was rocketing past $4 a gallon because of the weak dollar, Upton blamed it on American energy companies by voting to raise taxes on them, which would have been passed on to consumers with even higher costs.”

Wilson explained, “History has now shown that the 2008 energy and commodities bubble was directly related to government’s weak dollar policy. But that didn’t prevent Representative Upton using it as a pretext to raise taxes on energy producers, who largely are blameless for inflation caused by printing too many dollars.”

Wilson continued, “Upton actually cosponsored the bill that banned the Thomas Edison incandescent light bulb, forcing its replacement with dangerous, mercury-laden bulbs. The costs of containing these poisonous new bulbs will ultimately far outweigh the supposed energy usage ‘savings’. If an American happens to drop one on the floor, it’s a toxic hazard requiring thousands of dollars to clean up.”

“But that’s not all,” Wilson added. “Upton voted against reimbursing property owners who are blocked by government from developing their own land on account of protecting endangered species.”

Wilson said Upton also opposes “the basic tenants of federalism. He opposed giving local governments veto power over federal decisions to acquire land even though the federal government already holds over 650 million acres of land at the expense of economic development.”

Wilson concluded, “Fred Upton’s decidedly anti-energy voting record makes him decidedly unsuitable to be the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee. America needs to increase its domestic energy supplies, and Upton has opposed it at every turn. We need all the energy we can get, and the only thing standing in the way are politicians like Upton and the bureaucrats he empowers.”

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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November 8th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today praised Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “for not accepting perpetual increases in the national debt, and instead fighting for a serious reduction in spending and debt.”

Wilson referred to McConnell’s interview last week with FOX News’ Brett Baier, where he spoke on increasing the national debt limit, “I think it will not be without some strings attached, if it happens, because they’re going to have to seriously address spending and debt.”

Wilson said that means “attaching serious spending cuts to an increase in the national debt.” Periodically, Congress acts to increase the national debt, thus authorizing the Treasury to borrow more money in order to pay off the principal owed on the debt.

“We’re paying the credit card bill with the credit card, and so every year the debt goes up. It’s gone up every year since 1958 as a result,” Wilson said.

Wilson said that “besides the budget itself, the debt limit is one of the few leverage points that House Republicans in particular will have. In the next three years, if spending is not cut, the Treasury will have to sell a record $8.8 trillion of U.S. debt. We’ve never sold that much. It’s the real reason the Fed has once again fired up the printing press with $600 billion of fresh bond purchases.”

Wilson added, “If spending is not cut, don’t be surprised if they have to come back next year with QE3, and QE4 the year after that.”

Wilson encouraged congressional Republicans “not to be bashful about attaching cuts to the debt limit increase,” pointing to a recent oped by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) in the Washington Examiner, where he wrote, “If Republicans vote to raise the debt without insisting on spending cuts, whatever credibility we may have will be gone.”

Wilson praised Coburn, saying, “Coburn is exactly right. Whereas Democrats have lost the House because they fulfilled their principles and implemented their statist agenda, Republicans lost it in 2006 for abandoning their principles and running up the national credit card.”

Wilson said that Barack Obama’s primary political strategy in the legislative branch would be “to get Republicans to quickly abandon their pledges to pay down the debt, end bailouts once and for all, repeal ObamaCare, make tax relief permanent and create jobs, and eliminate Fannie and Freddie.”

“The more Republicans compromise their principles, the weaker their political support will become with the tea party movement and other citizen activists who propelled them back into the majority,” Wilson explained. “Obama’s goal is to break up surging citizen support for reducing government.”

Wilson said that the debt limit should be used as leverage to enact sharp spending cuts, even if Obama threatens to veto the resultant legislation. “Republicans are going to increase the debt limit, although the need to do so would be mitigated if the budget were actually balanced. If Obama wants to veto a debt limit increase, even if it is tied to spending cuts, he’ll be the one who is causing the government to default.”

“The reason the government would default is because we’re broke,” Wilson said, adding, “We cannot meet our obligations without borrowing more money, thus creating new obligations. We’re on an unsustainable trajectory with the $13.6 trillion national debt. If something is not done, a temporary default will be the least of our problems.”

“By this time next year, the Federal Reserve will be the number one holder of U.S. debt, a sure signal that we’re printing money to pay our bills. In the next few years, the debt will soar past 100 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. By 2018, if not sooner,our Triple-A credit rating will be downgraded. All of these things will mean higher costs to paying the debt in the future, and a weaker dollar. In the end, the dollar will lose its special status as the world’s reserve currency,” Wilson concluded.

 

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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November 5th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on the worsening unemployment situation in the U.S., with the rate of joblessness remaining at 9.6 percent andunderemployment at 17 percent:

“October marks the 18th straight month that unemployment has been at or above 9.4 percent—the longest period of time of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression. That is as remarkable as it is sad for millions of American families who increasingly cannot make their mortgage payments. Foreclosures are still at all time highs, even as Barack Obama claimed that the worst of the crisis was behind us. Obama’s policies have failed to put America back to work.

“It is time for the Obama Administration to change course, and for the newly elected Congress to plot a new direction. ObamaCare and its many mandates are getting in the way of hiring decisions by employers. The automatic tax increases at the end of year are aimed directly at small business owners and other job creators. The foreign income tax credit that Congress all but eliminated in August is preventing a trillion dollars of capital from being repatriated into the domestic economy.

“Moreover, the endless government spending binge is misallocating resources away from the private sector and giving the federal government an increasing share of the Gross Domestic Product. To get back the millions of jobs lost in this recession, the private sector needs to be growing faster than government. Unfortunately, government right now is growing twice as fast as the private economy, which cannot even keep up with new entrants into the workforce. In the next three years alone, government will have to borrow $8.8 trillion just to keep up with its obligations.

“The Obama ‘stimulus’ program has failed, and has only contributed to an unsustainable $13.6 trillion national debt. With the economy only growing at an anemic 2 percent rate, and inflation taking root in commodities, the pressure on American families to keep up with their monthly payments will be growing. We need jobs, and we need them now. Government needs to get out of the way and let the private economy get to work.”

Click here for your FREE broadcast quality download:
www.getliberty.org/files/Wilson_unemployment.mp3

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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