October 25th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today renewed his call for members of Congress to cosponsor legislation by Representative Doug Lamborn (R-CO) that would defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the parent company of National Public Radio.

So far, only 19 House members out of 435 have signed on as cosponsors for HR 5538, all House Republicans. “19 cosponsors is not nearly enough,” said Wilson. “The budget will never be balanced, and the $13.6 trillion debt never paid down, if members cannot cut unnecessary spending from the budget like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”

“House members need to show the courage of their convictions, and cosponsor Representative Lamborn’s bill to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” Wilson added.

In an exclusive interview with Americans for Limited Government, Lamborn said he needs the help of the American people to persuade members to sign on. “People need to contact their congressmen and say ‘Cosponsor HR 5538 to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’,” Lamborn said.

Lamborn blasted NPR over the firing of Juan Williams: “We see now with the Juan Williams fiasco that they’re not a neutral news organization. They have a left-leaning bias.”

Lamborn continued, “But even more than that, even if they were neutral, why should taxpayers spend $420 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is the parent of NPR, when it could survive on its own? It could be out there in the private marketplace, and compete along with everyone else. Why should government be in the broadcasting business at all?”

Wilson agreed, saying, “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting only gets about 13 percent of its total budget from federal taxpayers, which the corporation itself is quick to point out. They can finance themselves via donations, or move toward a profit model if they choose, but taxpayers should not be obligated to pay for programming which does not treat all sides fairly.”

ALG launched a national petition drive last week to defund public broadcasting in the wake of National Public Radio’s firing of Juan Williams. The petition is at: www.defundpublicbroadcasting.org.

Background:

“Defund Public Broadcasting Once and For All,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, October 25th, 2010.

ALG Praises Boehner’s Call to Defund Public Broadcasting, October 22nd, 2010

“Where to cut, you ask?” Video by Frank McCaffrey on Doug Lamborn’s legislation, October 19th, 2010.

“The Bare Minimum,” by Rick Manning, ALG Communications Director, October 20th, 2010.

“Time to Stop Funding Luxuries, Like Public Broadcasting,” by Rebekah Rast, ALG News Contributing Editor, June 14th, 2010.

“Is Public Broadcasting Hurting the Arts?” by Robert Romano, ALG News Senior Editor, June 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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October 22nd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government today praised House Republican Leader John Boehner for calling for an end to taxpayer funding of public broadcasting in the wake of National Public Radio (NPR) firing news analyst Juan Williams.

In an interview with National Review Online, Boehner said, “Washington is borrowing 37 cents of every dollar it spends from our kids and grandkids. Given that, I think it’s reasonable to ask why Congress is spending taxpayers’ money to support a left-wing radio network — and in the wake of Juan Williams’ firing, it’s clearer than ever that’s what NPR is.”

“We need to face facts — our government is broke,” Boehner added.

With a $13.6 trillion national debt, and the Obama Administration proposing to raise it by approximately $1.06 trillion every year for the next ten years, ALG’s Wilson is emphatic about getting the nation’s balance sheet in order. He believes public broadcasting is the right place to start.

“If Congress cannot cut public broadcasting when we must balance the budget, it cannot cut anything,” Wilson said, adding, “John Boehner is right. We are broke. The real reason behind QE2 is that the Treasury could be facing approximately a $630 billion shortfall in treasuries auctions every year for the next three years. If we can barely pay the bills as is, why are we borrowing and printing money to pay for luxuries like public broadcasting?”

Wilson called for “an immediate end to funding for public broadcasting that has not already been disbursed” and renewed his call for members of Congress to cosponsor legislation by Representative Doug Lamborn that would defund it permanently. Currently, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives about $420 million annually from taxpayers in the federal budget.

Wilson said that the Juan Williams firing “reveals the real, radical agenda behind public broadcasting,” adding, “Williams’ discriminatory firing is a perfect, perhaps prime reason why there shouldn’t even be public broadcasting. The government has demonstrated time and again that it is an intolerant force with no ability nor willingness to respect alternative viewpoints.” Wilson noted that Williams was fired “merely for expressing his opinions.”

In an interview with FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly, Williams said “when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Wilson noted that Williams “is entitled to his honest opinion. In the same interview, his broader point was that you had to distinguish between Muslims of faith and terrorists killing in the name of religion. He was explaining in an honest way his own personal struggle to overcome fear in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to make that point. For that, he was fired.”

“Williams was not even on NPR when he said it. How could he violate their so-called ‘editorial guidelines’?” Wilson added. Writing for FOXNews.com, Williams called it “a chilling assault on free speech. The critical importance of honest journalism and a free flowing, respectful national conversation needs to be had in our country. But it is being buried as collateral damage in a war whose battles include political correctness and ideological orthodoxy.”

Williams added, “I say an ideological battle because my comments on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ are being distorted by the self-righteous ideological, left-wing leadership at NPR.”

“NPR has engaged in blatant viewpoint discrimination,” Wilson explained. “They are more like a limited public forum than an agency with strict communications guidelines for who can speak for the agency, because they are a public broadcaster. They are obligated under the First Amendment to allow and tolerate alternative viewpoints. They cannot fire somebody simply over a matter of personal opinion.”

Wilson said that Williams “could sue under the First Amendment for discriminating on the basis of his viewpoint, but that may be besides the point.”

Wilson concluded, “This is censorship of the first order by a public agency. Given their track record, I’m not even going to pretend that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting could ever be reformed to be viewpoint neutral. They are a radical, ideological propaganda unit, and Congress has a responsibility to cut off their funding. They are discriminating against honest journalists, and taxpayers should not be compelled to finance its ideological, one-sided political agenda. Besides, we cannot afford it.”

Background:

“Where to cut, you ask?” Video by Frank McCaffrey on Doug Lamborn’s legislation, October 19th, 2010.

“The Bare Minimum,” by Rick Manning, ALG Communications Director, October 20th, 2010.

“Time to Stop Funding Luxuries, Like Public Broadcasting,” by Rebekah Rast, ALG News Contributing Editor, June 14th, 2010.

“Is Public Broadcasting Hurting the Arts?” by Robert Romano, ALG News Senior Editor, June 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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October 19th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged members of Congress to “reject a $1 trillion omnibus spending package planned for the lame duck session, and to instead return spending levels to 2008, pre-bailout, pre-‘stimulus’ levels.”

“While members of Congress keep saying ‘yes’ to more unsustainable spending, ‘yes’ to more earmarks, and ‘yes’ to more special favors for special interests, the American people are saying enough is enough,” Wilson said.

Wilson demanded that members of Congress and candidates “tell voters what their position on this $1 trillion spending bill is — before the election takes place. The American people have a right to know if candidates support bankrupting the nation further, because the final vote will not be until after the election.”

Congress has failed to pass a budget for the 2011 fiscal year, and the federal government instead is operating on a continuing resolution that expires December 3rd. The lame duck session begins on November 15th.

“After the election, Congress will have about a week to force another trillion dollar spending bill down the throats of the American people. It’s up to members to stand in the way, and demand a real budget that finally downsizes this bloated, indefensible budget,” Wilson noted.

“This Congress couldn’t do a budget in one year, now they want to do it in one week. The American people need a real budget process that carefully examines the nation’s priorities, cognizant that there are finite resources to go around. Printing and borrowing another trillion dollars to finance Congress’ spending addiction is not an option,” Wilson said.

For 2010, the budget deficit was over $1.3 trillion, and the national debt has now risen to over $13.6 trillion. The annual budget currently stands at over $3.5 trillion.

“No more trillion dollar spending bills,” Wilson declared. “This is one of the things that has the American people infuriated with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid’s Congress.”

House Republicans have proposed a return to 2008 spending levels in their “Pledge to America.” Wilson said that the GOP proposal is “a good start. We need to return to a regular budget that eliminates TARP, ends the GM, Chrysler, Fannie, and Freddie bailouts, and puts the failed ‘stimulus’ out of its misery.”

“At a bare minimum, that is where we must start, but we harbor no illusions. It’s not nearly enough,” Wilson warned, saying the nation was risking defaulting on its debts.

“It is time for Congress to restore fiscal sanity to Washington, before it’s too late. We are facing a likely downgrade of our credit rating, and may ultimately default on our obligations. Congress needs to take a pair of scissors to the budget and finally cut things out that we don’t need,” Wilson explained.

“Barack Obama wants to grow the national debt by $1.06 trillion every year for the next ten years according to his own proposed budget. Only Congress can stop him from bankrupting our great nation,” he added.

Wilson concluded, “The American people cannot afford to find out what happens if Barack Obama is handed another blank check by this Congress.”

Background:

“U.S. Credit Rating Deserves to Be Downgraded,” ALG President Bill Wilson, August 30th, 2010.

“The Futility of Printing Money,” ALG President Bill Wilson, October 7th, 2010.

“The $15 Trillion Debt Cap,” ALG President Bill Wilson, September 19th, 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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October 12th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today blasted U.S. Representative Bill Owens (D-NY23) for “being a reliable vote for Nancy Pelosi when it counted to get massive pieces of legislation across the finish line.”

“Bill Owens cannot hide from his record. Bill Owens voted for the $2.5 trillion ObamaCare three times, and even voted for a $154 billion bailout of bankrupt states like New York and California,” Wilson declared.

“Because of Bill Owens’ support of ObamaCare, Americans will lose their private health care options and increasingly be forced onto Medicaid, the costs of which will bankrupt the public treasury,” Wilson explained.

“The American people have lost their right to choose their own health insurance because Bill Owens supported ObamaCare,” Wilson added, pointing to the individual mandate that will force all Americans to purchase health insurance come 2014.

“When Nancy Pelosi needed him, Bill Owens was there to pass ObamaCare, within hours of being sworn in,” Wilson noted.

“The fact is, Bill Owens has been unable to stop anything in the Pelosi agenda,” Wilson noted. “Owens had a choice to stand with the American people against government overreach, but instead voted to take away their private health care options and to bankrupt the nation.”

“Bill Owens’ votes to bankrupt the treasury show all to see exactly who and what he is: an Obama-Pelosi groupie,” Wilson concluded.

Background:

Owens Voted “Yes” for ObamaCare, 1st time
http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2009&rollnumber=887

Owens Voted “Yes” for a $154 billion bailout of bankrupt states like New York and California
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll991.xml

Owens Voted “Yes” for ObamaCare, 2nd time
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll165.xml

Owens Voted “Yes” for ObamaCare Reconciliation
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll167.xml

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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October 8th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following status on the worsening unemployment situation in the U.S.,with the rate remaining at 9.6 percent and underemployment rising to 17.1 percent:

“September marks the 17th straight month that unemployment has been at or above 9.4 percent—the longest period of time of sustained unemployment since the Great Depression. The Pelosi-Reid big government stimulus programs have failed. They have failed the working families of America miserably while saddling our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt.”

Click here for your FREE broadcast quality download:

www.getliberty.org/files/Wilson_unemployment1.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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September 30th, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for blocking Barack Obama from making any recess appointments during the upcoming campaign season:

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell deserves the thanks of all Americans for blocking Barack Obama from making any recess appointments while Congress campaigns for election in October. That’s up to 115 appointments that will still require Senate approval, and Obama will not be able to sneak into power while nobody’s watching.

“In many cases, as with judicial nominees Goodwin Liu and Robert Chatigny, these pending appointments are controversial, radical ideologues that will for a generation change the makeup of the federal government. This gives the American people an opportunity to put the brakes on Obama’s agenda to remake the nation in his image through judicial and regulatory decree. No more Donald Berwick’s and Craig Becker’s; the American people have had enough of these radicals.

“If Senate Democrats want these nominees to be appointed, they will now have to vote and stake their names and reputations to getting them across the finish line. But the American people can rest easy knowing that Obama will not be able to sneak them in during the dead of night, thanks to Senate Minority Leader McConnell’s courageous leadership.”

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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September 28th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging Barack Obama to fire former SEIU head Andy Stern from the National Debt Commission and to discontinue White House meetings with Stern amid an FBI investigation into the former labor head and other corruption at the union:

“Until such time that Andy Stern is cleared of all wrongdoing by the FBI, the Obama Administration must dismiss him from the national debt commission, and stop meeting with him. No other person has met with the White House as much as Andy Stern, and now we learn he’s at the heart of an FBI probe.

“Obama must avoid even the appearance of impropriety and immediately distance himself from Stern. Stern has no business sitting on a presidential commission while the FBI is investigating him, or meeting with top White House officials, including Obama.

“If the White House will not fire Stern, then members of Congress must urge Obama to do so. Congress has a vested interest in the findings of the debt commission not being tainted by a union corruption scandal, and assuring that White House appointments are properly vetted.”

Attachments:

A Stern Word on Obama’s Debt Appointment, March 2010.

SEIU’s Stern Tops White House Visitor List, Wall Street Journal, October 30th, 2009.

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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September 27th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government’s TimesCheck.com is decrying how the New York Times has covered the tea party movement this year.

“Somehow average Americans who pine for constitutional limited government and the ideals of the founding period are considered extreme and unhinged. Meanwhile, White House officials and career legislators who expand the national debt and subjugate free enterprise are viewed as mainstream. That’s the world, according to the New York Times,” said TimesCheck.com Editor Kevin Mooney.

Mooney pointed to a front page story that ran on Monday September 20th about Obama Administration officials who now speculate that their party’s fortunes could be uplifted by interlinking the GOP with the tea party movement. The sub-headline for that story read, “Democrats Could Cast Rivals as Being Taken Over By Extremists.”

“Although political analysts from across the political spectrum now anticipate significant Republican gains in the midterm elections, an anonymous source claims that the tea party movement can be used as a foil against Republican prospects,” Mooney explained, noting, “But that’s really just spin, not hard news reporting.”

Mooney continued, “The Times also offers up a blanket assertion that says voters will be turned off by candidates who offer up budget cuts and large scale reforms that rein in federal spending. This is a debatable proposition that lacks any authoritative voice.”

One day later, the Times took another swipe at tea party activists in a report appearing in the business section about a televised town hall chat President Obama held in Washington, D.C. Obama challenged small government advocates to offer up specific benefit cuts to match their rhetoric. The same report also included a response from White House officials to the previous front page story.

“The White House denied an article in The New York Times on Monday saying that Mr. Obama’s political advisers were considering national advertising to cast the Republican Party as having been all but taken over by the Tea Party movement,” the report says.

“The story that led The New York Times yesterday was flat out wrong,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “The White House has never discussed, contemplated or weighed such an ad campaign.” Mr. Pfeiffer said the article “was based on the thinnest of reeds,” an anonymous source. The Times stood by the report.

Mooney said the White House “has a point and unless the Times can produce on the record sources, the two reports coupled together give the appearance of an agenda-laced, manufactured series of reports that takes aim against small government activists for perceived political benefit to Democrats.”

“There is nothing spontaneous or genuine about what appears in either report. The Times is creating its own ‘news’ in an effort to undermine a growing movement. They are projecting. It amounts to little more than wishful thinking,” Mooney concluded.

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September 27th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging Congress to make permanent tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 now before the elections, not after:

“The American people have a right to know where their representatives stand on the imminent tax increases at year’s end before the elections occur, not after. Nancy Pelosi is not holding any votes now because she knows the House would vote to block these onerous, automatic tax hikes. That’s not good policy, and it’s not even good politics.

“These automatic tax hikes are a trap, and the American people have a right to know now if Congress intends to allow this trap to be sprung. If Congress does nothing, its inaction will be rightly viewed as a vote in favor of increasing taxes on all Americans. This endangers the economy, and puts even more strain on job creators at a time when unemployment is persistently high at 9.6 percent and growth is slowing at an anemic 1.6 percent rate.

“Job creators need all the help they can get to turn this economy around. American entrepreneurs must know what future rates of taxation are going to be in order to make wise investment and hiring decisions that allow the robust U.S. economy to be unleashed. This uncertainty has found the economy caught in a web. Nobody is going to pull the trigger on hiring in this environment.

“It’s time to end the economic uncertainty surrounding whether or not the rates will rise or not. The current rates should be made permanent. But right now, job creators must assume the worst, which is that this Congress fails to fulfill its basic obligation to create an environment conducive to robust growth. Both the House and the Senate need to set aside partisan politics and give the American people an up or down vote to block all of these automatic tax increases, before it’s too late.”

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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