ALG Praises Senate Republicans For Blocking “Obama’s Political Speech Gag Order”

July 27, 2010

July 27th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today praised Senate Republicans for blocking the DISCLOSE Act that Wilson said “is nothing more than Barack Obama’s political speech gag order to silence dissent in an election year.”

“The so-called DISCLOSE Act imposes arduous regulations on corporations and non-profits and is explicitly designed to intimidate dissent, all in violation of the First Amendment. Senate Republicans deserve the praise of all freedom-loving Americans who believe that free, unrestricted political speech is a basic and fundamental right under the Constitution,” said Wilson.

“This is intended to intimidate certain groups and individuals from saying anything at all and into giving up their First Amendment rights. It’s a cynical gag order,” Wilson said.

The final vote in the Senate was 57 to 41.

The Act’s disclosure requirements includes any expenditures in excess of $10,000 of express advocacy for or against a candidate up to 20 days before an election and in excess of $1,000 within 20 days before an election, which must be reported to the FEC within 24 hours. The disclosure requirements extend to 120 days prior to the first presidential primary or caucus, and 90 days before the first Congressional primary or caucus, and extend through general election day.

Anyone who invests or donates in excess of the specified minimums to a company or organization that engages in express advocacy of a candidate, except for media organizations and other exempt entities, would have their names submitted to the FEC.

“These disclosure requirements have a chilling effect on speech, which is why they previously have been found to be unconstitutional,” Wilson said. “If these sorts of requirements were in place during the ratification of the Constitution, there wouldn’t have been Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, which were published under pseudonyms.”

“There is no question that individuals’ speech is stifled by excessive disclosure requirements on independent expenditures,” Wilson said, pointing to Supreme Court precedent protecting anonymous donations made to groups that solely make independent expenditures in NAACP v. Alabama (1958). Then Justice John Marshall Harlan’s majority opinion stated, applying the First Amendment via the Fourteenth to Alabama, “We hold that the immunity from state scrutiny of membership lists which the Association claims on behalf of its members is here so related to the right of the members to pursue their lawful private interests privately and to associate freely with others in so doing as to come within the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“The sole intent of authors of this legislation is to shame and intimidate certain corporations, groups, and individuals from saying anything about elections, and there is no question that it was unconstitutional,” Wilson concluded.

Attachments:

“ALG Urges Senate to Reject First Amendment Restrictions; Highlights NRA, Media Carve-Outs,” July 26th, 2010.

“Disclosure is Overrated”, by ALG News Senior Editor Robert Romano, 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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Filed Under: Press Releases Tagged With:

ALG Urges Senate to Reject First Amendment Restrictions; Highlights NRA, Media Carve-Outs

July 26, 2010

July 26th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged the Senate to reject the DISCLOSE Act that Wilson said “imposes tortuous regulations on corporations and non-profits while exempting media organizations, the NRA, AARP, the Sierra Club, unions and others.”

“Senator Chuck Schumer cares less about disclosure and more about creating an unlevel playing field as it relates to campaign speech. The Senate has done nothing to remove the special carve-outs for certain organizations, despite the controversy over the House passage of this legislation. Congress still believes it has the power to hand out privileged speech licenses to the highest bidders,” Wilson said.

“The Senate version of the bill still includes the blanket exemption for media organizations, which can say whatever they want about candidates, for or against, without any regulation or disclosure at all,” Wilson said.

According to 2 USC 431 (9) (B) (i), the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act: “The term ‘expenditure’ does not include any news story, commentary, or editorial distributed through the facilities of any broadcasting station, newspaper, magazine, or other periodical publication”. This media exemption to campaign regulation is reinforced in the DISCLOSE Act’s language on page 24.

“No bribery crisis of elected officials has ever emerged over editorial endorsements by newspapers or any other media outlet, and yet they have long been exempted from disclosure. Meanwhile, we assume that such a crisis exists with all other speech,” Wilson has previously stated.

After criticism from both sides of the aisle, the NRA carve-out was broadened to exempt organizations meeting the following criteria: at least 500,000 dues paying members (down from 1 million), members in all 50 states, receives no more than 15 percent of total funding from corporations or labor organizations, and doesn’t use corporate or union money to pay for campaign-related expenses.

Labor unions too received an exemption since only aggregate contributions of over $600 would be disclosed — most union dues are less than that.

The previous House vote passing the legislation was 219 in favor, and 206 opposed.

The Act’s disclosure requirements include any expenditures in excess of $10,000 of express advocacy for or against a candidate up to 20 days before an election and in excess of $1,000 within 20 days before an election, which must be reported to the FEC within 24 hours. The disclosure requirements extend to 120 days prior to the first presidential primary or caucus, and 90 days before the first Congressional primary or caucus, and extend through general election day. Anyone who invests or donates in excess of the specified minimums to a company or organization that engages in express advocacy of a candidate, except for media organizations and other exempt entities, would have to have their names submitted to the FEC.

Wilson said the Senate was not consistently applying First Amendment protections. “The way news media is given a blanket protection is the standard that should apply to everyone, especially when it comes to independent expenditures. The First Amendment protects political speech from restriction, even if the backers of ads do not wish to have their pictures featured in ads.”

Wilson pointed to Supreme Court precedent protecting anonymous donations made to groups that solely make independent expenditures in NAACP v. Alabama (1958). Then Justice John Marshall Harlan’s majority opinion stated, applying the First Amendment via the Fourteenth to Alabama, “We hold that the immunity from state scrutiny of membership lists which the Association claims on behalf of its members is here so related to the right of the members to pursue their lawful private interests privately and to associate freely with others in so doing as to come within the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Wilson concluded, “The Senate has an opportunity to reject the special favors that are being extended by the DISCLOSE Act, which is more about who is exempted and the advantage they will gain than who is regulated and restricted. These special carve-outs are precisely what have the American people in a complete uproar over Washington politics. Instead, it is time simply apply the First Amendment across the board and, with it, unregulated, unrestricted political speech for everyone.”

Attachments:

Disclosure is Overrated, by ALG News Senior Editor Robert Romano, 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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Filed Under: Press Releases Tagged With:

ALG Praises Senate for Defeating $10 Billion States Bailout in War Supplemental, Calls for House to Pass Clean Bill

July 23, 2010

July 23rd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement praising the Senate for defeating a House-passed version of the war supplemental that included $10 billion state education funding:

“The Senate has acted responsibly to defeat the House-passed version of the war supplemental that included a $10 billion political slush fund to bail out bankrupt states like New York and California. These states simply refuse to make the necessary cuts to balance their budgets. The $10 billion was set to go directly to the state teachers unions as a handout.

“The onus is now on the House to pass a clean war supplemental prior to the August recess, when the Department of Defense will be forced to cut combat pay. Defense Secretary Bob Gates has told Congress that failure to do so could result in a failure to pay active-duty military, and General Petraeus has called the supplemental ‘essential for the conduct of this mission.’

“Nancy Pelosi needs to stop playing politics with funding American troops in harm’s way. The nation’s troops are not chips on a table for political horse-trading, and now is the time to stop holding them hostage to public sector union politics. To do otherwise is tantamount to extortion.”

Attachments:

Troops’ Funding Held Hostage by Public Sector Union Politics, by ALG President Bill Wilson, June 28th, 2010.

“Driving Right Off the Cliff,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, June 16th, 2010.

ALG Letter to Congress Against States Bailout, May 27th, 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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Filed Under: Press Releases

ALG Statement on Announced $1.47 Trillion Deficit for 2010

July 23, 2010

July 23rd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in response to the White House’s projection of a $1.47 trillion budget deficit for 2010:

“The announced $1.47 trillion deficit by the Obama Administration is just the latest insult to American taxpayers, who during these stressful economic times are scaling back their family budgets but watch helplessly as government dramatically expands without paying for it. That money will have to borrowed through Treasury auctions, and what cannot be borrowed will simply be printed by the Federal Reserve, which already holds $777 billion in U.S. treasuries.

“In the process, the government is chaining the American people, and future generations, to a mountain of debt that cannot possibly be paid back, and strangling any hope of growth or economic recovery. The spending splurge is destroying hope of Americans who don’t want more unemployment insurance, but instead want a job.”

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Filed Under: Press Releases

ALG Condemns Continued Efforts to “Intimidate and Silence the American People”

July 22, 2010

July 22nd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned statements by the NAACP and members of Congress who he said are “attempting to create a false perception of the tea party movement and any other citizen activists who dare to speak out against Barack Obama’s radical agenda.”

Wilson said the “true message of the tea party movement is against endless bailouts, it is against too much spending and too much control over health care, the financial sector, and energy. It seeks to save America from the sovereign debt crisis and to restore the nation as the economic superpower of the world.”

Wilson called the attacks against the movement “shameless” and that they were designed “to intimidate and silence the American people who wish nothing more than to return the nation to the tradition of constitutional government with limited powers.”

“This is the way organizations, media outlets, and elected officials attempt to silence legitimate dissent through its delegitimization. We expect this from the Hugo Chavezes and Saul Alinskys of the world, not in America,” Wilson said.

“Ultimately, this is about control of Congress, and it is clear members of Congress will stop at nothing to discredit the primary threat to their keeping power, and that’s the American people,” Wilson added.

Wilson said the NAACP’s claims were based on prior statements by elected officials, and said the organization “is being misled and used to help construct a false narrative about the tea parties.”

Wilson pointed to House Majority Whip James Clyburn’s claim that tea parties were a “kind of terrorism.” Others have alleged that activists shouted racial epithets at members of Congress on March 20th at a protest against the health care bill, as reported by the American Thinker. Others have attested that acts of vandalism were linked to the tea parties.

“This has been Congress’ tactic against the tea parties since they began in 2009,” Wilson added, noting what he said were “consistent false portrayals of activists at tea parties and town halls throughout 2009 by Congressional Democrats.”

Majority Whip Clyburn’s attack followed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wrote an oped in USA Today calling opponents “un-American”. Congressman Steve Kagen called opponents “uncivilized,” and Congressman Baron Hill called them “political terrorists.”

Congressman Brian Baird called opponents of the legislation “Brown Shirts” and compared them to domestic terrorists, “Some of the rhetoric that we’re hearing is… eerily reminiscent of the kind of things that drove Tim McVeigh to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma.”

Wilson pointed to the bailouts of delinquent borrowers, Bear Stearns, AIG, GM, and Chrysler; the $150 billion nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program; the Federal Reserve more than doubling the money supply; the $862 billion “stimulus”; the government takeover of the financial sector; and the $2.5 trillion health care bill all as “the true motivation for this grassroots movement that only wants to restore government to its primary, limited functions under the Constitution by eliminating the entitlement state.”

Attachments:

“Dem Hour Energy,” Cartoon by William Warren, July 22nd, 2010.

“Who are the Tea Parties?” by ALG News National Correspondent Rebekah Rast, video by Andrius Vaitekunas, April 21st, 2010.

“Remember Newt Gingrich?” by ALG Communications Director Rick Manning, July 18th, 2010.

“An American Revolution,” by ALG News Senior Editor Robert Romano, April 15th, 2009.

“The Mad Tea Party,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, July 15th, 2010.

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Filed Under: Press Releases

ALG Statement on Obama Signing Financial Takeover Bill

July 21, 2010

July 21st, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement in response to the signing of the Dodd-Frank financial takeover bill into law:

“Today, Barack Obama claimed that ‘the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes,’ and yet that is exactly what the Dodd-Frank financial takeover will do — it contains a hidden tax to finance a perpetual bailout fund.

“This is taxation without representation. The Dodd-Frank bill authorizes the FDIC to levy without any vote in Congress an unlimited bank tax on bank holding and insurance companies with $50 billion or greater in consolidated assets, the costs of which will be passed on to consumers of financial products, savers, and investors, with more fees, higher premiums, and other hidden costs.

“The bank taxes, which the American people pay for, will finance a so-called ‘orderly liquidation fund’, which will be used to bail out politically-favored firms and seize disfavored ones, redistributing their assets to privileged constituencies, as GM and Chrysler were redistributed to labor unions.

“Since Obama is saying that bailouts and government takeovers will ‘never again’ occur, he bears responsibility for signing a bill into law that institutionalizes ‘too big to fail’ and ensures that the next time there is a crisis the American people will be on the hook, paying hidden taxes to fund more government interventions to prop up failing institutions, all without any vote in Congress.”

Attachments:

“’Down a Rabbit Hole:’ The Threat Posed by the Dodd-Frank Bill to the Private Sector,” Updated June 28th, 2010, Americans for Limited Government.

“Big Brother is Watching You: The Threat Posed by the Dodd-Frank Bill to Privacy,” Updated June 28th, 2010.

Letter to the U.S. Senate, ALG President Bill Wilson, April 26th, 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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Filed Under: Press Releases

ALG Statement on Proposed $34 Billion Unemployment Extension

July 19, 2010

July 19th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement urging the Senate to reject an unpaid-for $34 billion extension of unemployment:

“With a $13.2 trillion national debt weighing down the economy and killing jobs amid the sovereign debt crisis and 9.5 percent unemployment, Congress must find ways to rein in uncontrolled deficit-spending. Now is the time to make cuts, and to find ways to pay for Congress’ insatiable appetite for spending. Currently, the proposed $34 billion extension in unemployment welfare payments is not paid for with anything other than borrowed and printed money.

“Senate Republicans have offered several ways to pay for the proposed $34 billion unemployment welfare extension, including utilizing unspent ‘stimulus’ funds. It is not obstruction to demand that new spending be paid for when the country is going bankrupt, it is a courageous act of patriotism. The fact is, the national debt has grown every single year since 1958, and it will take a sincere love of country motivating decisive action to reverse that trend before it is too late.

“Increasingly, the Treasury is depending on the Federal Reserve to print money to ‘lend’ to the government to meet up with Washington’s excessive funding obligations. With over $777 billion in outstanding treasuries on its balance sheet, the Fed is right behind China and Japan as the third top lender to Congress.

“The truth is that the $34 billion unemployment extension would have already passed if Senate Democrats would simply find a way to pay for it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s partisan approach to this issue is to simply keep offering the same resolution over and over again without making any offsetting cuts to the budget.

“Senate Republicans have a point: Can Congress cut anything? Thus far, the majority is proving that they neither have the ability nor the will to do anything to address the sovereign debt crisis, and only know how to borrow recklessly.”

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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Filed Under: Press Releases

ALG Condemns Financial Takeover as “One More Piece of Liberty Lost”

July 15, 2010

July 15th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today condemned the U.S. Senate for enacting the conference version of the Dodd-Frank financial takeover bill, sending the bill to the desk of Barack Obama to become law.

“The American people have lost one more piece of their liberty, as the Senate has voted to create a hidden, permanent bailout that will enable faceless bureaucrats to levy taxes, bail out politically-privileged institutions and to seize and liquidate politically-unconnected ones, redistributing their assets to favored constituencies, like unions,” Wilson declared.

“There will be no votes in Congress like TARP ever again, as Congress has abdicated the power to tax and spend elsewhere,” Wilson explained, adding, “Which solves a political problem for members of Congress, but is really just a con game so that they don’t have to take responsibility for unpopular bailouts and government takeovers.”

Wilson said “the American people can thank these 60 senators that voted to invoke cloture on the Dodd-Frank bill,” which included all but one Senate Democrat and Republican Senators Olympia Snowe, Scott Brown, and Susan Collins. The vote ending debate was 60 to 38.

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold was on the only Democrat to vote Nay, whom Wilson said “had the intellectual honesty to say he wanted to address the root causes of the financial crisis,” and thanked him for his votes to bring an end to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and to audit the Federal Reserve.

Wilson called the bank tax by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on about 60 bank holding and insurance companies with $50 billion or greater in assets included in the legislation “taxation without representation”.

“The taxes which will finance the ‘orderly liquidation fund’, the cost of which will be passed on to savers, investors, and anyone who uses the financial system,” Wilson said, citing a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of a similar bank tax proposal by the Obama Administration, “the ultimate cost of a tax or fee is not necessarily borne by the entity that writes the check to the government. The cost of the proposed fee would ultimately be borne to varying degrees by an institution’s customers, employees, and investors, but the precise incidence among those groups is uncertain.”

“These taxes, bailouts, and takeovers will happen arbitrarily, by faceless, unelected bureaucrats at the FDIC, Treasury, and Federal Reserve. When there’s another bailout — not if, but when — and any of these 60 Senators dare attempts to condemn it, they need to be called out,” Wilson concluded.

Attachments:

“’Down a Rabbit Hole:’ The Threat Posed by the Dodd-Frank Bill to the Private Sector,” Updated June 28th, 2010, Americans for Limited Government.

“Big Brother is Watching You: The Threat Posed by the Dodd-Frank Bill to Privacy,” Updated June 28th, 2010.

Letter to the U.S. Senate, ALG President Bill Wilson, April 26th, 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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Filed Under: Press Releases

ALG Statement on Obama’s $5 Billion “Green” Jobs Initiative

July 14, 2010

July 14th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement against Barack Obama’s proposed $5 billion in additional funds for “green” jobs:

“Barack Obama and Harry Reid are proposing an additional $5 billion in taxpayer subsidies to businesses that apparently cannot profit on their own selling inefficient so-called ‘clean’ energy alternatives, like electric cars, wind and solar. This comes atop $2.3 billion in ‘stimulus’ funds that were dedicate to the same purpose.

“At a time of unsustainable government spending and debt accumulation, if energy companies cannot make a profit selling these products and utilities, then it is not up to U.S. taxpayers to double-down on an unsuccessful ‘green’ marketing strategy with another $5 billion in taxpayers handouts.

“The American people want an end to government picking winners and losers in the energy sector with subsidies to politically-favored industries, and instead would prefer lawmakers to lift restrictions on producing nuclear, oil, coal, and natural gas resources that provide the foundation for meeting the nation’s power needs.”

Attachments:

“Is the U.S. Killing Green Jobs?” ALG News National Correspondent Rebekah Rast, April 13th, 2010.

“The Green Jobs Scam Unmasked,” ALG Chairman Howard Rich, February 12th, 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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Filed Under: Press Releases

FDA Scientific Advisory Panel Conflicts of Interest Remain

July 13, 2010

ALG Renews Call for FDA to Dismiss Science Panel Members With Conflicts

July 13th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today called upon the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider the composition of a key science panel set to issue recommendations on tobacco regulations.

According to Wilson’s letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, “nearly a majority of the TPSAC voting members have received payments from special interests with billions of dollars riding on the outcome of the committee’s analysis.”

Wilson asked Hamburg to “reconsider the composition of this committee, either dismissing the conflicted members or requiring them to abstain from issues affecting their own financial interests.”

Wilson said four members of the committee have “clear conflicts of interest”. They are:

• Jack Henningfeld a voting member of the committee is a consultant to GlaxoSmithKline the maker of Nicorette gum who would stand to benefit financially from further restrictions on tobacco products

• Neil L. Benowitz was Pfizer consultant which makes the drug Chantix that aids people who want to quit smoking. Benowitz has also worked for GlaxoSmithKline and Nabi Pharmaceuticals

• Dorothy Hatsukami received grant support from Nabi Pharmaceuticals to study their nicotine vaccine

• The head TPSAC, Jonathan Samet, also received grants from GlaxoSmithKline and the organization he headed was funded by two different pharmaceutical companies

The law establishing the committee specifically states that the “membership of the advisory committee to be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed by the advisory committee;” and that the committee “contain appropriate provisions to assure that the advice and recommendations of the advisory committee will not be inappropriately influenced by the appointing authority or by any special interest, but will instead be the result of the advisory committee’s independent judgment.”

Previously, the FDA had rejected the dismissal of the members, but Wilson’s letter urged reconsideration. The letter notes that the FDA “said it would continue to screen members for potential conflicts of interest on topics the committee would be considering. We can envision no greater conflict. We urgently request that you revisit these disqualifying conflicts of interest.”

In a statement, Wilson concluded, “It is up to the FDA to follow the law and to remove even the appearance of a conflict of interest from a ‘science’ committee tasked to investigate the regulation of tobacco products. Right now, the committee is skewed by anti-tobacco industry interests.”

Attachments:

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

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Filed Under: Press Releases
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