July 7th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned Barack Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who Wilson said would be “ObamaCare’s rationer-in-chief”.

“Now that Obama is struggling to find a way to add 30 million people to the government health care rolls amid a worsening budget picture, he has appointed without any vote in the Senate a man who believes that health care rationing is inevitable,” Wilson said.

Wilson cited a 2009 interview Berwick gave when he said: “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”

“Making matters worse, Berwick believes that health care must be a form of so-called ‘social justice’ and that the redistribution of wealth is imperative to have an ‘equitable’ health system,” Wilson noted, citing Berwick’s previous statement that, “Any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized, and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is by definition redistributional.”

“This is pure Marxism,” Wilson declared, “and now it is the official policy of United States to take health care away from one person and given to another as government sees fit.”

Wilson concluded, “Barack Obama is a coward who could only get Berwick into office by skipping the Senate confirmation process, robbing the people’s representatives a voice in this process. Health care rationing and redistribution is now inevitable.”

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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“Nancy Pelosi’s House has shown its true colors through the attachment of a non-essential $10 billion political slush fund to the war supplemental, which will be used to bail out bankrupt states like California and New York that refuse to make necessary cuts to balance their budgets, and whose teacher unions have run up an unsustainable tab for taxpayers.

“The final passage of the war supplemental remains in doubt in the Senate so long as these bailouts are attached. Pelosi was barely able to muster the votes necessary for passage, and even then only got what she needed through the passage of a House rule ‘deeming’ the supplemental to have passed.

“The end result is a piece of legislation that cannot pass the Senate, leaving critical resources for our fighting men and women uncertain. Defense Secretary Bob Gates that Congress’ failure could result in a failure to pay active-duty military, and General Petraeus has called the supplemental ‘essential for the conduct of this mission.’

“Yet Nancy Pelosi’s House is willing to put the mission in jeopardy by holding the supplemental hostage to a bailout of their favored political constituency. This is unacceptable to the American people, who expect troops in harm’s way to be funded without controversy. The Senate must do its part to remove any public union bailouts and pass a clean war supplemental.”

Attachments:

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

ALG Urges Congress to Reject $100 Billion Handout to Public Employee Unions, June 22nd, 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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“House members have voted to not address the real causes of the financial crisis that government was responsible for,” Wilson said. “Instead, they have created a new, radical regime to seize disfavored financial firms, bail out favored ones, monitor finances, and levy unlimited taxes on the American people, all without any vote in Congress or the opportunity to object in court,” Wilson said.

Wilson warned that “bailouts and takeovers under the so-called ‘orderly liquidation fund’ will never end, and the American people have 237 members of the House to thank.”

The final vote in House was 237 to 192.

The “orderly liquidation fund” would be financed by “risk-based” assessments levied by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on institutions totaling $50 billion or more in assets, proceeds from securities issued by the FDIC of seized firms, interest and other earnings from investments owned by the fund, and “repayments to the Corporation by covered financial companies.”

According to 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.”

Wilson noted that the bill still includes a controversial Office of Financial Research that empowers the office, according to the legislation, to “collect, validate, and maintain all data necessary” to maintain financial stability “obtained from member agencies, commercial data providers, publicly available data sources, and financial entities.”

“Members voted to create the Office of Financial Research, which will have the ability to know about every transaction in the country it deems it necessary for the sake of financial stability. That’s the power to monitor everyone’s finances, if it wants,” Wilson said.

According to the bill, the OFR would “require the submission of periodic and other reports from any financial company for the purpose of assessing the extent to which a financial activity or financial market in which the financial company participates, or the financial company itself, poses a threat to the financial stability of the United States.”

The legislation also outlines that the Director of the OFR would be given subpoena power to require “the production of the data requested … upon a written finding by the Director that such data is required” to maintain financial stability.

Wilson also condemned the Dodd-Frank conference bill for what he said was “its inherent failure to address the root, government causes of the crisis. For example, the bill does not audit the Federal Reserve, whose easy money, low interest lending policies fueled the housing bubble,” citing research by Stanford economic professor John Taylor stating that “the Fed’s target for the federal-funds interest rate was well below what the Taylor rule would call for in 2002-2005. By this measure the interest rate was too low for too long, reducing borrowing costs and accelerating the housing boom.”

Wilson also cited research by former chief credit officer of Fannie Mae, Ed Pinto, demonstrating that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac weakened mortgage underwriting standards and mislabeled high-risk mortgage-backed securities, defrauding investors; that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lowered down payments on mortgages; and that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Reinvestment Act regulations and “affordable housing goals” reduced lending standards and forced banks to give loans to lower-income Americans that could not be repaid. “None of these root causes are addressed, either,” Wilson said.

“The Dodd-Frank bill even prohibits the liquidation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the ‘orderly liquidation’ authority, a provision that was only added in conference,” Wilson noted.

Wilson concluded, “Members who voted for the Dodd-Frank financial takeover have signed off on an unlimited bailout-takeover authority, unconstrained bank taxes, financial privacy violations, and have ignored the root, government causes of the financial crisis. They must be held accountable.”

Attachments:

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

“Big Brother is Watching You: The Threat Posed by the Dodd 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.

June 30th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement against a House Democrat proposal to attach $10 billion state education funding to the pending war supplemental:

“The $33 billion war supplemental to fund ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the surge in Afghanistan, is still being held up by House Democrats who want to attach $10 billion for bankrupt states like New York and California that refuse to cut their unsustainable budgets.

“This is simply unacceptable to our fighting men and women. Critical resources are being held back, and Defense Secretary Bob Gates warns that if the supplemental is not passed by July 4th, the Defense Department may be forced to begin furloughing civilians and being unable to pay active-duty military. General Petraeus has called the supplemental ‘essential for the conduct of this mission.’

“And yet the war funding is being held hostage to public sector union politics who want another bailout. Enough is enough.

“Congress has a constitutional responsibility to give our troops everything they need to win on the field of battle, and absolutely no role in balancing state budgets and handing out tens of billions of dollars to public employee unions. Now is the time to stop playing politics with our troops in harm’s way and pass a clean war supplemental.”

Attachments:

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

ALG Urges Congress to Reject $100 Billion Handout to Public Employee Unions, June 22nd, 2010.

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

ALG Letter to Congress Against States Bailout, May 27th, 2010.

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June 30th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged Senator Scott Brown to reject the Dodd-Frank conference legislation “which still contains an unlimited bank tax.”

“Right on pages 356 through 364 of the latest Dodd-Frank conference report, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation can still levy unlimited assessments — which are taxes — on banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions to pay for the so-called ‘orderly liquidation fund’, which is just a limitless fund for government to take over and bail out companies,” Wilson said.

“Senator Brown withheld support for the Dodd-Frank financial takeover conference because of the $19 billion bank tax. Well, what about the unlimited bank tax that’s still in the bill?” Wilson asked.

In a statement issued today, Brown said, “I appreciate the conference committee revisiting the Wall Street reform bill and removing the $19 billion bank tax. Over the July recess, I will continue to review this important bill.”

Wilson said, “In between eating hot dogs, Senator Brown should really check out pages 356 through 364 of the bill, where the real bank tax is. He should be familiar with it. The bank tax was in the bill the last time he voted for it, too.”

Wilson noted that as a candidate, Brown ran against a bank tax on the premise that it would simply be passed on to the American people via higher financial transaction costs. Brown said at the time, “With all due respect, that money is going to be transferred down to the individuals through ATM fees, increased fees. I thought banks were supposed to lend. So now they’re going to take the money that they would be lending to the small businesses in this state and the men and women who want to buy homes … and there’s less of a pool there.”

The “orderly liquidation fund” would be financed by “risk-based” assessments levied by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on institutions totaling $50 billion or more in assets, proceeds from securities issued by the FDIC of seized firms, interest and other earnings from investments owned by the fund, and “repayments to the Corporation by covered financial companies.”

According to 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.”

“Senator Scott Brown may think he is playing savvy politics by negotiating the removal of the $19 billion bank tax, but he’s really nothing more than a bait fish to help the real bank tax get across the finish line. Brown is being played. He’s being used,” Wilson declared.

“Everyone is familiar with the three-card monte game. While everyone is reporting on the removal of the $19 billion bank tax from the conference legislation, nobody is paying attention to the unlimited bank tax that’s still in the legislation and has been since the very beginning,” Wilson explained.

“Senator Scott Brown is no longer a babe in the woods. Will he fall for Dodd and Frank’s shell game?” Wilson concluded.

Attachments:

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

“Big Brother is Watching You: The Threat Posed by the Dodd 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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“The Dodd-Frank financial takeover bill will not address the real causes of the financial crisis that government caused, and instead creates new, radical powers for the government to seize disfavored firms, bail out favored ones, monitor finances, and levy unlimited taxes on the American people, all without any vote in Congress or the opportunity to object in court,” Wilson said.

ALG has updated two of its key summaries on the legislation, the first detailing the bailout and government takeover powers in the bill, and the second outlining the threat posed to individual privacy through the Office of Financial Research.

Wilson warned that under the bill any company could be seized, pointing to the government seizure of GM and Chrysler under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. “Even though those were auto companies that posed no systemic risk to the financial system, and even though there were private sector alternatives to the government takeover, they were considered to be economically important enough to apply to TARP,” Wilson explained.

“Just as GM and Chrysler were seized by the government, it will happen again to other non-financial companies under the Dodd-Frank financial takeover bill. Nor will the government will be limited to a $700 billion fund, since the so-called ‘orderly liquidation fund’ is unlimited,” Wilson said.

“There is no meaningful provision to limit bailouts, either, despite the well-meaning efforts of Congressional Republicans,” Wilson added.

The “orderly liquidation fund” would be financed by “risk-based” assessments levied by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on institutions totaling $50 billion or more in assets, proceeds from securities issued by the FDIC of seized firms, interest and other earnings from investments owned by the fund, and “repayments to the Corporation by covered financial companies.”

According to 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.”

The legislation also provides for a $19 billion “financial crisis” fund funded by more assessments on banks, a provision that was added in the conference report.

Wilson noted that the bill still includes a controversial Office of Financial Research that empowers the office, according to the legislation, to “collect, validate, and maintain all data necessary” to maintain financial stability “obtained from member agencies, commercial data providers, publicly available data sources, and financial entities.”

“The Office of Financial Research will have the ability to know about every transaction in the country, large and small, if it deems it necessary for the sake of financial stability,” Wilson said.

According to the bill, the OFR would “require the submission of periodic and other reports from any financial company for the purpose of assessing the extent to which a financial activity or financial market in which the financial company participates, or the financial company itself, poses a threat to the financial stability of the United States.”

The legislation also outlines that the Director of the OFR would be given subpoena power to require “the production of the data requested … upon a written finding by the Director that such data is required” to maintain financial stability.

Wilson also condemned the Dodd-Frank conference bill for what he said was “its inherent failure to address the root, government causes of the crisis. For example, the bill does not audit the Federal Reserve, whose easy money, low interest lending policies fueled the housing bubble,” citing research by Stanford economic professor John Taylor stating that “the Fed’s target for the federal-funds interest rate was well below what the Taylor rule would call for in 2002-2005. By this measure the interest rate was too low for too long, reducing borrowing costs and accelerating the housing boom.”

Wilson also cited research by former chief credit officer of Fannie Mae, Ed Pinto, demonstrating that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac weakened mortgage underwriting standards and mislabeled high-risk mortgage-backed securities, defrauding investors; that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lowered down payments on mortgages; and that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Reinvestment Act regulations and “affordable housing goals” reduced lending standards and forced banks to give loans to lower-income Americans that could not be repaid. “None of these root causes are addressed, either,” Wilson said.

“The Dodd-Frank bill even prohibits the liquidation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the ‘orderly liquidation’ authority, a provision that was only added in conference,” Wilson noted.

Wilson concluded, “The Dodd-Frank financial takeover still contains an unlimited bailout-takeover authority, unconstrained bank taxes, financial privacy violations, and still does not address the root, government causes of the financial crisis. Congress has one last chance to reject it.”

Attachments:

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

“Big Brother is Watching You: The Threat Posed by the Dodd 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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Download at http://www.algnews.org/videos/VNR_Judge/Judge_Ad.mov

June 29th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today announced that his organization would be running a 60-second commercial in Nevada urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to reject the nomination of Judge Robert Chatigny to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Robert Chatigny is a man who thought that a confessed rapist, serial killer of eight young women aged 14 to 25, Michael Ross, ‘never should have been convicted, and yet, Harry Reid is pushing him to be confirmed,” Wilson said.

Wilson said the ad was to alert Nevadans of Chatigny’s controversial actions defending convicted rapist and serial murderer, Michael Ross, and to urge them to contact Reid to help defeat the nomination.

Chatigny’s contentious remarks were made at a last-minute hearing in 2005 he had convened wherein he granted a stay of execution for Ross. In that hearing, Chatigny chastised Ross’ attorney, T.R. Paulding, and threatened to have his law license pulled for not more vigorously pursuing Ross’ defense.

Although the hearing was supposed to be examining Ross’ competence to waive his right to appeal, Chatigny opined, “looking at the record in a light most favorable to Mr. Ross, he never should have been convicted. Or if convicted, he never should have been sentenced to death because his sexual sadism, which was found by every single person who looked at him, is clearly a mitigating factor.”

In a letter to the U.S. Senate, Wilson wrote, “Ross had confessed to all eight rape-murders. Of course he should have been convicted. There was no question of his malice and cruelty, either, and yet for Chatigny, this was a mitigating factor that should have blocked the death penalty sentence. That is outrageous enough.”

Wilson’s letter continued, “But if there was any doubt as to Chatigny’s bias and personal interest in this case, the hearing Chatigny was presiding over had nothing to do with sentencing. It had to do with forcing Ross’ attorney to pursue a claim that Ross was not competent to waive his right to appeal the sentence.”

The letter closed, “Chatigny clearly wanted to keep Ross in the system. His bias exhibited in this case calls into question his temperament and impartiality as a judge, and should disqualify him. This nomination should be withdrawn.”

Wilson also cited that Chatigny’s “long history of acting sympathetically toward sex offenders.” As reported by the Washington Times, “[i]n 12 child-pornography cases, Judge Chatigny imposed a sentence either at or more lenient than the recommended minimum – with most downward departures involving sentences less than half as long.”

“In 2000, Chatigny even overturned Connecticut’s sex offender registry law,” Wilson noted.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to report Judge Chatigny to floor on June 10th for a full Senate vote.

Wilson concluded, “As the Senate’s leader, Harry Reid has the power to put the brakes on the Chatigny nomination. Chatigny is nothing more than an apologist for sex offenders. It’s his claim to fame, and is why he is being promoted. Chatigny’s conduct is so deeply disturbing to the American people that Reid has an obligation to defeat this offensive nomination.”

Attachments:

ALG Ad Urging Reid to Oppose Chatigny, June 29th, 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.

ALG Nominee Alert, Robert Chatigny, March 2010.

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