“While the American people are dealing with a brutal recession, soaring unemployment, and about to be hit with massive inflation, Congress in the Waxman-Markey bill is proposing to make energy more expensive to service a radical environmentalist agenda,” said Wilson.

“It is up to the Congress to stop this legislation dead on its tracks, before it causes an economic train wreck that will take decades to overcome,” Wilson added.

The legislation, HR 2454, would force carbon-emitting industries coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas to purchase carbon permits that would reduce in supply over the next decade. The bill aims to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.

“The whole point of capping carbon emissions is to increase the prices of oil, gasoline, coal, and natural gas across the board, and thereby ‘incentivize’ alternatives like solar, wind, and hybrid vehicles,” Wilson explained.

“If this legislation passes, 10 bucks a gallon for gas is going to seem cheap in five years,” Wilson added.

Wilson noted that similar legislation had failed in the Senate last year. “This bill was rejected last year, and should again be rejected this year, because it’s an economy-killer. It will cost jobs, it will cost progress, and it will cost prosperity. That is the price,” Wilson said.

Wilson says that what makes the bill even worse is that the science behind cap-and-trade is contrived and misleading. “The whole premise of global ‘warming’ is based upon flawed computer models that predict climate change, and are not based on actual observable data that can be confirmed.”

Wilson pointed to a study from APS Physics, “Climate Sensitivity Revisited”. “The Monckton study proves beyond any doubt that the UN International Panel on Climate Change’s computer models that ‘predict’ climate change greatly overstate the impact of carbon emissions. In other words, ‘man-made’ climate change is not real, and yet Congress is ready to reorganize the entire energy sector around the idea.”

“It is up to Congress to vote against this whacko environmentalist agenda before the economy is wrecked, the oil, natural gas, and coal industries bankrupted, and the American people being buried at the gas pump and on their home-heating bills,” Wilson concluded.

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

“Mr. Obama is stonewalling,” ALG president Bill Wilson said. “In direct violation of his own declaration ‘In the face of doubt, openness prevails,’ he has clearly instructed his minions to close ranks and refuse to tell the full, unvarnished truth about why he summarily fired Gerald Walpin despite the IG’s long record of stalwart service.”

Walpin was fired in late June after what all agree was a contentious board meeting in which he had questioned the oversight procedures of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The AmeriCorps IG had taken issue with the usage of a grant for community related activities in which he believed was being used improperly by former N.B.A. star and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

When first questioned about the Walpin firing, the White House failed to provide a reason. Only later, after “Walpin-gate” became a major story in the media did Obama spokespersons offer a belated explanation, charging that Walpin was “confused” and “disoriented” at the May 20 board meeting. Both Walpin and at least one witness to the meeting have denied the charges.

“The White House response is nothing more than a mockery wrapped in a sham,” Wilson said. The real intent of the firing is two-fold – first to stop the investigation of AmeriCorps malfeasance by an Obama crony, and, second, to send a message to AmeriCorps IG’s nationwide that they are not to touch the ‘Obama Youth Corps.’

“Knowing the stated intent of Mr. Obama to use AmeriCorp as his own ‘civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded,’ as the United States Army, his message to IG’s nationwide is particularly disturbing,” Wilson said.

The FOIA filed by ALG promises to leave no stone unturned in its pursuit of what actually occurred at the CNCS board meeting many now feel was set up to orchestrate Walpin’s firing. According to the FOIA, ALG is demanding copies of “any records that may exist,” including:

“ … any written, recorded, or graphic matter of any nature whatsoever, regardless of how recorded, and whether original or copy, including, but not limited to, the following: memoranda, reports, expense reports, books, manuals, instructions, financial reports, working papers, records, notes, letters, notices, confirmations, telegrams, receipts, appraisals, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, prospectuses, interoffice and intra-office communications, electronic mail (e-mail), contracts, cables, notations of any type of conversation, telephone calls, meetings or other communications, bulletins, printed matter, computer printouts, teletypes, invoices, transcripts, diaries, analyses, returns, summaries, minutes, bills, accounts, estimates, projections, comparisons, messages, correspondence, press releases, circulars, financial statements, reviews, opinions, offers, studies and investigations, questionnaires and surveys, and work sheets (and all drafts, preliminary versions, alterations, modifications, revisions, changes, and amendments of any of the foregoing, as well as any attachments or appendices thereto), and graphic or oral records or representations of any kind (including without limitation, photographs, charts, graphs, voicemails, microfiche, microfilm, videotape, recordings and motion pictures), and electronic and mechanical records or representations of any kind (including, without limitation, tapes, cassettes, disks, computer server files, computer hard drive files, CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, and recordings) and other written, printed, typed, or other graphic or recorded matter of any kind of nature.”

“We believe Barack Obama fired Gerald Walpin in order to provide cover for his misuse of AmeriCorps – aka, the Obama Youth Corps. And we believe he is now stonewalling the investigation of Walpin-gate in order to cover his tracks,” Wilson said. “He would do well to remember the oft-repeated refrain after the Watergate scandal that felled an earlier president: It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up, that brings you down.”

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Fred Smith, President, Competitive Enterprise Institute
James C. Miller III, former Reagan Budget Director
Matt Kibbe, President, FreedomWorks
Tim Phillips, President, Americans for Prosperity
Wendy Wright, President, Concerned Women for America
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
David McIntosh, former U.S. Representative, Indiana
Richard Viguerie, Chairman ConservativeHQ.com
William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government
Alfred S. Regnery, Publisher, American Spectator
Brent Bozell, Chairman, Media Research Center

WHAT DO PAYGO AND POGO HAVE IN COMMON? IN BOTH CASES “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US!”

For the Congressional Democrats to be credible about pay-as-you-go (PAYGO), they have to start living up to their rhetoric otherwise PAYGO is just a code word for major tax increases. President Obama said of PAYGO, “Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere.” But his math got a little fuzzy along the way, as he has only asked federal agencies to reduce their budgets by about .002 percent of the total budget for 2009.

This year’s deficit of almost $2 trillion — four times the previous record deficit — includes provisions for unpaid-for projects of mammoth proportions, including the $787 billion stimulus and the $634 billion “down payment” on a government run health care scheme. Apparently, when the president said that every dollar spent must be saved elsewhere, he assumed that the Democrats’ first trillion dollars or so don’t count.

And there is more to come as the President and his Democratic allies in Congress push for government run health care spending, global bailout money for IMF, higher energy bills and 13 appropriations bills that grow the size and scope of the federal government.

PAYGO IN WASHINGTON MEANS “FOOL THE TAXPAYERS”

The President will rack up a deficit of $1.84 trillion this year—four times higher than the all time record deficit of $458 billion last year. In May alone, the deficit was $190 billion, a record high for the month. The President claims that by 2013 he will cut the deficit to $512 billion, which would still be higher than last year’s record. The President’s deficit then shoots back to $800 billion by 2019, digging deeper into the same hole as before. Bigger bailouts, deeper debt, and more deficit spending add up to higher taxes, crippling debt for our children, and more bad news for our nation’s economic future.

Instead of PAYGO congress should institute dynamic budget scoring that recognizes the true costs of spending while incorporating the stimulative effects of tax cuts.

“The Democrat definition of PAYGO is you pay, they go on spending.”– Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana.

For more information: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/06/10/morning-bell-the-obama-paygo-farce/.

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“Barney Frank must allow this to come up for a vote. Of the 71 members of the House Financial Services Committee, 36 are cosponsors of the Fed Audit bill, including 7 Democrats, and 35 are not,” Wilson said. “That’s a majority.”

All 35 members of the Financial Services Committee that are not cosponsors for the Fed Audit bill are Democrats, including Committee Chairman Barney Frank..

Wilson says the legislation is necessary “to account for more than $7.76 trillion committed by the Fed in just the past two years. The American people have a right to know why the nation’s central bank is moving trillions of dollars to foreign governments and banks, killing markets, and crashing the economy.”

“If the will of the majority of the Financial Services Committee, and now a majority of the members of the House is to be heard, HR 1207 must be sent to the floor,” Wilson said.

To date, 162 House Republicans and 59 House Democrats are cosponsoring the legislation. 222 members in total support the bill, including the bill’s sponsor, Congressman Paul. This means the bill has now garnered enough support swift passage, with 218 votes needed in the House of Representatives with its 435 members.

According to Bloomberg News, the Federal Reserve has committed over $7.76 trillion in the past 20 months, $1,67 trillion of which has already been disbursed. However, it is unclear who received these loans, or who will receive the remainder of the committed funds.

Wilson added, “Nobody can account for where nearly $2 trillion of loans made by the Fed is going—all because the Fed has consistently stonewalled the press, Congress, and anyone else. And because law exempts most of the institution from being audited by the GAO.”

Wilson cited that the Government Accounting Office, according to 31 USCA §714, cannot audit and exempts from public oversight the following activities of the Federal Reserve:

(1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;
(2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, open market operations;
(3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
(4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to items.

On February 26th “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009” was introduced. H.R. 1207 would require the Comptroller General to issue an audit of both the Board of Governors and Reserve Bank operations, which are run by member banks of the Fed. The audit would have to be issued to Congressional leadership by the close of 2010.

According to Bloomberg, “The Federal Reserve so far is refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return.” The Fed has argued it is actually allowed to withhold “internal” memos as well as commercial and trade secrets information. Bloomberg, on the other hand, has actively filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, demanding the information.

Thus far, the Fed’s Board of Governors has refused to comply with Bloomberg’s FOIA requests. In addition, the Fed’s regional Reserve Banks are arguing that they are private institutions beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information Act.

In answering questions from Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) recently, Fed Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman testified she could not account for “$1 trillion-plus that the Fed extended and put on its balance sheet since last September…”

An email to Bloomberg by Coleman’s office also revealed that “By law, we are the Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors only… Consistent with our authority, we cannot conduct a direct audit of Reserve Bank operations.”

“Now that a majority of the House and a majority of the House Financial Services Committee supports this legislation, it must come to the floor for a vote. For Pelosi and Frank to block it now would be to thwart the express will of the American people.” Wilson concluded.

Wilson termed it “a move that simply throws welfare at developing nations, only helps China along in transitioning away from the dollar, and does absolutely nothing to bolster America’s economic standing in the world.”

“Right now, the U.S. financial system is sinking, the national debt has exploded to over $11.3 trillion and the deficit to over $1.84 trillion, and the Obama Administration has no plan to get the nation out from under $104 trillion of unfunded liabilities. It is absolutely sickening that Barack Obama and his meek, toady Congress think it’s a good time to send another $100 billion to a failed international institution.  This is nothing more than international welfare checks,” said Wilson.

Last month at the G-20 summit, Barack Obama pledged a $100 billion line of credit to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of a $550 billion global effort to bolster the international bank. The G-20 then approved a new $250 billion general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR)—the bank’s reserve asset.

The Congressional proposal also expands U.S. holdings in the IMF by $8 billion.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) offered an amendment to remove from the Iraq and Afghanistan war supplemental both the $100 billion line of credit to the IMF and the $8 billion increase the nation’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR) holdings. In the Senate the amendment to remove the provisions failed by a vote of 30-64.

“The Senate had a golden opportunity to kill this thing and they blew it.  Now it’s on the fast track, and the American people need to know what is happening,” Wilson said.

Overall, the legislation has passed the House with at a cost of $96.7 billion and the Senate at $91.3 billion.  The final version of the bill still has not been presented from conference, and the IMF provisions were not originally included in the bill as passed in the House.  Since then, House and Senate Democrats have agreed to the $100 billion line of credit to the IMF and $8 billion expansion of U.S. SDR holdings.

The bill, HR 2346, now proceeds to the House and Senate for final approval.  Today, Americans for Limited Government released a backgrounder on the issue.

“Russia, China, India, and Brazil are currently buying interest-bearing IMF bonds denominated in the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights, and meanwhile Congress is voting to pay for it with a $100 billion line of credit extension and $8 billion expansion to the IMF,” said Wilson.

Currently, Russia, India, China, and Brazil are already prepared to purchase their first round of IMF bonds—denominated in SDR.  According to the Wall Street Journal, “The IMF is preparing its first bond offering, potentially tailored to Brazil, Russia, India and China. Russia’s [$10 billion] offering would equal that of India and would be about a quarter of the $40 billion China is expected to contribute to boost the IMF’s resources.”

Combined, Russia ($2.261 trillion), Brazil ($1.981 trillion), India ($3.288 trillion), China ($7.916 trillion) have GDP (PPP) of $15.446 trillion compared to the U.S GDP (PPP) of $14.264 trillion.

“Why are American taxpayers paying to help China and Russia improve their global monetary positions? This is an insane use of American taxpayers’ money,” Wilson said, adding, “It has no place in a war supplemental appropriation.  It is an insult to America’s fighting men and women.”

Wilson promised to remind constituents how each member of Congress votes on the supplemental.  “This is not $108 billion for the IMF that was attached to a $90 billion war supplemental, it is a $90 billion war supplemental attached to $108 billion for the IMF.”

“The American people have a right to know which of their representatives vote to crumble up the dollar on the floor of Congress, and Americans for Limited Government will not let constituents forget,” Wilson concluded.

Attachments:

“Dollar in Danger: $100 Billion Line of Credit to IMF Backgrounder,” Americans for Limited Government, June 2009.

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

“This vote proves out and out that Senate Democrats are not concerned about health at all. Both tobacco and marijuana are weeds, both are smoked, both are carcinogenic, and yet the Senate Committee on Health has seen fit to propose placing tobacco under FDA regulation while shielding marijuana from similar government control,” said Wilson.

“Senator Tom Coburn deserves credit for exposing the smoky duplicity of the Senate Committee on Health,” Wilson added.

The amendment, sponsored by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), would have required that states, should they decide to decriminalize marijuana or allow it for medical purposes, regulate it on the same grounds as tobacco.

Wilson called upon the Senate to enact the Coburn amendment on the floor of the body. “Every member of the Senate must decide if what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”

According to Senator Coburn, speaking in committee, “[A]ll this amendment does is say we’re going to do the same thing with marijuana that we’re going to do with cigarettes—we’re going to run it through the FDA and if in fact we’re going to utilize it, then we ought to make sure it’s safe and efficacious.”

In a 13-10 party line vote, the committee’s Democrats—and lone Independent—rejected the amendment.

Voicing his disapproval of the vote, Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson said, “The Coburn amendment has effectively revealed the Democrats at their most hypocritical. Congress and Big Government Washington bureaucrats are moving to criminalize tobacco while simultaneously legalizing marijuana.”

Wilson added, “The real aim of placing tobacco under FDA control is ultimately prohibition. It’s time we call this what it is—a move towards prohibition.”

The thirteen Senators who voted “No” on the Coburn amendment are Chris Dodd (D-CT), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Robert Casey Jr. (D-PA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Chris Dodd and Jack Reed have received praise from groups on the left for their efforts to defeat the amendment.

“Any student of history understands that prohibition triggers more crime and more wasted government resources,” Wilson said. “Although it failed in committee, the Coburn amendment succeeded in revealing Democrats’ duplicitous nature regarding tobacco regulation and ultimate prohibition.”

“America does not need another era of prohibition,” Wilson concluded.

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“The American people have barely any idea what the Fed is up to, although we do know that they’ve put American taxpayers on the hook for $7.76 trillion in less than two years,” said Wilson.  “The House has no clue where the $7.76 trillion is going either, because Congress’ best attempts at oversight have been met with consistent stonewalling by the Fed.”

Wilson added, “All of this money simply cannot be accounted for, including nearly $2 trillion of loans made by the Fed—for no other reason than because the Fed refuses to disclose any information about the transactions.”

On February 26th, Congressman Ron Paul introduced the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009,” legislation that would require an audit of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Reserve Banks.

According to Bloomberg News, the Federal Reserve has committed, lent or disbursed over $7.76 trillion in the past 20 months.  This includes nearly $2 trillion in loans, although it is unclear who received these loans.

According to Bloomberg, “The Federal Reserve so far is refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return.” The Fed has argued it is actually allowed to withhold “internal” memos as well as commercial and trade secrets information. Bloomberg, on the other hand, has actively filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, demanding the information.

Thus far, the Fed’s Board of Governors has refused to comply with Bloomberg’s FOIA requests.  In addition, the Fed’s regional banks are arguing that they are private institutions beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information Act.

In answering questions from Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) recently, Fed Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman testified she could not account for “$1 trillion-plus that the Fed extended and put on its balance sheet since last September…”

An email to Bloomberg by Coleman’s office also revealed that “By law, we are the Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors only… Consistent with our authority, we cannot conduct a direct audit of Reserve Bank operations.”

Wilson called for the Federal Reserve to be reined in.  “The Fed, although it was created by Congress, is responsible for the nation’s monetary policy, and has engaged in over $7.76 trillion in transactions is beyond the oversight according to its own inspector general, and even beyond the oversight of Congress.  For the House to continue to refuse to audit this unaccountable government monstrosity is inexcusable.”

“The real questions are: What is the Fed hiding? And why are members of the House aiding them? Is the money going to foreign banks? Perhaps to central banks overseas? To China?” Wilson added.

H.R. 1207 would require the Comptroller General to issue an audit of both the Board of Governors and Reserve Bank operations, which are run by member banks of the Fed. The audit would have to be issued to Congressional leadership by the close of 2010.

So far, the Act has 179 cosponsors, including 33 Democrats and 146 Republicans.

“It is up to the constitutional duty of the House to account for these trillions of taxpayer dollars, before it is too late, and before the nation is drowned in insolvency,” Wilson concluded.

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