State election officials reject signatures at a rate 33 times higher than in 2020 election

Fairfax, Va. – California’s Secretary of State has rejected nearly 20% of all the signatures gathered thus far to force a recall election of Governor Gavin Newsom, according to figures released this week. Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement in reaction to this:

“Apparently signature verification only matters when protecting the Democrat elites.  California’s rejection of 19.8 percent of signatures on the Gavin Newsom recall petition reeks of corruption as election officials who oversaw one of the least secure elections in history suddenly are worried about whether i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.

“Her party is engaged in a blatant abuse of power. The predominantly Democrat election officials rejected nearly one-in-five signatures on this recall petition compared to rejecting just .6 percent of absentee ballots in the 2020 election due to signature verification.

“This is a bad look for the home state of Nancy Pelosi as she tries to eliminate all state voter identification laws. Now she wants the same system imposed on the rest of the country.  Hers is a system where the political elites in Washington, DC would have absolute control over federal elections across the country.  What could go wrong? Based upon California’s current example, you don’t even have to imagine it.”

For media availability contact Catherine Mortensen at 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org.

President Joe Biden cannot say he is tough on China and then transfer advanced pharmaceutical patents to them.

Fairfax, Va. – U.S.- based corporations have developed the most effective vaccines against the Covid virus and are generously distributing them to other countries. But sharing the vaccine “formula” with other countries would pose a national security risk. Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in reaction to demands from other nations to access the intellectual property of America’s advanced biotech labs.

“Because the United States is the most generous country in the world, we are sharing our Covid vaccines with less developed countries. But sharing the intellectual property that underlies those vaccines poses a national security risk.

“Many countries are demanding the U.S. waive the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement that was made at the World Trade Organization in 1995 on pandemic-related products in order to get their hands on our advanced biotech knowledge that was critical to develop the vaccine in the first place.

“This national security concern is why the Trump administration explicitly rejected waiving TRIPS last year, and the Biden administration should do the same, as waiving would give sensitive national security-developed biotech to the rest of the world including China, which is in a race to build its own biotech arsenal.

“President Joe Biden cannot say he is tough on China and then transfer advanced pharmaceutical patents to them and other competitors  to exploit and bury U.S. manufacturers. If Congress wants more vaccines distributed globally, it can choose to appropriate more money to do that, but the American people have every right to expect that we will get our doses first.

“Americans for Limited Government strongly urges President Biden to put national security and the interests of U.S. citizens first by refusing to waive the TRIPS agreement.”

For media availability contact Catherine Mortensen at 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Fairfax, Va. –  Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in reaction to the Michigan Board of Canvassers rejecting a petition to limit Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s authority to keep her state in lockdown:

“Stand Up Michigan has done the near impossible in getting more than 500,000 voter signatures on a petition to limit Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s power to keep the state shut down.  Now, the Michigan Board of Canvassers, which certifies petitions, has done the unthinkable by not allowing the petition in a 2-2 partisan vote. Their vote effectively ends the right of citizen petitions in the state.

“In Michigan, we are seeing the living embodiment of the old saying that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. After Gov. Whitmer’s husband violated shutdown rules last summer, and the governor and her staff violate her admonition about flying to open states due to COVID concerns, it is the height of hypocrisy for the Democrats on the Canvasser Board to deny a citizen petition to allow all Michiganders to engage in the same freedoms that the governor herself enjoys. She blithely ignores her own edicts.  I do not begrudge Gov. Whitmer flying to Florida to visit her ailing father, I am, however, angered that through her illegally retained powers, she has denied tens of thousands of Michiganders that same ability to visit their ailing relatives.

“Gov. Whitmer should thank Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for rejecting the policies she follows and allowing her and anyone else to comfort and enjoy parents, spouses and children who are in their final days.  In a free country that is the individual’s decision not the government’s.

“The ugly scene of Whitmer supporters on the Board of Canvassers voting to stop a legal effort to afford the rest of Michigan the same rights that the governor freely enjoys is the ultimate example of Democrat privilege.”

For media availability, contact Catherine Mortensen at 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org.

Kerry would willingly destroy hundreds of millions of lives through economic destruction.

Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to White House climate envoy John Kerry’s concession that even if China and the U.S. eliminated all of their carbon emissions, it would still not achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Accords:

“John Kerry says that even if China and the U.S. eliminated all of their carbon emissions, it would still not achieve the arbitrary goals set out by the Paris Climate Accords. I want to welcome John Kerry to the opposition of the Paris Climate Accords. It is unconscionable that this ‘agreement’ gives China, the world’s largest polluter, free rein to continue developing until 2030, encouraging even more manufacturing outsourcing to the communist polluters in Beijing. We also are excited that Kerry concedes that the goals set out by the agreement are unachievable and futile, calling the whole enterprise into question. At best, the goals are a wish list that has been made even worse in the recent deal to increase these unachievable goals.

“Where we part with Kerry is that he would willingly destroy hundreds of millions of lives through economic destruction resulting from starvation on account of the policies he advocates, consigning developing countries to energy poverty. Under Donald Trump, America exceeded the Paris Climate Accord’s goals without even being a party to them. What’s more, the real cost of an expanded environmental regulatory regime from the U.S. government is the exportation of factory jobs to places like China where pollution is a way of life.

“We hope John Kerry is smart enough to understand the ramifications of his admission that no matter what America does, it will never be enough. But history has shown us that John Kerry isn’t that smart.”

For media availability, contact Catherine Mortensen at 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org .

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ALG urges every member of the House to sign the discharge petition for H.R. 859

Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging every member of the House to sign the discharge petition for H.R. 859, the Protecting American Energy Jobs Act:

“Americans for Limited Government urges every House member to sign the discharge petition for H.R. 859, the Protecting American Energy Jobs Act. This bill will get the Keystone XL pipeline completed, overturn President Joe Biden’s leasing ban on federal lands and prohibit future moratoriums on energy leasing as well. Every member of Congress who wants to create jobs and ensure that America is energy independent should support this legislation. The Keystone XL pipeline has always been a political football, and is just one among many international pipelines from Canada. The fact is, holding up the completion of the pipeline has been unfortunate and does not even prevent tar sands oil from coming to America, it just puts the oil that doesn’t go into the pipelines onto trucks and trains at a greater cost. The futility of Obama and then Biden’s blocking of the pipeline has only exceeded by its absurdity.”

For media availability, contact Catherine Mortensen at 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org .

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Fairfax, Va. – Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government, issued the following statement in reaction to the news that the US House of Representatives will vote on DC statehood on Tuesday, April 20.

“After years of failed leadership, Washington, DC has proven itself incapable of self-goverance as a city, let alone as a  state. If Congress wants to make the primarily residential portions of DC part of a state, they should cede the land back to Maryland.  It is the only practical solution and would mirror what was done in the 1840s when Alexandria was given back to the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

For media availability, contact Catherine Mortensen at 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org.

 

 

Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting false U.S. intelligence claims that Russia placed bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan:

“It was all a lie. Politically motivated claims out of the US intelligence community published by their house organ, the New York Times, that Russia paid the Taliban bounties to kill US troops were lies.  These lies were used by the left with the Grey Lady’s imprimatur to politically attack then-President Donald Trump for his inaction against Russia.  The irresponsibility of this lie in particular is stunning as military escalations based upon deliberately false political attacks emanating from our spy agencies could have easily snowballed into a new nuclear cold war or worse – all due to the internal corruption and political weaponization of these agencies.

“Now, Joe Biden is escalating sanctions and taking other aggressive actions against the Russian government. Given the recent history of our politically motivated intelligence bureaucrats, Congress better demand full and complete briefings and if not 100 percent satisfied, tie Biden’s hands from taking any precipitous action.  We live in dangerous times, and the fact America cannot trust anything our spy agencies say makes it much more so.  Unfortunately, former CIA leaders like John Brennan have done incalculable damage to the agencies they were entrusted to lead as they pursued the political destruction of former President Donald Trump at any cost.  They cannot come back to us now with any credibility.”

For media availability, contact Catherine Mortensen at 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org

 

Fairfax, Va. – In response to congressional Democrats introducing legislation today that would add four more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, boosting the number of justices on the bench from nine to 13, Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement:

“Today’s announcement that Democrat congressional leaders are going all-in on packing the Supreme Court is more evidence that the very slender, far-left Democrat majority intends to seize and maintain power using any tactic available, even if it means destroying the independence of the judicial branch of government.

“Given that court packing is now actively in play, every GOP Senator and House Member along with any rational Democrat members of Congress must push back by cosponsoring the Keep Nine constitutional amendment by Senator Ted Cruz (SJR 9) and Rep. Dusty Johnson (HJR 11).

[embeddoc url=”https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/502733041-Amendment-to-Set-Supreme-Court-at-Nine-Justices.pdf” viewer=”google” cache=”off”].

“The Keep Nine amendment has more than 100 House cosponsors and has gained unanimous support from the Republican National Committee, along with support from Rep. John Katko (R-NY), chair of the liberal Republican Governance Group as well as the support of Freedom Caucus Chairman, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Republican Study Committee leader Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN). This broad-based conference-wide support demonstrates there is no disagreement about the need for the Keep Nine amendment which simply states, ‘The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine Justices.’

“To date, not a single Democrat member of the House or Senate has cosponsored the amendment even though one of its original supporters was former Representative Colin Peterson (D-MN).

“This is important because Keep Nine is not a partisan issue. Recent polling by John McLaughlin shows that the Keep Nine amendment enjoys 62-18 percent support. Among voters with an opinion, overwhelming majorities of both Republicans and Democrats support the Keep Nine amendment.

“While many politicians are likely to publicly express skepticism about court packing that is not enough. Americans expect action rather than hollow words and there simply is no excuse not to cosponsor Senator Cruz ad Representative Johnson’s amendment.

“Americans for Limited Government strongly urges each Member of Congress, regardless of partisan affiliation, to reject this blatant politicization of the Supreme Court by taking a stand opposing court packing by cosponsoring the Keep Nine constitutional amendment.

“You cannot say you oppose court packing and not cosponsor of Keep Nine, a clear, straightforward amendment to the Constitution to prevent current and future attempts to politicize the Court by manipulating it’s make-up.”

For media availability contact Catherine Mortensen at 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org.

‘Co-sponsoring this legislation is the world’s biggest no-brainer’

Fairfax, Va. – Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC) along with Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) have introduced legislation to remove Major League Baseball’s (MLB) federal antitrust protection in response to their hyper-partisan decision to move the 2021 MLB All-Star game and draft out of Atlanta, Georgia.

Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement today urging every member of Congress to co-sponsor the legislation:

“Americans for Limited Government supports ending the absurd exemption that Major League Baseball has from our nation’s antitrust laws, and every Member of Congress should immediately co-sponsor this important reform.

“Co-sponsoring this legislation is the world’s biggest no-brainer as the anti-trust exemption stems from a 1922 Supreme Court case where it was granted because Major League Baseball was viewed as a game rather than a business.  Ninety-nine years later, MLB has morphed into a business supported by a game with corporate advertising, licensing deals, broadcast rights, and taxpayer funded stadiums being primary drivers of the thirty cartel members (franchises).

“The value of these teams varies widely based upon their location and broadcast rights and stadium deals but the lowest valued (Miami Marlins) is still worth a billion dollars and the most valuable (New York Yankees) is worth nearly five billion dollars.  This cartel engages in profit sharing where both national broadcast rights fees are distributed, visiting teams get a portion of the ticket sales generated by their appearance, and those teams which exceed a set total player salary amount pay into a fund which is distributed to the teams which pay the least in salaries.  Additionally, the League negotiates with a players union without any fear of outside competition for player services by a competitive league due to the anti-trust exemption.

“Politics aside, there is no reason for Major League Baseball to retain this special exemption that only they enjoy and every American should embrace re-establishing competition into the marketplace of what was once America’s pastime.”

Currently, Lee, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Antitrust Subcommittee has been joined by Cruz, Hawley, Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) as original co-sponsors.

On the House side, Rep. Duncan has secured 29 original co-sponsors: Jim Jordan (OH), Ralph Norman (SC), William Timmons (SC), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Austin Scott (GA), Jody Hice (GA), Buddy Carter (GA), Rick Allen (GA), Andrew Clyde (GA), Chip Roy (TX), Louie Gohmert (TX), Randy Weber (TX), Brian Babin (TX), Pete Sessions (TX), Lance Gooden (TX), Paul Gosar (AZ), Andy Biggs (AZ), Jerry Carl (AL), Barry Moore (AL), Dan Bishop (NC), Yvette Herrell (NM), Greg Steube (FL), Mary Miller (IL), Claudia Tenney (NY), Scott Perry (PA), Rick Crawford (AR), Lauren Boebert (CO), Burgess Owens (UT), and Bob Good (VA).

Americans for Limited Government is urging Americans to contact their Member of Congress and support legislation to remove MLB’s antitrust exemption.

To take action, click here.