Aug. 31, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging U.S. stock exchanges to de-register 31 Chinese companies the Department of Defense has labelled as owned or controlled by the Chinese military:

“The Pentagon has named another eleven Chinese companies as owned or controlled by the Chinese military. The announcement comes on the heels of a June Pentagon announcement naming an additional twenty companies as Chinese military controlled. The size and scope of the companies named by the Department of Defense is breathtaking ranging from Huawei to China Communications Construction Company which is heavily involved in the Chinese government’s Belt and Road initiative.

“The Pentagon has named another eleven Chinese companies as owned or controlled by the Chinese military. The announcement comes on the heels of a June Pentagon announcement naming an additional twenty companies as Chinese military controlled. The size and scope of the companies named by the Department of Defense is breathtaking ranging from Huawei to China Communications Construction Company which is heavily involved in the Chinese government’s Belt and Road initiative.

“DoD’s on-going effort to identify Chinese companies which are national security threats is a momentous step forward in protecting American investors and most importantly businesses from entangling themselves with these risky and dangerous firms.

“The latest list includes: China Communications Construction Company (CCCC); China academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT); China Spacesat; China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd; China Electronics Corporation (CEC); China National Chemical Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (CNCEC); China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina); Sinochem Group Co Ltd; China State Construction Group Co., Ltd.; China Three Gorges Corporation Limited; China Nuclear Engineering & Construction Corporation (CNECC).

“This latest list points to the danger of U.S. investments in Chinese assets.  It is a dead certain guarantee that these companies litter Emerging Market Index Funds and U.S. investors have been unwittingly capitalizing these companies who are part of China’s effort to gain military capacity to challenge our nation.

“Every U.S. stock exchange which has any of the 31 companies listed on them, need to de-register them immediately.  What’s more portfolio managers and index fund managers have a responsibility to rid these companies from their investments.  Americans don’t want to capitalize China’s military industrial complex and those mutual funds which include Chinese investments unwittingly make Americans investors in companies focused upon defeating the United States of America.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Aug. 25, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to the first night of the Republican National Convention:

“The first night of the Republican National Convention stood as a stark contrast to the dark vision of an evil America proposed by the Democrats just last week. The emphasis on the opportunity of America and the American dream is the exact kind of forward-thinking optimism that people want and need during this Covid crisis. The speakers, ranging from African-American Georgia State Representative Vernon Jones to Donald Trump, Jr., had a consistent message about America’s greatness and exceptionalism, a place where everyone has an opportunity to succeed and meet their dreams and aspirations. Before the Chinese virus struck down our economy, African-Americans, Hispanics, and women were working at levels never before seen in our history.

“Congressional candidate Kim Klacik’s story is particularly important as she seeks to represent one of the most economically devastated districts in America, overcoming decades of Democrat neglect. It is not compassionate to consign people living in the inner city to boarded up buildings, trash-heaped and rat-infested streets and regular drug gang violence where it is unsafe for children to go out and play.

“The GOP vision shines like a bright light of hope for those Americans the Democrats have long taken for granted with false promises of prosperity ahead.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Aug. 24, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in support of the development of Pebble Mine in Alaska following an Aug. 20 letter by the Army Corps of Engineers requesting mitigation by Pebble Mine Partnership:

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is strongly urged to take every reasonable step to ensure that Pebble Mine becomes a reality. This Administration has put a premium on ending our dependency on China for rare earth metals, and now in the wake of the announcement that rhenium, a key component to aircraft engines, was discovered at the Pebble Mine, this makes the development of Pebble Mine a national security must. Our nation can no longer stick our head in the ground to the reality that China’s worldwide rare earth dominance is a severe threat to national security.

“The sad truth is environmentalists have never found a mine they like, and it is largely due to their efforts that the U.S. is now 100 percent dependent on rare earth imports and 82 percent dependent for rhenium according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Trump administration has rightly made reversing this situation a high priority. With Pebble Mine’s progress in addressing the environmental mitigations being required by the Army Corps of Engineers, the mine meets and exceeds the legal standard for development and should be accelerated due to the national security concerns. This is both good national security and resource development policy, and meets the President’s priorities.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Aug. 20, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today blasted a new 0.5 percent “adverse impact” fee to be assessed on all mortgage refinances starting Sept. 1:

“At a time when it can already cost thousands of dollars in closing costs to refinance a mortgage, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two dinosaur quasi-government giants, have decided to implement an ‘adverse impact’ fee of 0.5 percent on all refinances.  President Trump and Federal Housing Finance Agency head Dr. Mark Calabria should be all over the leaders of these two institutions right now over this decision to try to dry up the refinancing market at a time when it is federal government policy to pump as much money into the economy as possible with record-low interest rates to overcome the devastating impacts of the Chinese-originated virus.

“Through this new 0.5 percent tax on home refinances, Fannie and Freddie effectively are saying that they should collect a significant fee on every refinance, taking that money directly out of the pockets of homeowners who are seeking to lower their mortgage costs or pulling some of the dead money out of their homes to use for whatever purposes they deem important.  Apparently, Fannie and Freddie think that it is better for the Treasury to keep pouring money out that America doesn’t have, rather than allowing people to fully take advantage of the equity in their homes.  While to the multi-millionaires who run Fannie and Freddie, a new bureaucratically imposed $500 tax for every $100,000 refinanced may not seem like much, it actually is the difference for many of whether a refinance makes sense at all. This will kill, at least a portion of the market, for mortgage refis.

“According to research firm Equilar and quoted by the Washington Post, ‘At Fannie Mae, five executives earned more than $2 million each last year, while four executives at Freddie Mac earned more than $3 million.’  It seems that a few of these multi-million dollar employees should be out of work due to this outrageous bureaucrat-imposed tax increase that will effectively make some people choose not to access their own money that is within the equity of their own homes.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Aug. 20, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement reacting to former President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention:

“Last night’s Democrat convention show featuring former President Barack Obama offered revealing insights into their own view of Joe Biden’s vulnerabilities. Obama’s contention that President Trump is not up to the job is clearly his acknowledgement that his former vice president was never competent to be President of the United States, let alone now as Biden’s impairment becomes more and more clear.

“The first clue of Obama’s concern about Biden was found in his last-minute endorsement of the Biden candidacy after all alternatives had been eliminated. Someone who is a political ‘brother’ doesn’t get left publicly begging for an endorsement when it matters most. The second clue was Michelle Obama’s earlier speech in which she spent next to zero time on Biden’s accomplishments as vice president, while going low in an attack on President Trump. You can always tell what the Democrats fear most by what they attack. Just a Hillary’s greatest vulnerability, her ties to Russia, resulted in the DNC producing the Steele dossier, the attacks on the uber successful and competent president Trump reveal the truth about the diminished Biden.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Aug. 13, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest unemployment insurance claims published by the Department of Labor:

“President Donald Trump predicted a fast recovery from the COVID-19, and now it is continuing at a rapid clip with fewer than 1 million new jobless claims for the first time since March, and another 624,000 came off continued claims the week of Aug. 1.

“As a reminder, in Feb. 2020, unemployment was at a 50-year low with fewer than 6 million Americans unemployed and it was the unleashing of the Chinese coronavirus that drove those numbers through the roof. Now, the President’s balanced approach to reopening America while continuing to battle the virus has led to an unprecedented recovery, with 9 million to 10 million jobs recovered in the past three months.

“No President has been as focused on private sector job creation in generations, and it stands in stark contrast to the Obama-Biden so-called shovel-ready jobs promise that paid off public employee unions but did little for Americans who were actually out of work.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Aug. 12, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praises a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirming Qualcomm’s intellectual property rights:

“Intellectual property includes the ability to negotiate licensing deals for others to utilize and benefit their customers while ensuring that the person or company which invented the technology receive a contractually agreed upon compensation for their genius. There is no requirement that an inventor must license their product for use by a competitor or cannot engage in exclusive licensing agreements.

“Believe it or not, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals three judge panel got this basic principle right in vacating a radical decision by a California Bay area federal circuit judge which effectively destroyed the licensing business model.

“This is not just a great victory for Qualcomm, the victim of the Obama Federal Trade Commission driven lawsuit, but for all inventors as it effectively affirms that inventors have the right to control their own inventions.

“Intellectual property is the foundation of America’s free enterprise system, and the attempts by the Federal Trade Commission in partnership with their star witness – Chinese Communist Party controlled – Huawei – to destroy and collectivize the product of individual minds was an affront to the core values of our great country.  When even the notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals gets this right, it is a day to celebrate that freedom still rings.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Aug. 11, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to former Vice President Joe Biden’s choice for running in Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.):

“Joe Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris to be his successor in the highest office of the land is a perfect example of someone failing up.  Harris has proven herself to be little more than a nasty partisan who only appeals to far-left coast socialists.  Her performance during the confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh revealed the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for Vice President to be little more than a wild eyed radical devoted to the politics of personal destruction, and just as Democrats overwhelmingly rejected her in their primary for president, Americans as a whole will reject her as the next in line to the presidency. In picking Harris, Joe Biden chose the Antifa wing of the Democratic Party, making the stark differences between the two visions for America crystal clear.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or at media@limitgov.org.

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Aug. 10, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting the Chinese Communist Party arrest of Jimmy Lai, and urging President Donald Trump to instruct Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia to bar private pension investments in non-transparent Chinese state-owned companies just like the U.S. has done for federal employees:

“The arrest by the Chinese Communist Party of Jimmy Lai, a man who has put his wealth and liberty at risk through his defense of freedom for Hong Kong, must be answered by more than words.  Two weeks ago, Americans for Limited Government and about 240 other freedom lovers across our great country submitted a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia calling for the divestment of U.S. private retirement accounts from Chinese investments. The letter signed by luminaries like former Vice Admiral John Poindexter, former Attorney General Ed Meese, former Senator Jim DeMint and former Congressman Frank Wolf made both the legal and moral case for divestment writing, ‘By allowing investments into these [Chinese] companies, the Labor Department is effectively making individual 401(k) owners or pensioners parties to and profiteers from the exploitation of the victims of such cruel abuse. This is wholly repugnant and unacceptable.’

“The United States government needs to create a proportionate response to the Chinese Communist Party’s crushing of a free press in Hong Kong, and it is no longer tolerable or acceptable to allow Wall Street appeasers to put our nation’s retirement accounts at risk keeping afloat what can only be termed an ‘evil’ government. Beijing understands dollars and depends upon U.S. capital investments to continue to prop up its house of cards economy.  President Trump should announce immediately that he is instructing the Labor Department to begin this divestment process to be completed by December 31, 2020.  It is the moral and legally correct way forward, and the blood and courage of Hong Kongers like Jimmy Lai demands it.”

Attachments:

“If risky Chinese investments are unsuitable for federal pensioners, they’re unsuitable for private pensioners, too.” By Rick Manning, July 10, 2020 at http://dailytorch.com/2020/07/if-risky-chinese-investments-are-unsuitable-for-federal-pensioners-theyre-unsuitable-for-private-pensioners-too/

“Why are American pensions and mutual funds investing $251 billion in Chinese equities and bonds built on child and slave labor?” By Robert Romano, Aug. 3, 2020 at http://dailytorch.com/2020/08/why-are-american-pensions-and-mutual-funds-investing-251-billion-in-chinese-equities-and-bonds-built-on-child-and-slave-labor/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or at media@limitgov.org.

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