April 30, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement announcing a WhiteHouse.gov petition urging President Donald Trump to take immediate actions to hold China accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“President Trump needs to immediately begin at least a three-pronged approach to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for allowing a deadly virus to infect the entire world resulting almost a quarter million deaths to date, “ Manning said.

“It is clear that the Chinese Communist Party engaged in a series of actions which result in this disease to engulf the world, taking down rival economies, while China attempts to take advantage of the crisis they created. This is why we have launched a WhiteHouse.gov petition letting President Trump know that the American people will have his back when he takes action.”

The petition urges the President to take three immediate actions on three critical areas: eliminate America’s dependence on China for manufacturing important pharmaceutical and medical products; restrict China’s influence on our nation’s universities, and create an investigative team to assess the Chinese Communist Party’s role in covering up the virus and allowing it to become a pandemic.

A group of conservative leaders signed a longer letter that was sent to the President outlining the challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party and expressing strong support for actions that he might take in the future to meet them.

Manning asserted, “The United States welcomed China into an economic partnership in 2001 when China was given Permanent Normalized Trade Relations by the U.S.. Time after time, China has used that special relationship to abuse our national interest and their virus-related actions require immediate, strategic disengagement from the toxic Beijing regime.”

The WhiteHouse.gov petition is posted on the White House website.

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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April 30, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the latest unemployment insurance initial claims:

“The unemployment claims surge is beginning to diminish and with multiple states partially re-opening their economies, it is likely that many of the 30 million who filed unemployment claims over the past six weeks will be brought back to work.  Congress needs to fix the changes made in the unemployment law which pays about half of those who have lost their jobs more money to sit on the sidelines than to go back to work.  The objective of the unemployment system is to provide a bridge for those who lose their jobs, in any next stimulus package must end the work disincentive payments. Re-Opening America Now means getting Americans back to work, and government policies which make it more profitable to sit on the sidelines than to earn a living are nothing more than deliberate attempts to keep America broken and dependent upon government.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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April 27, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting Twitter for temporarily suspending the account of Aytu BioScience:

“Twitter’s decision to take down a legitimate biotech company’s discussion about ultraviolet light therapy as a possible treatment for the China-originated virus is repulsive at its core. The simple idea that internet platforms should be the arbiters of information that is clearly being considered at the top level of the government brings into question whether platforms like Twitter should be declared liable under the Communications Decency Act, that has offered liability protections in the past. While Twitter eventually reinstated the account of this scientific research company, the very fact that Twitter’s non-scientists interjected their political opinion based on their dislike of all things Trump makes them no better or worse than the Huffington Post and they should be legally treated the same way.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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April 23, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest jobless claims report:

“America cannot get back to work quickly enough as another 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment this past week, bringing the five week total to more than 26 million Americans thrown out of work as much of the private sector was shuttered to achieve social distancing.  When combined with the 5.8 million unemployed prior to the shutdown, it is reasonable to assume that there are now more than 30 million out of work Americans, bringing the likely unemployment rate from 16.5 percent to 19 percent.  This triples the jobs lost during the last recession and is approaching Great Depression levels of unemployment.

“The real economic danger is that many of the small businesses forced to lay off their workers will remain shuttered once the economy is re-opened leaving vast numbers of those recently unemployed without job options moving ahead. This is why Americans for Limited Government has created the Keep America Working project with the new take action website:  www.ReopenAmericaNow.org

“For those with health concerns, it is important to remember that the poverty being created by this government-created recession is deadly.  The United Nations is now predicting that hundreds of thousands of children around the world will die as a direct result of the COVID-19 cure.  Others predict that suicides, drug addiction and overdoses along with deaths from other diseases will skyrocket as a result of the devastation caused by the Chinese virus cure. Getting back to work now in a smart way is the only way to balance the health and economic disaster engulfing the nation with public health concerns related to COVID, so we can get back on the path to prosperity. 30 million unemployed Americans demand an opportunity to get back to work, it is time to Reopen America Now.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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April 21, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging states to reopen their economies as soon as possible:

“In nine days, many governors across the nation are making plans on how to reopen all or part of their economies. Predictably, some worry that moving away from strict social distancing policies will have negative health consequences. What these people miss is that these distancing policies bring forth known problems associated with extreme poverty, including increased suicides, depression and substance abuse. On the substance abuse front alone, we know that 70,000 a year were losing their lives to opioid overdoses alone, and that that number has been significantly cut over the past couple of years.

“We also know that there were 40,000 more suicides than expected during the Great Recession, and that the UN just released a report stating that hundreds of thousands of children will die due to the increased poverty created in the economic shutdown. Let’s be clear, this is not an easy situation, but when 5.5 million Americans are filing for unemployment claims on average the past four weeks, with no end in sight, the personal and national devastation wrought by the social distancing cure is not sustainable and the President and our nation’s governors must act to balance. The President took a great step forward in providing guidance on reopening America state by state, and it is expected he will continue to provide the best ideas available on ways private businesses can meet the needs of their employees and customers in these unique times.

“One relatively undiscussed result of the private sector shutdown is that local, state and federal governments will all see dramatic revenue losses from staying shut down too long at a time when their expenditures are increased. Recognizing this early, if states and local governments are unwilling to lay off non-essential government employees before the situation becomes critical, then aggressively reopening is the only alternative.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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April 20, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the crash of global oil markets:

“While Speaker Pelosi enjoys her $13/pint ice cream, the world’s oil markets have completely crashed due to the destruction of the global economy of the China-originated virus. While it is debatable whether Pelosi is playing the role of Marie Antoinette or Nero, who fiddled while Rome burnt, it is inexcusable of her to engage in her dereliction of duty by not having the House of Representatives immediately convene to provide necessary relief for small businesses to allow them to survive this public health devastation.

“The current oil price drop puts hundreds of thousands of American energy jobs at risk. While this might seem to be a Green New Deal dream, it actually is an economic catastrophe, which can only be alleviated when governors restart their respective economies. When commuters hit the roads again, they can expect gas prices at levels not seen since before the OPEC oil embargo of 1973. Counterintuitively, this is also bad for our nation’s airlines who purchase fuel months in advance and were obligated to pay dramatically more per barrel months ago. Airlines consume a significant amount of America’s oil usage, and America restoring previously robust travel schedules will soak up some of the oversupply, but the main answer to restoring energy markets will be when Americans hit the road and get back to work, enjoying dramatically lower commuter costs.

“At the very least, Speaker Pelosi’s private jet commuting from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. can show the way for America getting back to work, even though the work she typically does is counterproductive. Maybe this time she can actually help out by passing a clean funding bill to save what remains of our nation’s small business economic backbone.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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April 20, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the expansion of unemployment benefits by Congress:

“The federal government will provide states billions of tax dollars to cover the dramatic increase in unemployment insurance costs.  With an unprecedented 22 million people added to the unemployment rolls in the past four weeks, states are currently overrun, but it is important that future federal unemployment spending be linked to those unemployment offices’ success in getting people back to work.  Too often, state unemployment offices serve merely as intermediary check dispensers to those who are unemployed, but in this new environment, with their knowledge of what jobs employees were laid off from, it is important that those states aggressively encourage workers to return to their jobs when they become available.

“The United States Labor Department has some very smart people in charge of the national unemployment system, and they know that in this crisis, it is critical to get people to return to work as soon as the economy re-opens.  And they understand better than anyone that the federal government needs to incentivize state unemployment offices to encourage people to leave the system and return to work.  Rather than rewarding those states with policies which encourage dependency and discourage re-employment with additional funding, federal dollars should be focused upon assisting those programs and states which are most effectively lowering the unemployment rate. This is not accomplished by throwing people off the rolls, but instead by putting those agencies energies into restoring the now unemployed into the workforce. Our state workforce agencies know what jobs 22 million newly unemployed Americans lost, and truly serving their constituents means highlighting similar opportunities in their geographic area which open up as the economy restarts.

“America needs to get back to work, and by incentivizing state workforce agencies to succeed in getting people back to work, the U.S. Labor Department will be meeting it’s highest function.  And if necessary, any new funding appropriated by Congress should incorporate incentive programs for states based upon their re-employment record.  By doing this, America can rapidly rebound from this government induced depression-level unemployment crisis.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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April 16, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement reacting to the latest initial unemployment claims:

“In the past four weeks, 22 million Americans have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment insurance through their state governments.  When added to the 5.8 million unemployed prior to the health emergency decision to shutter our nation’s economy, it is reasonable to assume that at least 25 million Americans are unemployed, with millions more suffering from pay cuts and missing paychecks due to the self-inflicted business conditions.

“To put 25 million unemployed into perspective, in March 2020, there were 163 million people in the workforce, making the current unemployment rate 15%.  In February of 2020, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent with 159 million Americans employed, the highest number in history.  Now it is reasonable to assume that number may be as low as 130 million, the lowest total since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008.  Twelve years of job gains have likely been thrown away in the well intentioned and successful effort to flatten the virus’ curve.

“However, those who claim that the on-going destruction of the economy and the businesses of those who provide and create jobs in America should continue unabated are dead wrong.  Those states which determine that they are going to move away from the draconian shutdown responses will lead the way in our economic restoration and those which continue to be driven by fear will one-day come out of their basements and discover that Main Street is a ghost town and the jobs they hoped to return to are gone for a decade.

“While this sounds melodramatic, it is not.  Small businesses across America report that they are at the breaking point, with many in areas virtually untouched by the COVID-19 virus. Saving small business is saving the free enterprise system, and saving the free enterprise system is saving our nation from the tyranny of socialism.

“Thank goodness for President Donald Trump, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and reportedly Governors in 20 other states who are working toward re-opening their economies this week.  It is time for a much more targeted, intelligent response to the China-originated COVID-19 virus, one which minimizes the loss of life and accelerates economic restoration.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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