June 14, 2019, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President issued the following statement in opposition to H.R. 107 that lifts the existing Medicaid rebate cap for outpatient drugs:

“Americans for Limited Government joins Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste and the National Taxpayers Union in opposing H.R. 107. The government should not make a profit from compelling drug manufacturers to pay the government more than average cost to supply their medicine through Medicaid. This is a clear case where the profit the government would make would be offset by higher prices by non-Medicaid consumers of the drug who will have their costs increase.  Drugs are one of the few places where the pricing market is so distorted that taxes do directly get passed through to the consumer.”

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

###

June 12, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the latest inflation numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“It is time for the old mantra that ‘tariffs cause higher prices to the American consumer’ be put to bed.  May’s 1.8 percent year over year inflation rate should end the ‘tariffs are a tax on the American people’ for at least another month.  Why?  Because they are wrong.

“Pricing at the consumer level is dictated by multiple factors, but most importantly it is controlled by what consumers are willing to pay.  U.S. major retailers cannot just raise prices by five percent because their costs might have gone up, because they will lose a certain number of purchases at a higher price point.  Instead what retailers do is to seek out alternative suppliers (or in the case of tariffs – countries) where products can be produced at a cost that the consumer is willing to pay.  This is basic business practice, and not only do businesses follow it, but virtually every household does as well.  While tariffs do have the effect of changing business calculations, when they are applied in a targeted way, the market shifts away from that tariff induced higher priced provider in favor of goods manufactured in other countries.

“China understands this, which is why in response to tariffs, they have devalued the Yuan to shift the tariff costs to their populace through inflation and manipulate pricing to offset the tariffs.  The bottom line is that China knows that they cannot afford for Amazon, Walmart or other U.S. retailers to turn away from their manufacturers and wholesalers and purchase products elsewhere around the world, because it is harder to get a customer back than to retain one.

“When you hear that old saw that tariffs are passed along to the consumer, just smile and know that you know more about economics than the talking head who is parroting a line without thinking.”

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

###

 

June 12, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issue the following statement in opposition to H.R. 2740 minibus appropriations:

“The President is right to threaten to veto the minibus spending bill that dramatically exceeds the spending request presented to the House. Not only does the House bill spend too much money, but it misspends that money as well. One example is the failure of the House to properly fund basic border security and humanitarian needs, while prohibiting the Defense Department from allocating necessary funds to build the wall. It also shortchanges workers by limiting access to apprenticeship programs to the benefit of organized labor, which not providing adequate funding to the Office of Labor Management Standards that protects union rank and file from corruption by union leadership. And it fully funds the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an organization whose own documents show would raise more money if not for federal funding. Congress should reject H.R. 2740.”

Attachments:

Make the Department of Labor Work Again: Congress Must Increase Funding for OLMS and Allow Recess Appointments, By Richard McCarty, Nov. 8, 2018 at http://algresearch.org/2018/11/make-department-labor-work-congress-must-increase-funding-olms-allow-recess-appointments/

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

###

June 11, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting former Vice President Joe Biden’s flip-flop on China trade policy:

“Former Vice President Joe Biden has evolved in the past six weeks from ‘Come on, man.  They’re (China) not competition for us,’ to ‘We are in a competition with China. We need to get tough with China. They are a serious challenge to us, and in some areas a real threat.’

“Where the heck has the former Vice President been for the past fifteen years while trade policy toward China, including under Obama and Biden, was hollowing the U.S. out? Since China entered the WTO in 2001 U.S. manufacturing global market share has dropped from 13 percent to 7.5 percent in 2017, according to World Bank data while China rose from 5 percent to  about 16.5 percent.

“As Vice President, Joe Biden was supposed to be the foreign policy expert on the Obama ticket, yet it is telling that former George W. Bush and Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in his memoir, ‘I think he [Biden] has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.’

“America faces an existential threat to our economic health posed by a Chinese government which wants continued access to our markets but does not want to respect our basic principles of intellectual property rights.  It is nice that lunch bucket Joe has been listening to President Trump and has changed his mind about China.  However, Joe Biden cannot escape the fact that he served as Vice President and before that as both Chairman and ranking member on the Senate Foreign Services Committee during China’s rise, never apparently noticing that China’s unfair trade practices were in fact eating the lunch of America’s workers in the heartland.

“In admitting that China is a serious challenge and in some areas a real threat, Biden is admitting that he failed as a leader and steward of our nation.  It is great that he now sees his error, but it would be foolish to let someone who has consistently gotten it wrong for his whole career anywhere near the levers of power ever again.”

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

###

June 11, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to a group of state Attorneys General suing to stop the Sprint-T-Mobile merger:

“It is disappointing but not surprising that a group of state Attorneys General are desperately trying to derail the proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile.

“It is well documented that this merger will increase competition in the coming 5G markets, significantly expand high speed Internet access in a vast majority of rural America, provide a third national carrier to compete with AT&T and Verizon as well as create good paying American jobs. This merger will deliver important benefits to the constituents of each and every attorney general involved in the legal action. That is why the merger has the support of 18 of 19 state public utilities commissions, including New York, as well as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

“I hope regulators see for what it truly is, which is a delay tactic. If America is going to win the critical global race to 5G, then we cannot allow politicians who are out of step with the needs of their constituents to dictate national telecom policy.”

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

###

June 11, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement celebrating one year since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ended net neutrality:

“One year ago today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wisely ended the Internet regulatory nightmare that was to be net neutrality. Chairman Pai’s action was met by apocryphal cries of doom about the future of the Internet. Well, one year later, the domestic Internet is doing fine with advancements moving ahead which will deliver dramatically faster Internet to more Americans within the next five years.  With 5G and Internet speeds about to become 100 times faster than they already are, technology was always going catch up and rapidly overtake the stated rationale for the Obama era net neutrality regulations. Now that the limits of 3G and 4G infrastructure have been surpassed, the fear of throttling Internet speeds has become a footnote in history.

“Regulating the pipelines that the bits and bytes which make up the Internet might make sense to the 70+ year old philosophical and political leaders of the Democratic Party, but Pai’s vision of creating more and diverse types of pipelines to handle data travelling at ever increasing speeds is what leads us to the Internet of the future. We never needed net neutrality, which was nothing more than an obstacle to the 5G transformation of our digital economy.

“Americans for Limited Government thanks Chairman Ajit Pai and his fellow Commissioners on the FCC for their vision in ending net neutrality and allowing the flourishing of the Internet superhighway.”

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

###

June 10, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting allegations by Restore Public Trust against Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao:

“It is clear that the professional left has its sights on attacking Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in what is a coordinated campaign. Secretary Chao is being targeted for two reasons: she is an extremely effective conservative Cabinet member who is effectively pushing the Trump agenda and as a proxy attack on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Secretary Chao has been her father’s daughter for her entire life.  For those on the left to suddenly discover after decades of dedicated service to our nation that her father runs a shipping business is disingenuous at best.  Secretary Chao has served with distinction not only as the Transportation Secretary, but before that as Labor Secretary, Deputy Secretary of Transportation and as Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission.  She is perhaps the most qualified leader of the Transportation Department in history, and is scrupulous in following the rules.

“Attacks on her for maintaining a relationship with her father who is part of the regulated community are both unfair and unfounded. I am proud to have worked for Secretary Chao in the George W. Bush administration, and can attest that she is the exact kind of uber-competent Cabinet Secretary that America can be proud.”

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

###

June 7, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising President Donald Trump for effectively using tariffs and trade policy to get a deal with Mexico to curb illegal immigration:

“President Trump’s threat to put escalating tariffs on Mexico if it would not act to curb hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants passing through their country has worked. Retaining the right to enact them should Mexico fail to follow through on its agreement, President Trump has demonstrated leadership where others would have shrunk from the responsibility. Without the tariff there would be no deal. Trump was willing to take a bold stand and stood strong to resolve a dispute with our neighbor to the south. That is how to put America first.”

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

###

June 7, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the latest jobs numbers:

“A 3.6 percent unemployment rate is incredible, so it would be misleading to characterize the May labor employment report negatively.  Wages continue to rise with 3.1 percent year over year gains continuing in May, meaning Americans have more money in their pockets even when measured against inflation.  This is great news.

“It is concerning that for the past four months employment growth in the manufacturing field has stalled, and it is incumbent upon Congress that they pass the USMCA trade agreement which will give a shot in the arm to the manufacturing surge from the first two years of the Trump presidency.

“While some may nitpick about various aspects of today’s reports, the fact remains that America is working. Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Whites are all working.  People are finding new jobs when they leave prior employers as evidenced by the time unemployed measurement in the household survey, and once again those who are working are making more money.

“One interesting question will be answered by the mid-month state by state employment report.  It is quite possible that job growth is being impinged by state lawmakers passing tax increases in states like Oregon trying to wring more dollars for the government out of a great economy, and in doing so creating localized job creation poison pills.  We will know more later this month when that specific report comes out.

“Having said all this, 3.6 percent unemployment rate with rising wages is great news for America’s economic future.”

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

###