May 7, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s consideration of increasing tariffs to 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods:

“China’s recalcitrance in meeting basic intellectual property protections along with their ongoing abuse of currency manipulation has always made trade talks with Beijing a major challenge. The President is 100 percent correct to keep his word in hiking tariffs on Chinese goods after providing a time extension that was more than ample. While short-term these increased tariffs may create difficulties on both sides of the Pacific, America cannot allow the status quo trade relationship with China to remain intact.

“It is now more important than ever before that Speaker Pelosi pass the USMCA to set the stage for other agreements around the world and ensure a stable trading environment that ends the depletion of U.S. wealth that has been accepted since the postwar era.

“Finally, it is no coincidence that North Korea acted in their normal China proxy state role conducted a missile test as a Chinese warning shot for the Trump administration. It is time for China to stop seeking to dominate the world and instead to join the civilized world that has bought its products and elevated its population to a standard of wealth that could not have been imagined 20 years ago.”

To view online:

Attachments:

“49-year low in unemployment resets recession clock, gives Trump room to negotiate on tariffs with China,” By Robert Romano, May 7, 2019 at http://dailytorch.com/2019/05/49-year-low-in-unemployment-resets-recession-clock-gives-trump-room-to-negotiate-on-tariffs-with-china/

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

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May 7, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to a letter from former Justice Department officials wishing they could charge President Donald Trump with obstruction:

“Big shock, there are a lot of anti-Trump career bureaucrats who used to work at the Justice Department.  That’s the only conclusion which can be derived from a letter released by the left-wing group Project Democracy signed by fewer than 400 former DOJ employees saying that they thought the President would have been charged with obstruction of justice if he were a private citizen.

“Anyone who has been paying attention even a little bit, knows that the federal bureaucracy heavily leans Democratic, and the fact that a career federal employee worked under administrations of both political parties is irrelevant to their personal partisan leanings.

“The political website, TheHill.com reported before the 2016 election that, ‘Employees of the Department of Justice, which investigated Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of State, gave Clinton 97 percent of their donations.  Trump received $8,756 from DOJ employees compared with $286,797 for Clinton.’

“Here is the basic fact – there was no collusion by the Trump campaign with the Russians in spite of the efforts of U.S. intelligence officials and proxies from other nations to entrap them.  This simple fact negates all of the arguments in favor of obstruction of justice because individuals are allowed to vigorously defend themselves against false charges, in spite of the desires of federal prosecutors who are bent upon convictions at all costs.

“However, it would be naïve to expect that this logic would even occur to the letter’s originator, Protect Democracy, which is little more than a landing place for displaced Obama and Clinton officials with a small smattering of bitter never-Trump Republicans included.”

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

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May 3, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest jobs numbers:

“The Trump economy continued to roar ahead with 263,000 jobs created in April of 2019, 236,000 in the private sector.  The unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percent to an almost shocking 50 year low at 3.6 percent. When coupled with the just announced Q1 Gross Domestic Product estimate of 3.2 percent inflation-adjusted, annualized growth, the economy appears to have smooth sailing for the short-term future.

“But because our job is to also point out foreseeable headwinds, there are a number of yellow flags that popped up in the just released Labor Department report.

“First, at least a portion of the drop in the unemployment rate was directly related to a significant decline in the number of Americans in the workforce, and for the third month in a row, job growth in the very important manufacturing sector has been tepid to non-existent with only 12,000 manufacturing jobs created since February of 2019.

“These lag signs argue against Congress and the President becoming complacent in their handling of fiscal issues impacting our nation’s economic growth and indeed the continuation of the currently robust workforce.

“An example of an action which Congress should begin tackling and passing now is the U.S., Mexico, Canada trade deal that would replace NAFTA.  In a very modest estimate of the economic value of the USMCA, an International Trade Commission report found that the deal would add $68.2 billion to the U.S. economy and create 176,000 new jobs with manufacturing experiencing the ‘largest percentage gains in output, export, wages and employment…’

“Additionally, the rumblings that Congress is considering increasing gasoline taxes to pay for additional infrastructure spending would negate some of the wage gains that are finally being realized across the workforce. These wage gains along with the tax cuts the vast majority of people received have spurred the increases in consumer spending which many economists claim drove the GDP increase in the past quarter.

“President Trump’s agenda is working because it has unleashed the pent-up U.S. economy through a combination of tax and regulation cuts and better trade deals. Now Congress needs to work with President Trump to further support the U.S. economy.”

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

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May 1, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement commenting on Attorney General William Barr’s testimony that “as a matter of law, the Department’s position would be that the President can direct the termination or replacement of a special counsel” and “If the President is being falsely accused, which the evidence now suggests that the accusations against him were false, and he knew they were false, and he felt the investigation was unfair, propelled by his political opponents and was hampering his ability to govern, that is not a corrupt motive for replacing an independent counsel” on the question of President Donald Trump’s consideration of removing Special Counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation:

“Anybody who has any questions about whether the President obstructed justice need only refer to Attorney General Barr’s statement that as a matter of law the President has the power to terminate or replace a special counsel, and that if that special counsel’s investigation is predicated upon a false allegation, in this case that the President was a Russian agent when that was in fact false and he knew it to be false, and that the investigation was hampering his ability to govern, that replacing him for that reason is not a corrupt motive essential to proving an obstruction charge. And if they don’t understand it, get a dictionary.”

Attachments:

“Without collusion, there is no obstruction as Mueller scrambles to make the case against President Trump,” By Robert Romano, July 31, 2018 at http://dailytorch.com/2018/07/without-collusion-there-is-no-obstruction-as-mueller-scrambles-to-make-the-case-against-president-trump/

To view online: https://getliberty.org/2019/05/attorney-general-barr-destroys-obstruction-question-on-potential-special-counsel-removal/

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

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May 1, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to House Finance Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters’ complaint that, “In 2018, HUD Secretary Ben Carson halted implementation of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule…”:

“Waters’ complaint that AFFH is no longer being implemented is testimony to the value of fighting tough issues few are focusing on.  In 2015, Rep. Paul Gosar acted on the attempt by the Obama administration to take functional control over most of the local zoning decisions across America through a regulation known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.

“Working closely together, Rep. Gosar and Americans for Limited Government were successful in getting the House to pass language prohibiting the implementation of the regulation federalizing local zoning decisions but were blocked in the Senate even with Senator Mike Lee working overtime to try to convince his colleagues.

“After a couple of years pushing the prohibition through the House, in 2016 Senator Susan Collins of Maine proposed an alternative, less aggressive prohibition which passed through the Senate 87 to 9 as part of the Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, was affirmed by the House and signed by President Obama as part of a bigger package.

“The truth is that HUD would be trapped enforcing the regulatory destruction of local control if not for the efforts of Rep. Gosar and Senators Lee and Collins.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby also deserve credit for steering this important policy rider through the Appropriations process and into law, and carrying it over into the Trump administration and in current law.

“Chairwoman Waters’ angst that D.C. bureaucrats using census maps are not determining which kind of housing can go into what parcels of land in every city that participates in federal redevelopment grant programs should be celebrated by anyone who believes in the Constitutional separation of powers and federalism.

“This on-going victory is a reminder that fighting the hidden battles to limit the size and scope of government matters, and as President of Americans for Limited Government, stopping this massive federal government overreach is an achievement which we are immensely proud.”

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

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April 29, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging AT&T to deal with websites seeking ad dollars on an even-handed footing regardless of political viewpoints after discrimination against conservative websites was revealed by the National Center of Public Policy Research:

“Recently it was revealed that AT&T has engaged in discriminatory activity against conservative websites seeking advertising revenues. AT&T should take two steps to make certain that the enormous power of the AT&T-Time Warner merger is not abused in the future. First, everyone involved in the discriminatory activity should be fired. Second, AT&T should enter into an agreement with the Justice Department that prevents political discrimination on their platforms in the future as a sign of good faith.

“Americans for Limited Government agrees with the Justice Department’s original position that the AT&T Time Warner merger should not have been allowed to occur, and continues to be extremely concerned about the vertical consolidation of media. Now it is up to AT&T to make certain that they institute policies that mitigate the legitimate concerns revolving around this massive abuse of power.”

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

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April 26, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising U.S. economic growth that came in at 3 percent inflation-adjusted in the first quarter of 2016:

“With 3.2 percent growth in the first quarter, President Donald Trump’s policies of lower taxes, less regulation and better trade deals is destroying the expectations of economists stuck in the Obama-Biden new normal stagnant growth mindset. Wages are up, inflation is stable and jobs are plentiful. The only surprise is some economists refuse to see the reality right in front of them.”

Attachments:

“Government shutdowns don’t cause recessions. The Trump economy grew at 3.2 percent in the first quarter.” By Robert Romano, April 26, 2019 at http://dailytorch.com/2019/04/government-shutdowns-dont-cause-recessions-the-trump-economy-grew-at-3-2-percent-in-the-first-quarter/

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

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April 19, 2019, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson for a proposed regulation that will ensure that federal housing assistance goes to Americans first before illegal immigrants:

“Compassion is a core American value. HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s refocusing eligibility requirements for housing assistance to align with legal requirements that mandate only citizens and legal residents qualify for such assistance, is 100 percent in alignment with this value. In Miami-Dade County, legal housing assistance qualifiers have waited in line for over 10 years for help, and it is unconscionable that their roofs are being taken by illegal aliens. Carson’s prudent action to remediate this injustice is just one more example of how the Trump administration is seeking to restructure our government’s priorities to benefit those who follow the law over those who simply demand services regardless of eligibility. The only compassionate response is to support Secretary Carson’s effort to make certain that those who are eligible under the law are the beneficiaries of the social safety net that America provides.”

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

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April 17, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for opposing any proposed U.S.-United Kingdom trade agreement:

“Speaker Pelosi’s stated refusal to consider a U.S.-United Kingdom stand-alone trade deal would put $141 billion of exports to the United Kingdom in jeopardy, including $66 billion of goods exports of machinery, aircraft and agricultural products that we currently ship there. Those goods could be stranded at our ports if a trade deal is not negotiated and approved by Congress.

“It is clear that Pelosi is following in former President Obama’s tradition when he removed Winston Churchill’s bust from the Oval Office. Unfortunately, Pelosi’s knee-jerk anti-British attitude could have far more serious ramifications for American workers and our nation as a whole. The U.S. does not hold sway over what the terms of Brexit are. President Trump needs to submit a separate deal to Congress when the time comes and call Pelosi’s bluff and see if she can hold her Democratic majority together. It’s time to break San Francisco’s stranglehold on the rest of America.”

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

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