April 16, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising a legal settlement between Qualcomm and Apple:

“Today’s announced settlement of a lawsuit pitting the Apple Corporation and San Diego, California-based Qualcomm over the intellectual property rights of the southern California chipmaker is a very positive affirmation that patents and licensing agreements still matter in 21^st century America.

“The contentious suit centered on allegations that Apple infringed on the patent rights of Qualcomm which invented and produces the chip/brain that allows a mobile device to communicate with other devices digitally.  The 3G and 4G technology developed by Qualcomm has been used in mobile devices around the world and the licensing fees derived from these inventions are funding the development of the future 5G chip.

“Ultimately, the very concept of property rights which underpins the free market system were reaffirmed in this agreement, and in that, every American should breathe a sigh of relief at this resolution.”

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 15, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the latest data from Custom and Border Patrol showing 103,492 apprehensions on the southern border in March:

“No rational person can still doubt that there is a crisis at the southern border with over 103,000 apprehensions in March alone, the highest in a decade. This is a crisis the President anticipated with requests for funding for the wall and meeting humanitarian needs at the border, a request that Congressional Democrats largely rejected and shut down the government for 35 days to protest. The problem is now so severe that the President should simply declare the human trafficking cartels who are profiteering off the illegal immigration surge to be terrorist organizations and treated accordingly. The costs to both the American taxpayer and to those who depend upon our nation’s generous social safety net is unacceptable, but what’s worse is it is now endangering our national security, and those in Mexico who are facilitating the trafficking need to be dealt with the full force of the law.”

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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Top secret surveillance is spying.

April 12, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting former FBI Director James Comey’s contention that “the FBI and the Department of Justice conduct court-ordered electronic surveillance… I have never thought of that as spying”:

“James Comey’s latest embarrassing declaration that top secret surveillance of American citizens’ phone calls, emails, texts and other communications in a counterintelligence probe is not spying ranks right up with Bill Clinton’s parsing of the meaning of the word is. Comey signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to spy against the Trump campaign. In Washington, D.C., lies are excused if couched in the right flowery verbage. Comey cannot possibly believe that engaging in electronic surveillance largely based on documentation from politically weaponized spies, which he says was ‘selacious and unverified,’ as well as using human intelligence resources to observe and attempt to infiltrate the Trump campaign in the midst of a counterintelligence investigation is not spying.

“Comey’s Hamlet-like musings reflect more on his attempt to rerwrite history and restore his tattered personal legacy. If this tragedy is ever honestly written, Comey has cemented his role as the fool rather than the hero he portrays himself as.”

Attachments:

“Of course spying occurred in 2016 against the Trump campaign by the Obama administration. What do you think a FISA warrant is for?” By Robert Romano, April 13, 2019 at http://dailytorch.com/2019/04/of-course-spying-occurred-in-2016-against-the-trump-campaign-by-the-obama-administration-what-do-you-think-a-fisa-warrant-is-for/

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 12, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the U.S. Senate to confirm the nomination of John Pallasch to head the Employment and Training Administration:

“A one-year anniversary passed yesterday, and while uneventful, it was emblematic of the obstruction by Senate Democrats of President Trump’s nominees.

“On April 11, 2018, John Pallasch was nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, and his nomination still languishes in the Senate one full year later.  Pallasch currently serves as the executive director of the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training, and is eminently qualified to lead the U.S. Labor Department division responsible overseeing the nation’s employment system with a budget that dwarfs the rest of the Department.

“The fact that this critical position remains unfilled more than two years into the President’s first term in office is truly absurd.  I will admit, that I worked with John at the Labor Department during the George W. Bush administration, and have kept up with him in the subsequent ten years.  He is a strong administrator without political baggage, who in normal times would be confirmed 95-2 with three Senators out of town.  At a time when the Trump administration is emphasizing re-skilling employees to meet the needs of the rapidly changing economy, the nation deserves to have a steady hand at the helm of the team responsible for carrying out this mission.  It is clear that Secretary Acosta is doing a fine job in this area, but there is a reason why Assistant Secretaries exist, and that is to make certain that the granular details of the policies get implemented in a complex inter-governmental dance.

“It is time for the Senate to move aggressively to confirm Mr. Pallasch.  He deserves to be able to assume the job he agreed to do for the nation over a year ago, and it is time for the petty partisanship which overrides everything in D.C. to be put aside to have this fine man re-enter federal government service to help meet the needs of our shifting workforce.”

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 11, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest unemployment claims numbers:

“Job growth in the Trump economy continues at an incredible pace with both the weekly unemployment insurance claims and what is considered the more reliable four week rolling average of the claims both reached levels not seen since 1969, when the workforce was approximately half the size compared to today.

“Unemployment insurance claims measure how many people are being displaced in the economy, and the 2019 Trump economy has fewer claims than 1969, the year that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the moon. The fact that America is going back to work is not a secret, but this record low of people facing the fear and uncertainty of being let go from their job is remarkable.”

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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If the political spying did not violate FISA, then we need FISA reform now.

April 10, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to Attorney General William Barr’s acknowledgement that “spying did occur” in 2016 against the Trump campaign:

“The Attorney General’s acknowledgement that spying occurred in 2016 against the Trump campaign is a significant step in the right direction to cleaning up the abuse of power that occurred in the Russia collusion hoax during the Obama administration. Spying on the opposition party in an election year, based on fabricated allegations of foreign espionage, is one of the most profound attacks on the Constitution and civil liberties in our history. FISA was set up to stop political weaponization of intelligence.

“While we are heartened that Attorney General Barr is acknowledging what has been clear for a long time, that spying did occur in 2016 against the Trump campaign and continued into the transition and then administration, with all due respect to the Attorney General, the question here is not whether there was unauthorized surveillance. The trouble here is that the surveillance was authorized despite the fact that it lacked credible and verified allegations. At the end of the day, there was no conspiracy or coordination with Russia by Trump, his campaign or any Americans. It was a lie.

“Moreover, Trump campaign, transition and administration officials were unmasked by former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, former UN Ambassador Samantha Powers and others. Individuals were prosecuted for unrelated process crimes that came about because of this unnecessary investigation.

“The protections set up by Congress in the late 1970s after the Church Committee’s findings of political spying have failed miserably to protect civil liberties today when confronted by a determined, politically weaponized intelligence community. If no rules were violated, then it is clear that the FISA law itself that must be reformed to prevent this from ever happening again.”

Attachments:

“We need a new Church Committee to expose who in the Obama administration was behind the Russia collusion hoax,” By Robert Romano, March 25, 2019 at http://dailytorch.com/2019/03/we-need-a-new-church-committee-to-expose-who-in-the-obama-administration-was-behind-the-russia-collusion-hoax/

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 10, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising the Trump administration for restoring American energy dominance:

“President Trump’s determination to end damaging regulations on energy production has unleashed American innovators to remake the world’s energy markets as the United States is now a net energy exporter.  Private companies and individuals freed up to focus on getting oil, natural gas and coal out of the ground has led to a renaissance that has only been dreamed of for the past three generations when the bonds of energy dependency shaped much of American policy and our national mindset.

“The freedom of American energy independence and, yes, even energy dominance in the foreseeable future will shape the 21^st century world economy if only our policy makers avoid the temptation of trying to turn back the clock to the days of scarcity  when Americans faced long gasoline lines and odd/even day purchase rationing at the pump.

“But American, indeed North American and South American energy dominance, is not just the avoidance of the pain caused by the lack of affordable energy, but instead is being able to bear the fruits of inexpensive abundance.  Electricity generation is essential to the modern economy, and being able to produce electricity inexpensively, reliably and resiliently is one of the foundational building blocks to the 21^st century re-industrialization of America, demonstrated by the more than 500,000 new manufacturing jobs created on our shores since President Trump took office.  This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of American economic growth, as the President’s trade, tax and regulatory policies continue to create the environment for a thriving, expanding economy.

“On the environment front, there is one international regulation which should be supported by every American, IMO 2020.  IMO 2020 changes the fuel composition allowed to be burned by cargo/container ships to a low sulfur mix away from extremely high sulfur bunker oil.  Container ships are equipped to make this conversion, and America has the refinery capacity to supply much of the shipping world’s fuel needs.  This conversion matters because just 16 container ships create more sulfur dioxide pollution (smog) around the world than all 80 million internal combustion cars in the world combined.  Energy dominance doesn’t mean environmental stupidity, and due to America’s capitalist driven modern oil refinery system, once again our great nation is in the lead in providing the means to care for the world’s air while keeping the engines of a strong economy roaring.

“Capitalism works.  It creates abundance through innovation.  And out of that abundance, American companies can profit while helping the world dramatically cut worldwide air pollution.  Not through impossible to meet government mandates, but through common sense problem solving and innovation.”

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 5, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest jobs numbers:

“Payroll employment increased by 196,000 as the unemployment rate held steady at 3.8 percent. These are historically great numbers and emphasize the continued strength of the Trump economy particularly in labor markets.

“There was a slight decrease in labor participation that appears to have been driven by Baby Boomers leaving the labor force in the unadjusted dataset, because the 16-to-64-year-old participation and employment continues to grow there robustly while the number of seniors participating in labor markets decreased by 150,000. That said, it is hard to square the unadjusted data with what we see overall in the seasonally adjusted data, which is why the Bureau should really begin compiling a seasonally adjusted 16-to-64-years-old dataset as a leading indicator. Every month that goes by, as the Baby Boomers retire en masse, it throws off meaningful apples to apples comparisons.”

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 3, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to Duke University settling a federal lawsuit for $112 million after falsifying research to obtain federal grants:

“The revelation that Duke University falsified research and was compelled to repay the federal government $112 million in costs and fines reemphasizes the need for the President to issue an executive order ensuring that all science used in the regulatory process be fully transparent and reproducible. Academic fraud cannot be tolerated. But even more important is ensuring that federal regulations are based on a sound footing.”

Attachments:

“Trump should end political junk science regulations by restoring scientific transparency to regulatory process,” By Rick Manning, Feb. 21, 2019 at http://dailytorch.com/2019/02/trump-should-end-political-junk-science-regulations-by-restoring-scientific-transparency-to-regulatory-process/

Letter from 21 conservative groups to President Trump urging scientific transparency in regulations, Feb. 19, 2019 at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Scientific-Transparency-Conservative-Letter.pdf

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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Perkins Coie law firm was the hub of Russia collusion hoax

April 2, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Attorney General William Barr to investigate the Perkins Coie law firm that hired the company that originated the Trump-Russia conspiracy allegations that were used by the Justice Department to facilitate its investigation:

“With the completion of the Mueller report, and its impending release, a number of questions are guaranteed to remain about how this investigation got started in the first place. The central role played by the Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee law firm Perkins Coie in funding both the Fusion GPS-Christopher Steele dossier and Crowdstrike to conduct the forensic investigation of the DNC computers after they were hacked must be examined. It seems reasonable that if President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen could be compelled to violate attorney-client privilege, that the law firm central to the entirety of this witch hunt should be forced to open all their books so the American people have the most complete account of what really happened.”

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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