July 23, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the latest budget deal to increase discretionary spending by $103 billion:

“Our federal government has a spending addiction that threatens our very existence as a nation. Currently, our national debt at more than $22 trillion is already 105 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, and it will continue outpacing economic growth for the coming decades. This level of debt is unprecedented in U.S. peacetime history and it threatens the economic stability and sovereignty of the United States. Unfortunately, Congress and the President have chosen once again to kick the can down the road on our nation’s spending problem for another two years, ensuring continuing widening deficits that exceed any rational projected nominal economic growth. President Trump’s second term must be focused like a laser beam on getting our nation’s fiscal house in order so that he leaves his successors not only a strong economy but the framework for fiscally sound government. That would truly be delivering on his promise to make America great again.”

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

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July 19, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting reports that AT&T is partnering with Verizon on its web portal and email services:

“The AT&T-Time Warner merger raised significant red flags for many Americans, including Americans for Limited Government, as it signaled a dangerous vertical integration of communications resources within one massive company.

“Incredibly, hot on the heels of this dubious merger, AT&T has announced that they are hiring Verizon, the nation’s second largest telecom company and largest wireless provider, to run both its web portal and email services. Apparently, no matter how large companies get or how much time passes from the break-up of Ma Bell, the AT&T mothership continues to try to reunite with one of its massive baby bells.

“Beyond the obvious fact that AT&T could and should have chosen any one of a number of vendors to provide this service rather than Verizon, which is purported to be its biggest competitor in this space.  This decision to turn over AT&T’s customer data to Verizon to manage raises significant questions about the future independence of the two giants, and AT&T has a responsibility to provide answers before the stench of monopoly and collusion overwhelms these two erstwhile ‘competitors.'”

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

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July 17, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising the U.S. Department of Justice for siding with Qualcomm in its intellectual property case against the Federal Trade Commission:

“Americans for Limited Government has been clear that the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against Qualcomm is both wrong and dangerous. The lawsuit, which is a legacy of the Obama administration, harms a private company’s business model by denying them lawfully negotiated licensing fees for their products and threatens national security. The federal court decision by Judge Judy Koh sided with Chinese IT giant Huawei even though Huawei has a direct financial interest in destroying their only competitor in the 5G chip space.

“The U.S. Department of Justice wisely and boldly has urged the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the ruling by Judge Koh citing national security concerns. This highly unusual but important intervention by the Justice Department against a federal agency was prompted by concerns voiced by both the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy about the disastrous impact of Koh’s ruling.

“As the Justice Department argues in its amicus brief, Judge Koh’s ruling is ‘undermining U.S. leadership in 5G technology and standard-setting, which is vital to military readiness and other critical national interests.’ To protect national security, the Ninth Circuit needs to stay and then overturn Koh’s erroneous and dangerous decision. This case is just one example where a single Obama appointed judge seeks to impose their worldview over national interests and it is up to the Ninth Circuit or if necessary the Supreme Court of the United States to reinstate sanity into our legal system.”

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

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July 12, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government, and former member of President Trump’s transition team for the Department of Labor reacts to announcement that Pat Pizzella has been named the Acting Secretary of Labor.

“Pat Pizzella will do a great job moving the President’s agenda forward in his new role as Acting Secretary of Labor.  Pat has a long, distinguished career in the Labor Department and elsewhere in government, and his expertise in maximizing the output from federal bureaucracies will serve the President well as he moves forward with his focus on reskilling employees through cutting-edge apprenticeship programs.  President Trump made the right choice in putting Pizzella’s steady, experienced hand at the helm of the Labor Department to achieve the administration’s goal of preparing our nation’s workforce for the economy of the future.”

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

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

“The Trump job growth economy keeps chugging along with 224,000 jobs created, 191,000 of those in the all-important private sector.  Most notably, the manufacturing sector added 18,000 new jobs last month after four months of little growth.

“Not only are more Americans working today than a year ago, but a higher percentage of people are working today than last year with the unemployment rate lower over the year for African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Whites demonstrating that the President’s policies have worked for all Americans. Wages continue to be on the rise with an average twelve month increase of 3.1 percent, meaning not only are more people working, but they are earning more for their efforts.

“On this day after our national celebration of our independence, it is clear why people were in the mood to celebrate – they are working and making more money in the process.  Not shockingly, cutting taxes and federal government regulations benefit people across all economic strata by unleashing the power of the free market economy.  This is the magic wand that President Trump has waved, and the June employment report confirms once again, that it is working.”

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

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June 28, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the Council of Economic Advisors report on deregulation:

“The tepid and what some would say was a non-existent economic recovery after the financial crisis during the Obama administration was largely due to the regulatory strangling of economic growth. President Trump promised to cut the red tape and unleash our nation’s economy and unlike many of his predecessors, he has kept that promise. A report from the Council of Economic Advisors estimates that the regulatory cuts made by the Trump administration will result in $3,100 savings per year per household savings and a net $220 billion a year savings to the economy.

“It cannot be underestimated how important it has been to break the administrative state notion that regulations are without cost to the American public. Currently, American wages are increasing by 3.1 percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and more Americans are employed today than ever before. The President’s deregulatory agenda has played a real role in creating an economic environment where almost 500,000 new manufacturing jobs could be profitably created. The regulatory changes have decreased the costs of prescription drugs due to the expansion of generic drug competition, and America is moving towards energy dominance and is rapidly becoming the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world.

“In order to assure that future regulations and even those that have been promulgated in the past are based upon sound science, it is incumbent upon this administration to require that the scientific research underlying all new regulations be both transparent and reproducible. While transparency and reproducibility mirror the scientific method that every school child is taught, it is shocking that regulations costing our economy trillions of dollars are not subject to these basic criteria.”

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

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June 27, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting the Supreme Court ruling blocking a citizenship question on the Census:

“In light of the Roberts decision to inject the Supreme Court into any changes to questions on Census forms, which are routine, it is incumbent upon the Department of Commerce to delay printing of those forms. In the meantime, let Roberts spends July vacation determining what a proper rationale for an additional question on citizenship is, which has been used in 12 out of 15 Censuses since 1870. Perhaps Roberts would consider this fact: Federal spending to the states is largely based on population, and federal law prohibits people who are not in the U.S. legally from obtaining welfare. We were also assured by President Obama that Obamacare would not apply to those here illegally. The federal government knows how many people are in the U.S. legally through the normal immigration naturalization process.

“Should the federal government know how many citizens are in a state, it is simple math to restrict funding in those areas that like welfare and health care Congress has determined are for citizens and legal residents only. This is just one compelling interest for having a citizenship question, so that the executive branch can enforce the laws that Congress has passed on eligibility for federal benefits. It is not John Roberts’ role to write Census questions, and his precedent equating each Census question to a regulatory change under the Administrative Procedures Act is disastrous across the federal government, as any changes to any form no matter how innocuous may now be subject to judicial review.

“If John Roberts wanted to be an administrative law judge, that’s the job he should have applied for, but injecting the Supreme Court as the judge of any changes made to any form in the federal government is an absurd abuse of power.”

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

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June 26, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting Reddit for quarantining The_Donald subreddit that has more than 750,000 followers:

“The social media platform Reddit has quarantined a pro-Trump group, which is one of the largest subreddits with over 750,000 followers, and the Federal Trade Commission needs to open an investigation into anticompetitive actions by social media platforms. Given the appearance that the activities of various social media platforms are colluding against Republicans, conservatives and Trump supporters for political purposes along with the threat of deplatforming, this significantly harms conservative groups’ ability to monetize their organizations and to communicate with their voluntary followers. These platforms set themselves up as neutral arbiters designed to allow organizations to access to their followings they invested resources to develop. The arbitrary denial of service is a violation of the rights and underlying contract when users chose to invest resources into developing followers on these platforms.”

Attachments:

“Big Tech’s bid for one-party rule could result in it getting regulated to death,” By Robert Romano, June 26, 2019 at http://dailytorch.com/2019/06/big-techs-bid-for-one-party-rule-could-result-in-it-getting-regulated-to-death/

“John Stuart Mill warned of the coming ‘social tyranny’ that is taking root on social media,” By Robert Romano, June 26, 2019 at http://dailytorch.com/2019/05/john-stuart-mill-warned-of-the-coming-social-tyranny-that-is-taking-root-on-social-media/

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

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June 26, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the federal government to address the threat of Big Tech media consolidation:

“Project Veritas’ Google video which shows that the Internet monopoly is engaged in a concerted effort to use their market dominance to influence the 2020 presidential election against President Trump is just one more example of the danger presented by media consolidation and big tech as a whole.  While it is uncertain whether Google could in fact sway an election simply by manipulating people’s opinions based upon search results and other machine learning algorithms, the fact that they are actively seeking to do so using AI-driven predictive learning is a breach of the public trust.

“The Wall Street Journal reports that there is momentum building for the U.S. government to subject Google to full scrutiny to determine if they are a monopoly which should be broken up using our nation’s anti-trust laws.  Given the Silicon Valley giant’s stated work to politically weaponize their purportedly neutral search algorithms to fight for social justice, the U.S. government cannot move too quickly to provide that scrutiny.

“Additionally, with the exception of the Sprint-T-Mobile merger which is strictly about increasing spectrum to create a viable third 5G competitor, all proposals that would allow greater consolidation of media under consideration by DOJ, FCC and FTC should be put on hold to ensure that the bigger, more powerful media empires that emerge are in the nation’s interest in this new era of information consolidation and manipulation.”

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

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