Kathy Kraninger is the right person for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

June 26, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in favor of President Donald Trump’s nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger:

“President Trump has chosen current White House budget aide Kathy Kraninger to continue interim Director Mick Mulvaney’s work to reform the powerful Consumer Finance Protection Bureau which was overrun by regulatory and investigatory abuses during the Obama Administration.

“It is not surprising the Senator Elizabeth Warren opposes Trump’s appointment of a budget savvy, accomplished woman to run her brain-child, as the absolute powers of the CFPB head over much of the financial services industry are mind-spinning.

“Perhaps, Warren should have considered the possibility that the Obama Administration would not last forever, and that the faulty command and control policies of the past could be rescinded by a future director. Mulvaney knows the work that lies ahead for the next Director, and his enthusiastic support for and trust in Kathy Kraninger to carry on that work is enough to assure us that she is the right person to enact the many additional reforms necessary to protect the American consumer from a continuation of Obama-era abuses of power.”

Attachments:

“CFPB Whistleblower Exposes Agency’s Extortion Practices,” By Printus LeBlanc, Dec. 20, 2017 at https://tennesseestar.com/2017/12/20/commentary-cfpb-whistleblower-exposes-agencys-extortion-practices/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Supreme Court affirms executive branch power to secure borders

June 26, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Hawaii:

“The President of the United States regardless of party has an absolute constitutional duty to protect the American people, and federal law is clear that the President can shut down travel to and from any country. The Supreme Court today affirmed this common-sense principle and allowed President Trump’s executive order to take effect. It is extremely important to note that the Court found that the executive order was related to threat assessments and not religious considerations. The Supreme Court in affirming the executive branch’s responsibility to protect our nation’s borders and ports of entry ensures that future presidents will be able to take action quickly in the face of a national emergency.”

Attachments:

“Trump well within constitutional, legal authority on travel ban,” By Natalia Castro and Robert Romano, June 26, 2018 at http://dailytorch.com/2017/01/trump-well-within-constitutional-legal-authority-travel-ban/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1003 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Nine free market, limited government groups urge Senate to zero out sugar subsidies when the rest of the world does, too

June 26, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement atop a letter sent by nine free market and limited government groups urging an end to sugar subsidies worldwide:

“President Trump has made it clear that he wants everyone to lower their tariffs and subsidies to zero, but he will not allow for the U.S. to unilaterally act to the detriment of our nation.  Nine conservative groups banded together today to urge the Senate to include language incorporating this principle into the Farm Bill by adding the zero-for-zero sugar subsidy language proposed in the House by Rep. Ted Yoho, to the bill.

“The Yoho language would provide a Congressional end to sugar subsidies, but only upon certification by the President that other competing countries have done the same so our sugar farmers are competing in a free market.  This breakthrough language would change the farm subsidy debate by empowering the President with the tools necessary to negotiate an end to sugar subsidies worldwide.”

Attachments:

Letter to Senate urging the worldwide, reciprocal end to sugar subsidies, June 26, 2018 at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Letter6-26-18.pdf

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Sen. Flake flakes on judicial confirmations

Why is Jeff Flake preventing constitutionalists from getting on the federal bench over tariffs?

June 25, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Arizona members of Congress to condemn U.S. Senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) for threatening to block votes on President Donald Trump’s judicial nominations:

“Arizona Senator Jeff Flake is living up to his name. His bizarre rationale for holding up highly qualified judicial nominees over President Trump’s tariff policies demonstrate that Flake has become desperate for relevance in his waning days in office. It is particularly irritating that Flake is seeking to claim an Article I rationale behind his actions, when he against Americans for Limited Government’s strong urging, voted to grant the President fast track trade authority in 2015. Now he is complaining about President Trump using the very authorities he and the rest of Congress delegated. If Flake knows his history he should remember that Congress after Smoot-Hawley passed laws that give the President broad authority to ratchet tariffs up and down reciprocally to enable the executive to move quickly in getting better trade deals for the American people, with the goal of promoting freer and fairer trade.

“Apparently Flake doesn’t like the German response to Trump’s policy by offering to eliminate their tariffs on U.S. vehicles in exchange for ending U.S. tariffs on German vehicles. This would not have been possible without President Trump’s leadership.

“Politically, Sen. Flake’s poorly thought out maneuver is great news for conservative state senator Kelli Ward in her primary battle against Flake-like U.S. Rep. Martha McSally. Every member of Congress and state representative in Arizona should unequivocally condemn Flake’s actions as they effectively negate their Senate representation. If Flake continues down this path, it is likely that the people of Arizona will have their own referendum on his idiocy with a primary outcome on Aug. 28 that neither he nor the senior senator from the state will appreciate.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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After advocating IRS 501(c)(4) targeting, Henry Kerner should be fired by President Trump

June 21, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging President Donald Trump to fire Henry Kerner from the Office of Special Counsel after it was revealed from the notes of a 2013 meeting with IRS officials that as a committee staffer for Sen. John McCain, Kerner reportedly advocated, “audit so many [501(c)(4) organizations] that it becomes financially ruinous”:

“It is stunning that Sen. John McCain’s former committee staffer colluded with the IRS’ Lois Lerner and other Obama officials to target political opponents, saying, ‘audit so many [501(c)(4) organizations] that it becomes financially ruinous.’ But what is even more shocking is that he is now a trusted member of the Trump administration, serving as the Special Counsel for the Office of Special Counsel. President Donald Trump should investigate these charges thoroughly. Kerner should be questioned if he was advocating Sen. McCain’s position, or his own.

“Either way, if the notes of the 2013 meeting are accurate, Kerner needs to be fired immediately. It is bad enough that career civil servants at the IRS engaged in political targeting of tea party groups. If true, it would be beyond outrageous that John McCain’s staff did the same, and it would be a complete breach of faith for President Trump to allow Kerner’s continued employment.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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FCC looks to revise outdated children’s television programming rules

June 21, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising the Federal Communications Commission for looking into revising outdated children’s television programming rules:

“The Federal Communications Commission’s goals to modernize children’s television programming rules wisely recognizes that the existing rules reflect the analog era where a few broadcast channels captured the majority of viewing and viewing options were extremely limited.

“In today’s digital world, a vast majority of Americans have hundreds of viewing options, with children’s programming available on full-time children’s cable channels, on-demand from multichannel video producers, and streamed over the Internet.

“The existing rules no longer make sense in the new world of media options and disproportionately impact over the air, local broadcasters.  The willingness of the FCC to examine whether their KidVid regulations developed over the past twenty years meets the existing entertainment/education environment and how to upgrade them to reflect the modern broadcast realities.  Americans for Limited Government looks forward to participating in this discussion as hopefully the FCC will lighten the costly paperwork filing requirements and no longer necessary hard programming dictates that no longer serve the interests of children or their parents.

“FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly is doing the public a great service by taking on this task to ensure that the law on children’s programming is followed and the regulations reflect the modern programming realities.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Vote against the Goodlatte bill was a vote in favor of family separations

June 21, 2018, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting members of the House who voted no on HR 4760, that would have ended family separations during deportation proceedings:

“The Goodlatte bill was proposed in January and would have ended family separations in deportation proceedings. Democrats and the handful of Republicans who voted no today could have solved this problem back then by supporting H.R. 4760. Incredibly, these members continue to side with the illegal immigration lobby that would rather keep children in fake cages than to actually solve this legislative problem. The Goodlatte bill could have been passed months ago, but thanks to Democrats and these Republicans, a legislative fix remains out of reach.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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ALG supports H.R. 4760 to end chain migration, end the visa lottery, defund sanctuary cities, stop family separations and appropriate $30 billion to build the wall

June 21, 2018, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in support of H.R. 4760 by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.):

“Americans for Limited Government strongly urges the House to support the original Goodlatte bill. H.R> 4760 is a compromise that ends chain migration, ends the visa lottery, builds the southern border wall where needed with $30 billion, defunds sanctuary cities, ends family separations and implements a national E-Verify system. Although it includes legal status for DACA recipients, the parents of citizens being granted renewable temporary visas and a guest worker program for agricultural workers, it also would institute a merit-based approach to immigration by boosting the number of visas for skilled workers. Although Americans for Limited Government does not agree with every provision, the value of ending chain migration including those of siblings and the parents , the visa lottery and building the wall tips the scales in favor of the original Goodlatte bill.

“Under current law, almost 805,000 or 68 percent of all immigration is family-based preferences for citizens and lawful permanent residents, a policy that does not bring individuals to the country based on skills the economy needs. More than 19 percent of chain migration and 15 percent of all immigration disproportionately comes from one country, Mexico, which only comprises 2 percent of the world’s population. This is not only unfair, it is a bad policy that favors one country more than all others. Ending chain migration is absolutely essential. Citizenship needs to be earned, not simply granted to which poorer countries can migrate the most people here due to geographic proximity.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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President Trump is right to defer to Congress by enforcing the immigration laws they wrote

June 20, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for enforcing federal immigration laws as they were written, even if immigrant adults enter the country illegally with minors:

“It’s ironic that we have a President who is standing up for Congress’ Article I lawmaking power and we have members of Congress saying not to enforce the laws Congress wrote. President Trump is being attacked for following the law that Congress wrote and courts have applied. The brazen hypocrisy of Chuck Schumer and his band of Democrats is breathtaking.  There is an obvious, available legislative pathway to fixing the legal loopholes that created this issue, yet based upon press reports, Schumer and the Democrats would rather have victims than do their jobs and legislate a solution.  Executive action is no substitute for Congress exerting its Article I authority and fixing the law, as it can be overturned both by the federal court and by a future President.  If Schumer is serious, he will announce his full-throated support for the Cruz bill, and the issue will be over before the week is out.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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ALG launches FireTheSwamp.com, urges passage of the MERIT Act

June 18, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement announcing the launch of http://firetheswamp.com urging passage of the MERIT Act by U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.):

“There has been a tremendous amount of talk about draining the swamp. The sad fact is, you can’t drain the swamp without pulling the plug on civil servants who are neither civil nor do they serve the people. The MERIT Act is based upon language that has allowed the Veterans Affairs Secretary to fire non-performing and bad public employees on an expedited basis. Federal employees work for taxpayers, and the least taxpayers should be able to expect are those employees doing their jobs. Those who either refuse or are unable to do their jobs are the definition of government waste, and the heads of every department and agency should have the capacity to fire them through a fair but expedited process.

“Since the passage in 2017 of the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, firings for cause from the VA have increased by 26 percent, proving that the process works. The only way President Trump will be able to drain the swamp is if he can fire the swamp.”

Attachments:

“Job Security: Federal civil service employees have a 99.5 percent chance of never being fired,” By Natalia Castro, May 14, 2018 at http://dailytorch.com/2018/05/job-security-federal-civil-service-employees-have-a-99-5-percent-chance-of-never-being-fired/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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