ALG: Bernanke Lied About Bailing Out Europe, Congressional Action Called For

Fed

"Bernanke lied when he said the Fed would not bail out Europe.  Yesterday, the Federal Reserve agreed to send billions of dollars to European foreign central banks, including the European Central Bank.  Clearly there were contingency plans in place that Bernanke did not disclose to Congress."   —ALG President Bill Wilson

May 10^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for "lying about the Fed participating in a bailout of Europe in response to the rapidly escalating sovereign debt crisis," and called for a Congressional investigation into the Fed, including the passage of a complete audit of the central bank.

"Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke assured the Congress that the Fed had no plans to bail out Greece and other European countries," Wilson said, "and now here we are, and the Fed and the ECB are basically printing money to purchase worthless junk bonds from nations that are so bankrupt that nobody will buy their debt anymore."

In February, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), who proposed and had passed a House version of a Federal Reserve audit, questioned Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke about whether the central bank was planning to engage in a bailout of Greece.

At the time, Bernanke said, "we have no plans whatsoever to be involved in any foreign bailouts or anything of that sort."

According to the Wall Street Journal, "the U.S. Federal Reserve said Sunday that it would revive an emergency lending program used during the financial crisis. The Fed will ship billions of dollars overseas through foreign central banks, including the ECB, so they can, in turn, lend the money out to banks in their home countries in need of dollar funding."

Wilson said, "Now we know Bernanke lied when he said the Fed would not bail out Europe.  Yesterday, the Federal Reserve agreed to send billions of dollars to European foreign central banks, including the European Central Bank.  Clearly there were contingency plans in place that Bernanke did not disclose to Congress." 

The Fed program comes as the European Central Bank (ECB) announced a program to purchase European government bonds, and the European Union and International Monetary Fund announced a wider €750 billion bailout for the entire continent.

Wilson urged Congress to investigate the Fed Chairman "to find out when the bailout of Europe was planned" and to complete plans to audit the Federal Reserve.  He also denounced Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for weakening a plan to conduct a full audit of the Federal Reserve as an amendment to the Dodd financial takeover bill. 

"Bernie Sanders is a sellout," Wilson declared, "His weakened amendment will still shield from public oversight the Federal Reserve's transactions with foreign central banks and governments, including yesterday's announced Fed participation in the trillion-dollar European bailout."

Under current law, the Government Accountability Office, according to 31 USCA §714(b), cannot audit and exempts from public oversight the following activities of the Federal Reserve:

 (1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or nonprivate international financing organization;
(2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, open market operations;
(3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or
(4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to items.

The original Sanders amendment would have lifted these restrictions.  "Under the weakened Sanders amendment the European bailout is a transaction that will be protected from any public oversight and accountability," Wilson explained. 

"The Fed is bailing out Europe, and  the American people have a right to know everything about it.  The Senate must adopt the original Sanders amendment to completely audit the Federal Reserve, and Congress as a whole must now investigate how widespread these foreign bailouts by the central bank really are.  Now, more than ever, the Fed must be completely audited," Wilson concluded.

Attachments:

Original Sanders Amendment to the Dodd Bill, SA 3738, sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders, and cosponsored by Senators Russ Feingold, Jim DeMint, Patrick Leahy, John McCain, Ron Wyden, Chuck Grassley, Byron Dorgan, David Vitter, Barbara Boxer, Sam Brownback, James Risch, Roger Wicker, Lindsay Graham, Orrin Hatch, Mike Crapo, Robert Bennett, and Jim Bunning.

NRN - Harmful Regulations Video Contest

From NetRightNation.com:

The EPA has decided to start a video contest, seeking to gather films promoting government regulations. The prize is $2,500 of stolen cash from the taxpayer.

Screw that.

Americans for Limited Government/NetRight Nation and the Fr33 Agents Network have announced that we will host our own contest. The reward is $2,500 not stolen from the tax payers. Here are the rules to enter:

1. Create a video promoting how government regulations have harmed business in your area. Get creative. Examples: a video showing the rising cost of food prices due to government subsidies or the FDA preventing the release of life saving medications. Think outside the box and show us how government regulations are harming you!
2. Post your video to YouTube. Send the link to Adam@netrightnation.com
3. Two weeks from now, on May 4, we will post the top selection of videos that have been entered. We will also announce the judges for the contest that will narrow down the field to the best video entry in the coming week. Also, we will post your video submissions as they come in.
4. We will announce a winner on May 11 and they will receive the $2,500 cash prize that has not been stolen from the taxpayer!

So get to work and start making some videos!



ALG Launches SEIUMonitor.com and UFCWMonitor.com to "Close Information Disclosure Gap" on Union Funds

"The Department of Labor is cutting down on information available to union members.  SEIUMonitor.com and UFCWMonitor.com are designed to fill that information gap."—ALG Research Director Don Todd.

April 5^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government today launched two new websites, SEIUMonitor.com and UFCWMonitor.com to, according to ALG President Bill Wilson, "help union workers keep track of how their union dues are being wasted by labor bosses."

"Since Barack Obama took office, he has, almost from day one, rolled back earlier efforts that increased transparency in labor unions.  Those regulations were crafted in accordance with the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act," said Wilson.

Wilson said that Obama's repeal of those regulations left a "big gap in union disclosure," adding, "SEIUMonitor.com and UFCWMonitor.com are designed to enable union workers to once again keep track of their dues."

Firm disclosure rules for unions were put into place by the Bush Administration.  Unions had to disclose on their LM-2 forms annual reports reflecting finances and any recipients of $5,000 or more in union funds.  The first filings of these forms would have been due in late 2009, but the Obama Administration delayed the filings and withdrew the requirements altogether in October 2009. 

SEIUMonitor.com and UFCWMonitor.com will provide information to the public on union membership dues and what they are used for. Union workers can access information about their pensions, union management and any potential scandals that may affect their relationship with their union. 

"One critical component of the websites is the ability of union workers to provide tips on union corruption, which our research department will look into," said Don Todd, Director of ALG Research, former head of the Labor Department agency responsible for union oversight.

"The Department of Labor is cutting down on information available to union members," Todd said, and encouraged union workers to use the websites "and provide us with any tips of misappropriation of funds."

The websites are regularly updated with news and information helpful to a union member.  Focusing on two of the largest and fastest growing union organizations, Wilson said the site would "shed light on shady union tactics by labor bosses to influence their members, media, and politicians into supporting their agenda."

Wilson said that "rolling back the union transparency rules was a top priority of Big Labor in 2008, and it is therefore unsurprising that Barack Obama became their top advocate once elected."

Wilson noted that the SEIU was particularly influential.  SEIU President Andy Stern has been the most frequent visitor of the White House from January through July 2009, visiting 22 times according to the White House visitor log published by The Wall Street Journal.  

Todd suggest that Stern's reoccurring visits may have strengthened the Administration's decision to lessen the requirements of union leaders.

"The Administration has been rolling reforms back and not showing where the money is going since Obama took office," Todd says.

Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards has indicted more than a thousand union officials, winning 929 convictions for a wide range of criminal activities, including fraud, misrepresentation and embezzlement.  The office has also won $93 million dollars in restitution of union funds.

The goal of the ALG effort is that union employees, the media and policymakers will utilize these websites for information they are not getting from the unions themselves. 

Wilson concluded, "These websites should close the gap of rescinded union transparency left by the Obama Administration."

For more information, please visit the websites at: http://seiumonitor.com and http://.ufcwmonitor.com.



NRN - Real Science Should Trump Politics

Bill Wilson, the author of the below post, is the President of Americans for Limited Government of which NetRight Nation is part.

From the Washington Examiner:

Remember when President Obama vowed to "restore science to its rightful place?" His inaugural commitment, followed by executive orders, carried a message that methodologically sound science would trump politicized, ideological science.

It turns out, however, that the president's love affair with science isn't quite as clear-cut as it first seemed. Shortly after his inaugural pledge, Obama issued an Executive Order directing his chief science advisor to ensure that administration policies be based on sound science.

The EO called for the appointment of science advisers on credentials rather than political leanings, and transparency about scientific decisions. "The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions," he said. One year later, Obama has yet to earn a passing grade on his scientific integrity pledge.

For one thing, Obama simply has not acted, a point driven home by the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, a left-wing advocacy group that normally supports the administration. They point out that Obama last year called for a science strategy to be developed within 120 days of his inauguration.

Yet the Office of Science and Technology Policy has still not finalized a plan, which leads to uneven application among federal agencies.

Other shortcomings are apparent as well. Sunshine is indeed a disinfectant, allowing the public to identify ideologically-based "science" that has driven public policy decisions in the wrong direction.

But too many Freedom of Information Act requests for underlying scientific data used to formulate conclusions still languish too long in federal bureaucracies, effectively denying the public from being able to identify ideologically-driven "science".

Foot-dragging on transparency is one of Obama's greatest failures. He still has not established guidelines for promoting open communication among scientists, the media, policymakers and the public. Nor has it set a process to release all scientific papers early in the policy process, before they might be altered by political appointees.

Another troublesome development involves the scientific advisory panels that are vital in agencies, especially the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For example, an FDA scientific advisory panel was directed by Congress last year to make recommendations on the impact of menthol in cigarettes. It's a question for which sound scientific studies would seem to be needed.

Yet, according to one Wall Street analyst, some members of the administration-appointed panel have already come out for a menthol ban. And yet others have what appears to be a clear conflict of interest as they have worked for pharmaceutical firms that sell smoking cessation products. Given these viewpoints and conflicts, it's questionable whether the public could trust their analysis.

It's a bit like having a Red Sox fan call balls and strikes at a Yankees baseball game

To "restore science to its proper place," the Administration still must convince the public that it has washed ideologically biased science from government and that appointees to scientific positions throughout government are dedicated to methodologically sound science, not to a pre-determined agenda.

It may be that the Obama administration never really had any intention of doing what it discussed with lofty rhetoric in its executive orders. If that is the case, substituting left-wing "science" under the ruse of "sound science" is no way to ensure that the public trusts the scientific process, and ultimately for the Obama Administration trust is the issue.

Bill Wilson is the president of Americans for Limited Government.

Check out more stories at NetRightNation.com.

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Adam R. Bitely
Executive Director
NetRightNation.com


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ALG Comm. Director Asks Obama to Explain "Unusual" Acme Insurance Story

February 26^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government Communications Director Carter Clews today asked President Barack Obama to explain a "rather unusual" story Obama told at Thursdays' health care summit about his dealings with a fictitious Acme Auto Insurance company.

During the White House meeting, Obama related a story from his post-college graduation days in which his "junker" was allegedly rear ended by another driver. According to  Obama, when he called to get his car repaired, the "Acme" auto insurance company "laughed at" him.

In response to the Obama story, Clews sent the following email to the President through the White House web site:

"During your health care summit, you told a rather unusual story about being "laughed at" when you called your auto insurance company about your post-college "junker" being rear-ended. So, I have to ask you four questions: (1) Did you have collision insurance? (2) Did you know that liability insurance does not pay for your own car, (3) Didn't you know that when you are hit the other guy pays, and (4) Do you actually know as little about health insurance as you obviously do about auto insurance? I'll look forward to your response. And please make it short and to the point. Thanks."

Said Clews later, "Mr. Obama's story is more than a little disturbing – not to mention preposterous. There are really only four conclusions to draw from it. Either the youthful Obama had no insurance, he only had liability insurance, he didn't know that when you get hit the other guy pays – or, quite frankly, he told a totally manufactured tale to all of the assembled members of the Senate and House, not to mention millions of Americans watching on TV.

"If it was any one of the first three possibilities, it's no wonder the insurance company laughed at him. And if it was the latter, the man is delusional. Let's just hope he knows more about health insurance than he does auto insurance."

http://washingtonalert.org/?p=2356