AFP - Occupy Wall Street mob--the "Left's Tea Party"?

The Left is back to its 1960s play book of fringe politics—this time with a radical class-warfare mob called "Occupy Wall Street."

Their demands look an awful lot like the Left's tried-and-failed policies of the last two years:

• Trillions of dollars for new entitlements we don't need and can't afford,
  
  
• Government picking winners and losers in the economy,
  
  
• And, of course, massive tax hikes that will crush the middle class and strangle job creation—all in the name of "fairness."

Despite these agitators coming straight out of the Left's central casting, liberals in Washington are desperately trying to frame this as "widespread middle-class support" for their failed economic agenda—even though this unruly mob is anything but.

And, of course, even the left-wing media has climbed aboard the propaganda machine, calling these radicals everything from the "American Autumn" to the "Left's Tea Party."

The Left is coming out swinging, doing anything they can to distract from their radical agenda—and it's absolutely critical that you and I stand strong and continue our fight for spending sanity in Washington.

That's why AFP is launching our new nationwide Cut Spending Now tour.

Cut Spending Now uses AFP's tried-and-true vertically integrated grassroots strategy—combining rallies in 19 states, a petition, and national media attention—to put unprecedented grassroots pressure on Congress and their deficit-cutting "super committee" to cut wasteful spending and keep taxes low on American families.

You can sign the petition by clicking here.

Or, you can click here to donate a much-needed $25, $50, or even $100 to us grow Cut Spending Now—and reach as many Americans as possible.

Let me tell you—it's more urgent than ever that you and I build the practical grassroots effort necessary to make sure Congress hears from everyday Americans, not just a fringe mob like "Occupy Wall Street."

Next month, Congress's super committee will announce their plans on how to cut $1.2 trillion from our deficit. And if radical Left-wing groups win the debate today, we could wind up with a trillion dollars in new job-killing tax hikes—instead of them making the necessary cuts to wasteful spending.

So far, Cut Spending Now has received a tremendous response nationwide. In the last few weeks, the tour has already turned out thousands of activists in seven critical states—Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. And that's just the beginning.

But,  we can't keep this nationwide project going at full-strength without your help right now.

Please click here to donate $25, $50, $100 or more right away.

Thank you so much for standing with Americans for Prosperity and Cut Spending Now. As part of our nationwide, 1.8 million-strong grassroots army, you're helping us put real pressure on Congress—and stop the Left's propaganda machine dead in its tracks.

Sincerely,

JP DeGance, AFP

Obama Calls for "Lean" Government, ALG Responds

"The people do not derive their rights by license from the government, as Obama implies.  Instead, individual rights are derived by virtue of one's existence.  A former professor of constitutional law ought to know that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.  It's the government that should be on a leash, not the people."—ALG President Bill Wilson.

September 9^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Yesterday, speaking in Cleveland, Ohio, Barack Obama said, "I believe government should be lean; government should be efficient.  I believe government should leave people free to make the choices they think are best for themselves and their families, so long as those choices don't hurt others."

"This is like a drunken sailor calling for moderation," Wilson said.

"This is the most bloated government in human history.  It hoards 650 million acres of federal land, has nationalized housing finance, health care, and the rest of the financial industry.  It has taken over GM and Chrysler.  It has spent itself into a $13.4 trillion hole of debt that is weighing down the economy, and its only solution to spend even more," Wilson explained.

Wilson continued, "Under Obama's watch, government now has seized the power to force individuals to purchase health care.  It seeks the power to restrict energy usage. It has locked up the nation's natural resources and limited energy production, including nuclear.  It continues to blackmail states into accepting federal funding, uses the tax code for social engineering, and utilizes the threat of government regulation to shake down privately-operated businesses." 

"Barack Obama has no credibility at all on this issue.  The federal government is not lean.  It is not efficient.  His statement is nothing more than electioneering, smoke and mirrors by a very desperate administration," Wilson added, saying that the rhetoric was intended to minimize damage to Democrats in the November elections.

Wilson also noted that Obama "has it exactly backwards when he says government should leave people free to make choices.  The government does not have the rightful power to restrict choices by the people in the first place."

Wilson called Obama's philosophy of rights "troubling because it implies that the individual right to choose to better themselves comes from government."

Wilson concluded, "The people do not derive their rights by the license from the government, as Obama implies.  Instead, individual rights are derived by virtue of one's existence.  A former professor of constitutional law ought to know that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.  It's the government that should be on a leash, not the people."



NRN - Must Reads for July 22, 2010

• "Financial Reform" and America's march to Marxism
• Big bank bailout party–Goldman not invited
• Friendly fire on Capitol Hill…
• Cartoon of the day, "Dem Hour Energy"
• O's job errors
• The new racial mess
• Heading toward an entitlement society
• Stop the tax hikes!
• The vast left-wing media conspiracy
• The smoking gun for media bias
• Where do libertarians belong politically?
• Congress created this all
• RNC treasurer accuses Steele of hiding GOP's $7 million debt…

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson's quote of the day is in reference to the signing of the Financial Takeover bill:

"Today, Barack Obama claimed that 'the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes,' and yet that is exactly what the Dodd-Frank financial takeover will do — it contains a hidden tax to finance a perpetual bailout fund.

"This is taxation without representation. The Dodd-Frank bill authorizes the FDIC to levy without any vote in Congress an unlimited bank tax on bank holding and insurance companies with $50 billion or greater in consolidated assets, the costs of which will be passed on to consumers of financial products, savers, and investors, with more fees, higher premiums, and other hidden costs.

"The bank taxes, which the American people pay for, will finance a so-called 'orderly liquidation fund', which will be used to bail out politically-favored firms and seize disfavored ones, redistributing their assets to privileged constituencies, as GM and Chrysler were redistributed to labor unions.

"Since Obama is saying that bailouts and government takeovers will 'never again' occur, he bears responsibility for signing a bill into law that institutionalizes 'too big to fail' and ensures that the next time there is a crisis the American people will be on the hook, paying hidden taxes to fund more government interventions to prop up failing institutions, all without any vote in Congress."

Read more at NetRightDaily.com: http://netrightdaily.com/2010/07/must-reads-for-july-22/#ixzz0uPzRtClL

Read more at NetRightDaily.com.

ALG Urges Congress to Reject "Government Takeover of Financial Sector" Conference Bill

"The Dodd-Frank financial takeover still contains an unlimited bailout-takeover authority, unconstrained bank taxes, financial privacy violations, and still does not address the root, government causes of the financial crisis.  Congress has one last chance to reject it."

—ALG President Bill Wilson.

June 29^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged Congress to reject the Dodd-Frank conference legislation "before it cannot be repealed and it is too late."

"The Dodd-Frank financial takeover bill will not address the real causes of the financial crisis that government caused, and instead creates new, radical powers for the government to seize disfavored firms, bail out favored ones, monitor finances, and levy unlimited taxes on the American people, all without any vote in Congress or the opportunity to object in court," Wilson said.

ALG has updated two of its key summaries on the legislation, the first detailing the bailout and government takeover powers in the bill, and the second outlining the threat posed to individual privacy through the Office of Financial Research.

Wilson warned that under the bill any company could be seized, pointing to the government seizure of GM and Chrysler under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. "Even though those were auto companies that posed no systemic risk to the financial system, and even though there were private sector alternatives to the government takeover, they were considered to be economically important enough to apply to TARP," Wilson explained.

"Just as GM and Chrysler were seized by the government, it will happen again to other non-financial companies under the Dodd-Frank financial takeover bill.  Nor will the government will be limited to a $700 billion fund, since the so-called 'orderly liquidation fund' is unlimited," Wilson said.

"There is no meaningful provision to limit bailouts, either, despite the well-meaning efforts of Congressional Republicans," Wilson added.

The "orderly liquidation fund" would be financed by "risk-based" assessments levied by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on institutions totaling $50 billion or more in assets, proceeds from securities issued by the FDIC of seized firms, interest and other earnings from investments owned by the fund, and "repayments to the Corporation by covered financial companies."

According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of a similar bank tax proposal by the Obama Administration, "the ultimate cost of a tax or fee is not necessarily borne by the entity that writes the check to the government. The cost of the proposed fee would ultimately be borne to varying degrees by an institution's customers, employees, and investors, but the precise incidence among those groups is uncertain."

The legislation also provides for a $19 billion "financial crisis" fund funded by more assessments on banks, a provision that was added in the conference report.

Wilson noted that the bill still includes a controversial Office of Financial Research that empowers the office, according to the legislation, to "collect, validate, and maintain all data necessary" to maintain financial stability "obtained from member agencies, commercial data providers, publicly available data sources, and financial entities."

"The Office of Financial Research will have the ability to know about every transaction in the country, large and small, if it deems it necessary for the sake of financial stability," Wilson said.

According to the bill, the OFR would "require the submission of periodic and other reports from any financial company for the purpose of assessing the extent to which a financial activity or financial market in which the financial company participates, or the financial company itself, poses a threat to the financial stability of the United States."

The legislation also outlines that the Director of the OFR would be given subpoena power to require "the production of the data requested … upon a written finding by the Director that such data is required" to maintain financial stability.

Wilson also condemned the Dodd-Frank conference bill for what he said was "its inherent failure to address the root, government causes of the crisis.  For example, the bill does not audit the Federal Reserve, whose easy money, low interest lending policies fueled the housing bubble," citing research by Stanford economic professor John Taylor stating that "the Fed's target for the federal-funds interest rate was well below what the Taylor rule would call for in 2002-2005. By this measure the interest rate was too low for too long, reducing borrowing costs and accelerating the housing boom."

Wilson also cited research by former chief credit officer of Fannie Mae, Ed Pinto, demonstrating that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac weakened mortgage underwriting standards and mislabeled high-risk mortgage-backed securities, defrauding investors; that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lowered down payments on mortgages; and that the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Community Reinvestment Act regulations and "affordable housing goals" reduced lending standards and forced banks to give loans to lower-income Americans that could not be repaid.  "None of these root causes are addressed, either," Wilson said.

"The Dodd-Frank bill even prohibits the liquidation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the 'orderly liquidation' authority, a provision that was only added in conference," Wilson noted.

Wilson concluded, "The Dodd-Frank financial takeover still contains an unlimited bailout-takeover authority, unconstrained bank taxes, financial privacy violations, and still does not address the root, government causes of the financial crisis.  Congress has one last chance to reject it."

Attachments:

"'Down a Rabbit Hole:' The Threat Posed by the Dodd Bill to the Private Sector," Updated June 28^th, 2010, Americans for Limited Government.

"Big Brother is Watching You: The Threat Posed by the Dodd Bill to Privacy," Updated June 28^th, 2010.

Letter to the U.S. Senate, ALG President Bill Wilson, April 26th, 2010.

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.



Statement by ALG President Bill Wilson on Goodwin Liu Nomination

April 6^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement regarding the failure by Obama nominee to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals Goodwin Liu to provide 117 items asked for by the Senate Judiciary Committee, including speeches, publications, and other background materials:

"Goodwin Liu's lack of candor in filling out his application for employment as a Member of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals would disqualify him from consideration by any Human Resources office in America, and it should sink his confirmation to the federal court.  This wanton disregard for the Constitutional process of Senate confirmation only confirms Professor Liu's own writings that show he believes the U.S. Constitution is barely even a guideline for judicial rulings."