Voice For Liberty

Category: United States government

  • A letter to the U.S. Senate regarding the federal government shutdown

    From KochFacts.com.

    Dear Senator,

    A great deal of what you read and hear about Koch Industries is erroneous or misleading. Indeed, there was false information presented about Koch on the Senate floor by Senate Majority Leader Reid, who claimed yesterday that Koch was behind the shutdown of the federal government in an effort to defund the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare.” Because several of you have asked what our position is on this issue, we want to set the record straight and correct this misinformation.

    Koch believes that Obamacare will increase deficits, lead to an overall lowering of standards of health care in America, and raise taxes. However, Koch has not taken a position on the legislative tactic of tying the continuing resolution to defunding Obamacare nor have we lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare.

    Instead, Koch has focused on educating the public about reducing our nation’s debt and controlling runaway government spending. We believe that Congress should, at a minimum, keep to sequester-level spending guidelines, and develop a plan for more significant and widespread spending reductions in the future. We also believe that Congress should work to rein-in rampant government spending so that it becomes no longer necessary to continually raise the debt ceiling.

    Congress should focus on these efforts: balancing the budget, tightening and cutting government spending, curbing cronyism, and eliminating market-distorting subsidies and mandates.

    We are hopeful this sets the record straight and that in the future Senator Reid and other politicians will stop misrepresenting and distorting Koch’s positions.

    Sincerely,
    Philip Ellender
    President, Government & Public Affairs
    Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC

  • Pompeo addresses ObamaCare, debt ceiling, government accountability

    Today U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo, a Republican who represents the Kansas fourth district addressed the Wichita Rotary Club.

    He told the audience that despite is not just about what we’ll do next week or even in 2014. The challenge, he said, is changing the nation’s long-term financial trajectory.

    On the rollout of ObamaCare, he said that he tried to enroll but failed. He said he was sympathetic with the challenges in rolling out the information technology that implements ObamaCare, but it’s a challenge that should never have been undertaken.

    [powerpress url=”http://wichitaliberty.org/audio/mike-pompeo-wichita-rotary2013-10-07.mp3″]Mike Pompeo, October 7, 2013.

    He said he recognizes the risks to the economy that the debt ceiling issue poses. He said we have to take on the obligations of the next 10 to 15 years and we have to do it now.

    Pompeo also spoke about government accountability. “It is so easy to spend your money,” he said. “You can be a hero, you can go to ribbon cuttings, … but I have to tell you that when politicians do that in today’s financial situation, they are doing nothing short of lying to you. I use that term intentionally, and with malice aforethought. Because to say they’re misleading you would imply there’s some chance they don’t know that. And they do. This is not politics. This is math.”

    On Syria, Pompeo said he’s heard Republicans say we should stay out of the Middle East. But Pompeo said there are from 10,000 to 30,000 soldiers there today. When politicians imply that if we don’t launch some missiles into Syria we’ll be “out” of the Middle East, that is untrue, he said, and “perpetrated with malice aforethought.”

  • Pompeo votes to delay Obamacare, keep government open

    From the office of U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo:

    Pompeo Votes To Delay Obamacare, Keep Government Open

    Washington –- Congressman Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, is voting tonight to delay Obamacare for ordinary citizens, pay the armed services, ensure that the government continues running. He released the following statement:

    “Well-connected friends of President Obama shouldn’t be the only Americans spared from the looming health care law — delaying Obamacare for businesses and not for individuals is irresponsible and reckless. This continuing resolution would also provide the hard-earned funding for our amazing armed forces and that the government is still providing services to the American people.

    “The President has shown his willingness to delay Obamacare unilaterally in some instances, we are simply urging him to do so on a broader scale. I hope that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will also vote to keep the government open.”

  • Pompeo on Syria

    On today’s episode of KAKE TV This Week in Kansas, U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo discusses Syria. View below, or click here to view on YouTube.

  • Pompeo responds to president’s speech on Syria

    Mike Pompeo official photographFrom the office of U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo, a Republican who represents the Kansas fourth district:

    Washington — Congressman Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, an Army veteran and a graduate of West Point, responded to the President’s remarks on Syria.

    “I am pleased that calls for a more robust strike against Syria have met with the possible outcome of the remove of chemical weapons from Assad. I hope this works, but I am always skeptical when Vladimir Putin is making an offer to help. Regardless, I remain convinced that the only way to assure Americans’ safety is by implementing a strategic and integrated plan that does more than simply ‘shoot across the bow.’”

    Pompeo recently returned from weeklong trip through the Middle East where he spoke with America’s intelligence warriors, foreign officials, and even the commander of the Free Syrian Army.

    For more information, contact J.P. Freire at (202) 557-9144 or JP.Freire@mail.house.gov.

  • Pompeo on Syria intervention

    This morning U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo appeared on Fox News Network to talk about Syria. Video follows.

    Also, KFDI reported this today:

    Kansas Fourth District Representative Mike Pompeo has just returned from a week in the Middle East in which he met with national security figures from the United States and its allies.

    Pompeo said there is a broad concensus that American foreign policy in the Middle East has been weak and feckless.

    The congressman called for a strong response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who Pompeo called a war criminal.

    “We’ve got to make sure that those who control Syria and big pockets of the Middle East are not beholden to the Ayatollahs in Iran and to Hezbollah and to Russia,” he said.

    Pompeo said if the U.S. does nothing in response to Syrian actions, we will ultimately have risk to the American homeland.

    “We don’t need 20,000 soldiers on the ground,” Pompeo said. “But we need an enormous effort to make sure that, in a post-Assad world, we do not have Iran in control.”

    Pompeo said he hopes the president will do more than he has outlined so far, adding that a “shot across the bow” is not enough.

  • Pompeo on national security issues

    On the Joseph Ashby Show today, U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo of Wichita explained his views on our national security programs.

    [powerpress url=”http://wichitaliberty.org/audio/joseph-ashby-show-2013-07-16-excerpt-mike-pompeo.mp3″]U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo on the Joseph Ashby Show.

    When the host drew an analogy between the National Security Agency’s collection of data and the Internal Revenue Service scandals, Pompeo said: “Had there been this kind of oversight of Lois Lerner, this would not have happened.” He went on to explain that oversight of IRS is all by one branch of government, the executive branch. Oversight of NSA is “radically different,” he said.

    Pompeo also noted that while we should not minimize the importance of the IRS scandals, national security is a much weightier matter.

    Interestingly, the perception of the breadth of data that’s being collected may be overstated. In a June 18 hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Pompeo asked these questions of the Director of the NSA (video follows):

    Pompeo: Gen. Alexander, from the data under Section 215 that’s collected, can you figure out the location of the person who made a particular phone call?

    General Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency: Not beyond the area code.

    Pompeo: Do you have any information about signal strength or tower direction? I’ve seen articles that talked about you having this information. I want to make sure for the record we’re got that right.

    Alexander: We don’t have that in the database.

  • Pompeo: Systems are needed, and risk of abuse is low

    Recently U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo of Wichita appeared on Stossel to defend the programs the National Security Agency uses to gather data on Americans and others. I wondered about these questions: If it’s true that the information leaked by Edward Snowden has harmed the security of the United States, how is it that this was able to happen? Aren’t there many thousands of people with knowledge and information similar to, or greater than, what Snowden had access to? Is the security of our country dependent on all of them keeping their secrets?

    In a telephone conversation, Pompeo told me there are thousands of people who have access to classified material. Each one of these persons represents some risk.

    How did the Snowden situation develop? We don’t yet know the answer, Pompeo said. It was a mistake, he said, for the NSA to permit Snowden to have access to, and be able to take from the facility, the breadth of information he has released. But Snowden did not leak actual intelligence data; only an informational presentation about the programs being used.

    Snowden has harmed our security, and he may not be finished releasing information. Appearing on Stossel, Pompeo told the host that already Al-Qaeda is behaving differently. “They might well have suspected that some of this was going on. But they learned a couple things. They learned not only what was going on, but they’ve also learned the legal limits of these programs. Having shared that is very dangerous, and allows the enemy to have insights into the things we’re doing, to go catch the really bad guys — the terrorists who still want to kill us.”

    Addressing privacy concerns, on Stossel Pompeo emphasized the “tremendous oversight” of intelligence services. Actual telephone calls are not being listened to. Further, the data that’s collected is not “mined” continuously, he said. It’s only for specific purposes, and then with FISA court approval, that the data is used.

    An important distinction, Pompeo told me, is that it is data about telephone calls that is being collected, not the actual content of the calls. He emphasized the process and layers of oversight, by both agencies and courts. Even with a president and attorney general who have shown themselves not always worth of public trust, Pompeo says that the depth and scope of oversight gives him confidence that the risk of abuse is low.

    Interestingly, the perception of the breadth of data that’s being collected may be overstated. In a June 18 hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Pompeo asked these questions of the Director of the NSA (video follows):

    Pompeo: Gen. Alexander, from the data under Section 215 that’s collected, can you figure out the location of the person who made a particular phone call?

    General Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency: Not beyond the area code.

    Pompeo: Do you have any information about signal strength or tower direction? I’ve seen articles that talked about you having this information. I want to make sure for the record we’re got that right.

    Alexander: We don’t have that in the database.

  • On Stossel, Pompeo defends NSA programs

    Last week U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo of Wichita appeared on Stossel to defend the programs the National Security Agency uses to gather data on Americans and others.

    Stossel has broken with many libertarians on this issue, illustrating, as Pompeo tells him, this issue is not partisan.

    As member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Pompeo certainly knows a lot about U.S. Intelligence programs, and probably knows much that he can’t reveal to the public.

    But I’ve wondered this: If it’s true that the information leaked by Edward Snowden has harmed the security of the United States, how is it that this was able to happen? Aren’t there many thousands of people with knowledge and information similar to, or greater than, what Snowden had access to? Is the security of our country dependent on all of them keeping their secrets?