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Top Corporations Aid U.S. GOP Chamber of Commerce Campaign, Oligarchy in the U.S.A
- Prudential Financial sent in a $2 million donation last year as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicked off a national advertising campaign to weaken the historic rewrite of the nation’s financial regulations -
By ERIC LIPTON, MIKE McINTIRE and DON VAN NATTA Jr. in the NYT
Dow Chemical delivered $1.7 million to the chamber last year as the group took a leading role in aggressively fighting proposed rules that would impose tighter security requirements on chemical facilities.
And Goldman Sachs, Chevron Texaco, and Aegon, a multinational insurance company based in the Netherlands, donated more than $8 million in recent years to a chamber foundation that has been critical of growing federal regulation and spending. These large donations — none of which were publicly disclosed by the chamber, a tax-exempt group that keeps its donors secret, as it is allowed by law — offer a glimpse of the chamber’s money-raising efforts, which it has ramped up recently in an orchestrated campaign to become one of the most well-financed critics of the Obama administration and an influential player in this fall’s Congressional elections.
They suggest that the recent allegations from President Obama and others that foreign money has ended up in the chamber’s coffers miss a larger point: The chamber has had little trouble finding American companies eager to enlist it, anonymously, to fight their political battles and pay handsomely for its help.
And these contributions, some of which can be pieced together through tax filings of corporate foundations and other public records, also show how the chamber has increasingly relied on a relatively small collection of big corporate donors to finance much of its legislative and political agenda. The chamber makes no apologies for its policy of not identifying its donors. It has vigorously opposed legislation in Congress that would require groups like it to identify their biggest contributors when they spend money on campaign ads.
Proponents of that measure pointed to reports that health insurance providers funneled at least $10 million to the chamber last year, all of it anonymously, to oppose President Obama’s health care legislation.
“The major supporters of us in health care last year were confronted with protests at their corporate headquarters, protests and harassment at the C.E.O.’s homes,” said R. Bruce Josten, the chief lobbyist at the chamber, whose office looks out on the White House. “You are wondering why companies want some protection. It is pretty clear.”
The chamber’s increasingly aggressive role — including record spending in the midterm elections that supports Republicans more than 90 percent of the time — has made it a target of critics, including a few local chamber affiliates who fear it has become too partisan and hard-nosed in its fund-raising.
The chamber is spending big in political races from California to New Hampshire, including nearly $1.5 million on television advertisements in New Hampshire attacking Representative Paul W. Hodes, a Democrat running for the United States Senate, accusing him of riding Nancy Pelosi’s “liberal express” down the road to financial ruin.
“When you become a mouthpiece for a specific agenda item for one business or group of businesses, you better be damn careful you are not being manipulated,” said James C. Tyree, a former chairman of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, who has backed Republicans and Democrats, including Mr. Obama. “And they are getting close to that, if not over that edge.”
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=55754
Posted by Yanira Farray on Oct 22 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Government, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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The Chamber of Commerce and their huge legal team is the BIGGEST PUSHER of illegal alien jobs and AMNESTY in the U.S. Is it any wonder that all those corporations are pouring money into their coffers with their ongoing “foreign labor” H1-B and H2-B visas, with all those illegals STAYING HERE after their work?
In one single day, 800 illegals left their jobs at a plant in Huntsville, AL, and spread out all over the country. Do you think even ONE state or federal agency followed up to see where they went? In the meantime, Huntsville (a military BRAC center) is overrun with illegals taking all the construction jobs (and building is booming here) and all across the country. I hired one of these displaced construction workers who was living at the mission. WHEN IS AMERICA GOING TO BECOME OUTRAGED OVER THIS?
Illegals cost Americans $385 BILLION (yes billion) per year. We pay to build more schools, more prisons, hire more policemen, more teachers, more social workers, more court personnel, and ASSIGN FREE LAWYERS FOR THEM WHEN THEY APPEAR IN COURT. They should be arrested then and there instead.
30% of prisoners are illegal. We pay for these illegal construction workers’ families’ food stamps, medicare, free hospitalization, SSI payments (they never paid one dime into social security); the few who aren’t paid cash under the table use YOUR CHILDRENS’ social security numbers, with the full knowledge and complicity of the corporation and the Social Security Administration. They know EXACTLY where these illegal workers are, and the fraudulent social security numbers being used. DO YOU THINK THOSE MONIES ARE ACTUALLY PUT INTO “YOUR” SOCIAL SECURITY ACCOUNTS? NO!
The government KEEPS IT, unaccounted for.
Americans pay for the birth of all those border babies, plus a monthly stipend to their illegal mothers for diapers and milk. The babies are automatic U.S. citizens. The Dream Act would pay for their FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION.
They murder 9,000 Americans per year, rape, kidnap, and murder American children and women (the last Amber Alert caught an illegal with an 8 yr old American girl). One million rapes by illegals have been reported: See The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration
http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_crime.html
They kill and maim more Americans with their huge number of DUI’s (they get out of the car and just run away – no legal license plates, insurance, or drivers license). If caught, FREE LEGAL DEFENSE defends them in our courts.
Our courts, highways, hospital waiting rooms, and schools are overrun. Their childrens’ inability to speak English holds OUR children back in school. WHY SHOULD AMERICAN TAXPAYERS PAY FOR ALL THESE SERVICES THAT THE CORPORATIONS AND BUSINESSES HIRING THEM DON’T PAY? That’s the dirty little secret! No wonder Bill Gates keeps going before Congress opining the fact there are NO QUALIFIED AMERICANS FOR HIS JOBS. If he were a true philanthropist instead of advocating depopulation through MORE VACCINES with his “foundation”, he would have established a short-term school 30 years ago, for Americans to attend to fill his vacancies.
STAY AWAY FROM ALL VACCINES! Depopulation advocates like Bill Gates, Kissinger, and Rockefeller want you to take them all. In Haiti, the U.S. “rushed” over there to innoculate EVERYBODY. Now, a short time later, they claim the people are dying from cholera. It’s NOT cholera — its the vaccines. I guess the U.S. wants the island.
I will NOT hire a contractor who has illegal workers. If they show up anyway, the contractor is FIRED! I also report them on Angie’s List. Each time you hire these illegals, you are subverting this country.
That’s not true. Illegal aliens are ineligible for any medical, cash or food stamp benefits. I know. I used to work for the welfare department. They’re also ineligible for Social Security benefits. The children may be eligible for something, after they’re born US citizens, but the parents arene’t eligible for anything. And, as of this time, there is no Dream Act so why worry about something that hasn’t even happened.