According to this ABC News article, the US Chamber of Commerce, the largest corporate lobby group in the country, is about to pump $10M into advertising for the coming election to get tort “reformers” elected. It’s the single largest expenditure by any group other than the Democratic and Republican parties.
But this bit jumped out at me:
As the chamber increased its efforts in this year’s midterm elections, chamber CEO and President Thomas Donohue on Thursday issued a tough denunciation of government regulations, threatening to use the courts to block new rules that affect business and setting the chamber up as a major adversary of the Obama administration.
“Litigation is one of our most powerful tools for making sure that federal agencies follow the law and are held accountable,” he said in prepared remarks to the Des Moines Rotary Club. “Today, we are issuing a clarion call for Americans and lawmakers to stop the encroachment of a government by the regulators before it’s too late.”
Now let’s changed the line I italicized and see how it reads:
“Litigation is one of our most powerful tools for making sure that corporations are held accountable.
So, it seems, Big Biz actually loves litigation, and thinks it’s a wonderful “tool” for holding folks accountable. Except, of course, when it’s a consumer seeking to hold the corporation accountable. Then it’s not so hot.
The Chamber of Commerce is, it appears, utterly shameless in its hypocrisy.
A couple of Chamber of Commerce classics from the past:
Talk about hypocrisy. Thanks for pointing this out Eric. They want reform but they don’t want injured victims taking advantage of the Court system to recover compensation. Only they should be allowed to hold agencies accountable.
Unbelievable.
Gerry
It’s not hypocrisy – it’s a question of whose ox is getting gored. You want real hypocrisy, just look at how hard it is in MOST states to present a legal malpractice claim or get a attorney sanctioned for unethical behavior