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U.S. Chamber President Tom Donohue has told Congress that you should help pay for the BP Oil Spill clean-up efforts, but it doesn’t want the oil industry to pay its fair share. The U.S. Chamber doesn’t want you to know where it’s money comes from. The U.S. Chamber’s health care group, Employers for a Healthy Economy, released inaccurate and distorted anti-health care reform ads. The U.S. Chamber thinks that deepwater oil drilling is a terrific idea, and pushed for a permanent end to the Obama administration's ban on the practice. The U.S. Chamber opposed the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would legally mandate equal pay for men and women. The U.S. Chamber doesn’t think that you should be allowed to take time off work if you or a family member are seriously ill. The U.S. Chamber is fighting to keep the families of the workers killed during the BP oil disaster from being able to sue for damages. The U.S. Chamber opposed the “Buy American” provisions of the 2010 Jobs Bill. The U.S. Chamber is under review by the IRS for laundering millions of dollars meant for charitable work from a group with ties to the insurance giant A.I.G. The U.S. Chamber fought to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest people—the 2% making more than $250,000 per year—at the expense of low and middle-income Americans. The U.S. Chamber has fought to preserve offshore tax havens that only multinational corporations can use. The U.S. Chamber hasn’t contested the multi-million-dollar tax breaks cities routinely give big-box retailers that damage local economies. The U.S. Chamber has collected “charitable” donations from multinational corporations, and used them to pay for political ads during American elections. Prudential Financial donated $2 million last year as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicked off a national campaign to weaken the historic rewrite of the nation’s financial regulations. Dow Chemical delivered $1.7 million to the U.S. Chamber last year as the group aggressively fought tighter security requirements on chemical facilities. The U.S. Chamber lobbied the Supreme Court to rule in favor of Citizens Unitedenabling unlimited corporate election spending. The U.S. Chamber lobbied heavily to make it easier for U.S. companies to bribe foreign governments. The U.S. Chamber went all out to kill health care reform, funded by a staggering $86 million contribution from health insurance companies. The U.S. Chamber supported repealing health care reform even though most small businesses and middle class Americans don’t want it repealed. The U.S. Chamber lobbies for oil, coal and gas companies to get millions of dollars in taxpayer handouts. The U.S. Chamber wants companies like BP, Shell and Exxon to drill in federally protected lands. The U.S. Chamber coordinated Wall Street’s stealth lobbying campaign to kill financial reform. The U.S. Chamber bankrolled a series of lawsuits to prevent the U.S. Government from regulating dangerous greenhouse gases. The U.S. Chamber spent millions of dollars in television ads against federal clean energy legislation. The U.S. Chamber’s leadership has openly questioned the science of climate change. The U.S. Chamber opposed the 1935 Social Security Act. The U.S. Chamber wants to cut your Social Security and Medicare benefits. The U.S. Chamber remained silent on a bill that would rein in credit card swipe fee charges, which have a significant financial impact on small businesses across the country. Six U.S. Chamber members, the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and other radical anti-gay organizations teamed up to stop local municipalities from extending civil rights protections to the LGBT community. The U.S. Chamber demanded taxpayer bailouts for its bank members (AIG, Goldman Sachs & JP Morgan) The U.S. Chamber lobbies for tax cuts for millionaire executives. The U.S. Chamber sponsored a series of conferences to teach businesses how to outsource jobs to China. The U.S. Chamber lobbied against legislation that would have created over 1.7 million jobs. The U.S. Chamber is fighting against closing tax loopholes that multinational corporations use to dodge the corporate income tax. During the debate on a bill that would’ve provided $30 billion for small businesses lending, The U.S. Chamber stayed “mostly silent.” The U.S. Chamber lobbied to kill a bill that would compensate the emergency workers who got sick from working at Ground Zero on 9/11. The U.S. Chamber, hired private security companies to plant false documents, create fake personas and observe their opponents’ families and children. The Chamber just disclosed that it spent a whopping $123 million to influence federal policy in 2009. The U.S. Chamber hired George W. Bush’s Attorney General to help weaken a ban on corporate bribery. The U.S. Chamber fought regulations on penis-deforming chemicals. The U.S. Chamber takes money from foreign oil companies. The U.S. Chamber is funded by top outsourcing and offshoring companies. The U.S. Chamber lobbied against America’s involvement in World War II. The U.S. Chamber opposed the Civil Rights Act. In 2009, 55% of the U.S. Chamber’s money came from only 16 donors—one whopping $86.2m donation from a group of 5 major health insurance companies. The U.S. Chamber claims to represent the interests of 3 million small businesses, when in reality it represents closer to 200,000 small businesses The U.S. Chamber only represents a few hundred local chambers out of more than 7,800 nationwide. The U.S. Chamber spent as much as $33 million influencing the midterm 2010 elections, and has announced that it will beat that in 2012. The U.S. Chamber brags that it’s the biggest lobby in Washington, “consistently leading the pack in lobbying expenditures.” The U.S. Chamber’s health care group, Employers for a Healthy Economy, released inaccurate and distorted anti-health care reform ads. The U.S. Chamber is fighting to keep the families of the workers killed during the BP oil disaster from being able to sue for damages. The U.S. Chamber is under review by the IRS for laundering millions of dollars meant for charitable work from a group with ties to the insurance giant A.I.G. The U.S. Chamber has fought to preserve offshore tax havens that only multinationals can use. Glenn Beck donated $10,000 to the U.S. Chamber during his show, and the Chamber told him “You Are Doing Great Work”. Beck’s Fox News parent, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, also gave its own million-dollar donation to the US Chamber. The U.S. Chamber spent over $12 million to elect senators who voted to repeal health care reform. The U.S. Chamber fought to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Act with wildly misleading ads. The U.S. Chamber is leading the fight to kill the Clean Air Act and defund the EPA. The U.S. Chamber released a misleading report on jobs lost from stalled energy projects that reads more like Big Oil’s Christmas wish list. U.S. Chamber President Tom Donohue (with an annual salaray of $3 million) told reporters that “public workers’ compensation is ‘over bloated.’” Through a series of tax loopholes that the U.S. Chamber lobbied for, major U.S. corporations like General Electric and ExxonMobil have an effective tax rate of zero. The U.S. Chamber remained silent on a bill that would reign in credit card swipe fee charges, which have a significant financial impact on small businesses across the country. More than 1.4 million jobs were outsourced since 1994 in the nine states in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent significant money on ads and lobbying. Despite purporting to be pro-business, the U.S. Chamber opposes renewable energy research and development. In a petition to the EPA, the U.S. Chamber writes that “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.” A U.S. Chamber official demanded a “twenty-first century Scopes monkey trial” for global warming On its webpage, the U.S. Chamber brags that it’s the biggest lobby in Washington, “consistently leading the pack in lobbying expenditures.” |