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Onward,
Alexander, Jeffrey, Becky and Deva
Weekend
Edition
November 11 / 12, 2006
Taking on the Boss
Claybrook
Versus the Chamber of Commerce
By RALPH NADER
Unlike competing sports teams, adversaries
on the corporate and consumer or environment sides rarely square
off in public to provide much needed drama and media. They each
testify, litigate, petition and conduct press conferences on
their own track. Only very rarely do they debate each other.
It is not that the drama is
absent. Take the now legendary struggles between the boss--Tom
Donohue--of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce--the most avariciously
powerful business lobby in Washington, D.C. and Joan Claybrook,
president of Public Citizen.
Claybrook was Donohue's nemesis
when he was the head of the American Trucking Association and
was pushing for all the states to allow "longer combination
vehicles,"--namely, double and triple trailers on the highways.
At that time--in 1991--about 12 western states allowed these
behemoths, notwithstanding inadequate braking systems for their
weight and speed on their highways.
Through Claybrook's leadership
and a group she started called Citizens for Reliable and Safe
Highways (CRASH), a bill was enacted in Congress freezing any
additional states from doing the trucking industry's bidding.
Donohue could not believe he and his lobbying battalions lost.
Another battle Donohue lost
after he took the helm at the Chamber of Commerce was his drive
to open the borders and the entire United States to Mexican trucks
following the enactment of NAFTA, so that the U.S. truckers could
travel throughout Mexico. One big problem: Safety!
By fiat of the two nation's
governments, Mexican and U.S. truck and operator safety standards
were deemed "equivalent," but they were not. Mexican
trucks up to 180,000 lbs. were allowed on their roads. In the
U.S., the maximum weight, on interstate highways, was 80,000
lbs. Truck driver safety regulations were decidedly weaker in
Mexico than in the United States. Truck drivers, in Mexico, could
get their license at 18 years of age, did not have to have a
special license for the particular rig or the cargo it carried.
In the United States truck drivers have to be 21 and obtain a
special license for large trucks and know how to handle its cargo.
Six years ago, Claybrook pushed
through the Congress standards among which required U.S. trucking
inspectors to inspect trucking facilities in Mexico for maintenance
and other safety purposes. Mexico refused to allow our inspectors
in their country. The result has been that no Mexican trucks
or U.S. trucks are coursing each other's highways. The old rule
is still in place. Mexican trucks can unload their cargo no further
than 20 miles inside the U.S. border.
Now come Claybrook and Public
Citizen's latest charge. They filed a complaint with the IRS
asserting that since 2000, the Chamber and its Institute for
Legal Reform spent tens of millions of dollars "in a stealth
campaign to influence federal and state political and judicial
elections without declaring this spending on tax returns as required
by law."
The Chamber's massive involvement
in elections at the state and federal level goes after state
supreme court justices, and other state and Congressional candidates,
who are not seen as sufficiently subservient to business interests.
Money, attack TV ads and other methods have been funded by the
likes of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, AIG Insurance Company, Daimler
Chrysler and other giant companies.
Public Citizen's complaint
(see citzen.org) declares that the "Chamber's role in elections
is mainly hidden because it plays a shell game with state-level
front groups to conceal the source of this political money from
the public and fails to disclose its grants to local groups on
tax forms."
The Chamber's Institute for
Legal Reform (ILR) works to block wrongfully injured or defrauded
Americans' right to their full day in court. One way it approaches
its goals is to contribute and support candidates for the state
and federal courts that are "business-friendly."
Public Citizen's complaint
to the IRS charges that:
"The Chamber and ILR are
two separate legal entities but shared a bank account as recently
as Jan. 12, 2005. The ILR reported $38.3 million in revenue in
2004. The ILR also reported that it had no investment or interest
income. It is unlikely that an organization with $38.3 million
in revenue would not have any investment or interest income.
The Chamber reported an income of $90.9 million in 2004, with
minimal investment income.
The Chamber's accounting practices
could have tax implications.
Electioneering expenditures
of Section 501(c) groups, including the Chamber and ILR, are
subject to taxes, at the highest corporate rate, on the lesser
of: (1) their net investment income for the taxable year; or
(2) their aggregate expenditures for non-exempt (i.e., political)
functions."
Tom Donohue scoffed at Claybrook's
complaint. But Public Citizen does not make charges unless they
are meticulously documented. The Treasury Department is not likely
to share Donohue's casualness.
And so goes the battles over
the role of this big business lobby situated in an imposing gray
building just opposite the White House across from Lafayette
Square. More reporters should be visiting the doings of the Chamber
instead of simply assuming they are just pushing business interests.
The stories are about how, when, where and toward what damaging
results this massive combination of corporate greed and power
produces.
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