Republican Cheerleaders at Chamber of Commerce Plot to Export American Jobs
Among the many lies told by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently, chief Chamber lobbyist Bruce Josten said that his organization’s foreign affiliates, called AmChams, are only “comprised of American companies doing business abroad in those countries.” In fact, the Chinese AmCham is comprised of Chinese firms like Northern Light Venture Capital; the AmCham in Russia is comprised of Russian state-run companies like VTB Bank; and, the AmCham of Abu Dhabi is comprised of UAE state-run oil companies.
The ties between the AmChams and the U.S. Chamber are deep. In addition to sharing staff members, the Chinese AmCham has worked closely with the U.S. Chamber and the Chinese government to sponsor a series of seminars in America to teach American businesses how to outsource jobs to China (called the China Grassroots Program). Below is an invite to an event sponsored by the right-wing billionaire Sheldon Adelson, inviting local businesses in Florida to come to Jacksonville and learn about outsourcing from Chinese government officials like Li Haiyan, the Counselor for Economic Affairs for the People’s Republic of China, U.S. Chamber lobbyist Joseph Fawkner, and BChinaB, a firm that specializes in helping American firms outsource their manufacturing jobs to China. Click the screenshot below for the invitation:
Similar events like the one above continued into 2009 and beyond.
The Chamber’s CEO, Tom Donohue, frequently defends outsourcing: for example, in 2004, he said “there are legitimate values in outsourcing — not only jobs, but work.” Recently, the Chamber came out against a Senate bill that would have discouraged outsourcing. As Campaign Money Watch report found that more than 1.4 million jobs were outsourced since 1994 in the nine states in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending significant money.
Separately from their relationship with the AmCham affiliates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce receives direct foreign donations to the same 501(c)(6) political account the Chamber is using to run an unprecedented $75 million attack ad campaign against progressives. In an exclusive investigation, ThinkProgress documented over 80 foreign firms donating at least $885,000 to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) account. As ThinkProgress’ Brad Johnson noted, many of these foreign supporters of the Chamber financing its 501(c)(6) are also some of the world’s largest outsourcing companies.
Why does the Chamber hate Democrats and love Republicans? Because Republicans have lead the charge to export American jobs. Not all outsourcing may be bad but Republicans in concert with the Chamber has taken the attitude it is always best to send jobs to Asia where the labor is cheap rather than pay American workers a living wage. In return for all those lost jobs conservatives point to the cheap products you can buy at discount stores. Which is great if you have a paycheck coming in to buy those "cheap" products.
It might be hove the residents of Georgia to request Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) have a mental check-up, he seems to have lost the ability to distinguish his fantasies from reality - Rep. Broun Says That The Stimulus And Health Care Laws ‘Are Gonna Kill’ Elderly And Disabled Americans
During a recent podcast reported by the conservative Heartland Institute, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) resurrected this smear, tying in the stimulus bill. Broun claimed that the stimulus bill set up “comparative effectiveness research” that would determine the cost of spending health care dollars on people of different ages. Broun then hypothesized that “Obamacare” would deny care to people who are too old, or Americans who are disabled. He concluded that the combination of the two laws will “kill people by denying care“:
...Given that Broun is a medical doctor by trade, he should know better than to try to scare voters with falsehoods about the stimulus’s health care provisions and the recently passed health care law. The comparative effectiveness research included within the stimulus bill is designed to discover how to best spend health care dollars to provide the most care to people for the best price, not to deny people health care. There are, of course, no “death panels” or any other provisions within the health care law to put the elderly or disabled to death.
The only things resembling death panels that do exist are the rescission and denial practices followed by private health insurers that the bill is slowly outlawing. A congressional investigation recently found that “the nation’s four largest for-profit health insurers denied coverage to more than 651,000 people over a three-year period, citing pre-existing conditions” — one out of every seven Americans who applied for insurance was denied. If anyone supports health care being denied to Americans, it is Broun, who has a long history of fearmongering about efforts to reform the American health care system.
Our sympathies go out to Broun's family. mental illnesses such as Broun's delusions can be very difficult to deal with.
