It's probably not news to readers of this blog (and any other progressive blog) that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has become the poster child of what is wrong with Washington. The Chamber has evolved into a giant unaccountable, $200 million lobbying, political and slush fund for the biggest and most controversial corporations and CEOs in the country.
Today, a watchdog group has launched a new website to challenge the U.S. Chamber's misrepresentations and distortions of fact: www.fixtheuschamber.org.
The U.S. Chamber Watch is the result an outgrowth of several months of work by many progressive advocates who grew tired of battling the Chambers' cynical lobbying and shameless politics - not to mention their bottomless bank account spent in opposition of working people.
On the day of its launch, Chamber Watch highlights a stunning recent example of the Chamber's growing arrogance. On May 28th, Chamber CEO Tom Donohue said that taxpayers would have to bear the burden for cleaning up the catastrophic BP oil spill, saying that he would find a way to "get the money from the government..."
On behalf of the Chamber, Donohue has since backed away from his initial comments that "everybody will have to contribute," saying the taxpayers shouldn't have to bear the burden of the spill. He's now trying to say he didn't actually mean "everybody" (even though those are the words that came out of his mouth...) If the Chamber didn't have a record reaching back to the Exxon Valdez of shielding the worst of corporate America from accountability for the damage they cause, we might actually believe them.
Change to Win's new Chamber watchdog site www.fixtheuschamber.org ultimately seeks to make the funding and practices of the U.S. Chamber more transparent and plans to post regular research updates on the corporate front group's activities. You can follow Chamber Watch on Twitter at @uschamberwatch.
