Preventive Healthcare: Pro-business lobbying giant US Chamber of Commerce waging global lobbying campaign against anti-smoking laws

CVS Health Corporation (CVS) made big news recently when it cancelled its membership in the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, the pro-corporate,Washington lobbying giant that was recently revealed to have been waging a global lobbying campaign against anti-smoking laws.

Given its stated commitment to health promotion, CVS did the right thing. But six major health care companies, four of which sit on the Chamber's board – and all of which have anti-smoking programs – haven't done anything. It's time to hold them accountable.

These companies should not be allowed to profit from the US Chamber's corporate lobbying and then stick their heads in the sand when it's caught working directly against public health and safety.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and a group of fellow Democratic senators have just sent a letter to all 108 companies on the Chamber's board, demanding that they state their positions on the Chamber's pro-smoking lobbying.

But six major health care companies who are Chamber members – Aetna, Cigna, Anthem, the Health Care Service Corporation, the Steward Health Care System of Boston, and the Indiana University Health system – also have a responsibility. All of them support anti-smoking programs, but the Chamber’s efforts undercut that mission.

Today, tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable deaths in the U.S. and around the world. Cigarette smoking accounts for almost half a million deaths a year in the U.S. alone. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.³

Tell these health care companies: Drop your affiliation with the pro-smoking U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Click here to sign the petition.

EU-Digest

Ukraine: Business groups oppose any new sanctions on Russia

As the Obama administration threatens Russia with new sanctions, some business groups are pushing back on the idea.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers are preparing a newspaper ad saying that potential sanctions on Russian energy, defense and financial sectors might hurt U.S. businesses and workers.

"We are concerned about actions that would harm American manufacturers and cost American jobs," says Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, in the ad.

Read more: Business groups oppose any new sanctions on Russia

U.S. government shutdown: Security services stretched thin says James Clapper - by Evan Vucci

U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday that the government shutdown is seriously damaging the intelligence community's ability to guard against threats. They said they're keeping counterterrorism staff at work as well as those providing intelligence to troops in Afghanistan, but that the danger would increase daily with fewer spies to track targets.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper told Congress Wednesday that roughly 70 per cent of the civilian workforce — including staff from the CIA, National Security Agency and Defence Intelligence Agency — have been furloughed.

The shutdown showed no sign of ending Wednesday evening as Republicans and Democrats remained deadlocked after meeting at the White House.

On Wednesday, Obama hosted 14 chief executives from the nation's biggest financial firms for more than an hour of meetings. Moreover, the Chamber of Commerce, a business advocacy group, has sent a letter to Congress signed by about 250 business groups urging no shutdown and warning that a debt ceiling crisis could lead to an economic disaster.

They say that the policy disputes over health care and spending that are separating Democrats and Republicans should be debated later.

Read more: U.S. government shutdown: Security services stretched thin - World - CBC News

US November elections: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and shady election money | PRI.ORG

Over the past few weeks, a political spotlight has been on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It began when President Obama made a comment that the organization was being funded by foreign money to produce attack advertisements that benefited Republicans. It turned out, however, that the claim was only half true and lacked evidence. Prominent radio show host Glenn Beck then defended the Chamber, saying that it was almost entirely made up of businesses that employed under 100 people. This, however, turned out to be completely false.

So what, exactly, is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? And how is it different from the Chamber of Commerce that many people are familiar with in their own small towns?

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a political advocacy and lobbying organization for the American business community, Michael Crowley, senior correspondent and deputy bureau chief for Time Magazine, explained to PRI's Here and Now. The Chambers of Commerce that most people know in small towns are typically apolitical and are best known for sponsoring parades.

Note EU-Digest:  More than 90% of the US Chamber of Commerce collected funding goes to the Republican Party.

For more: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and shady election money | PRI.ORG

USA: Nov. elections: Multi-National Inc's Aid U.S. Chamber of Commerce (influencing elections) - by Eric Lipton, Mike McIntire, and Don Van Natta

Prudential Financial sent in a $2 million donation last year as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicked off a national advertising campaign to weaken the historic rewrite of the nation’s financial regulations.
Dow Chemical delivered $1.7 million to the chamber last year as the group took a leading role in aggressively fighting proposed rules that would impose tighter security requirements on chemical facilities.

And Goldman Sachs, Chevron Texaco, and Aegon, a multinational insurance company based in the Netherlands, donated more than $8 million in recent years to a chamber foundation that has been critical of growing federal regulation and spending. These large donations — none of which were publicly disclosed by the chamber, a tax-exempt group that keeps its donors secret, as it is allowed by law — offer a glimpse of the chamber’s money-raising efforts, which it has ramped up recently in an orchestrated campaign to become one of the most well-financed critics of the Obama administration and an influential player in this fall’s Congressional elections.

The chamber’s increasingly aggressive role — including record spending in the midterm elections that supports Republicans more than 90 percent of the time — has made it a target of critics, including a few local chamber affiliates who fear it has become too partisan and hard-nosed in its fund-raising.
The chamber is spending big in political races from California to New Hampshire, including nearly $1.5 million on television advertisements in New Hampshire attacking Representative Paul W. Hodes, a Democrat running for the United States Senate, accusing him of riding Nancy Pelosi’s “liberal express” down the road to financial ruin.

For more: Top Corporations Aid U.S. Chamber of Commerce Campaign - NYTimes.com