U.S. Chamber Reconsidering Plans For Controversial Health Care Study
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, under fire from the White House and Dems for plans to commission a study that could determine that the health care reform proposal is a job killer, is now reconsidering whether to go forward with it.
A spokesperson for the Chamber, in emails to me, repeatedly declined to say whether the group would be proceeding. If the Chamber, one of the reform proposal’s most determined and well-funded opponents, shelves the planned study it would be a victory for the White House and other critics who attacked it in advance as evidence of an orchestrated effort to undermine reform.
Asked repeatedly whether the Chamber would go forward with the study, a Chamber spokesperson, Blair Latoff, emailed this reply several times: “We haven’t determined that but an economic study would clearly be valuable going forward.”
Last week, the Washington Post roiled the health care debate by reporting that the Chamber was trying to raise $50,000 to hire a “respected economist” to undertake a study that could help the Chamber, which is headed by Tom Donohue, make the case that “the bill will kill jobs and hurt the economy.”
WaPo also reported that an internal Chamber email appeared to conclude in advance that the pending study would hand opponents of the proposals “a powerful lobbying and grass-roots document.”
The Chamber’s planned effort was widely panned, with the White House blasting the news as proof of a secret and “intentionally skewed” effort to “safeguard the insurance companies’ bottom line at the expense of the American people.”
Now, however, it’s unclear whether the study will be going forward at all.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
The Chamber does NOT need any more bad press.
lmsinca, I think that’s exactly it. The first round gave Chamber’s opponents an opening to put them on the defensive. Imagine if they actually went forward with a study?
The Chamber is a dinosaur, and it’s decline is really sloppy and pathetic. Frankly, I’m amazed because I thought these guys were supposed to be pros.
I guess Fred Thompson made the President’s workload a little lighter today. He’s decided that the war in Afghanistan is over. I guess now our troops can come home. YEAH!
From Politico:
“Former Senator Fred Thompson today intensified his party’s criticism of President Obama’s long deliberation over policy in Afghanistan, announcing that Obama’s delay signals that “the war has been lost” and that nothing the president now does will “make any difference.”
“It really doesn’t matter how President Obama divides the Afghan baby, how he splits the difference between McChrystal and Biden. Because the war has been lost,” Thompson said on his radio show today. “I say this because of one sad and simple fact. The president does not have the will and determination to do what’s necessary to win it. His heart’s not in it, and never has been. The Taliban knows it. Al Qaeda knows it. Our allies know it. And the American people know it.”
anyone finding the site loading really slowly?
site loading fast for me.
Loading fine in UT.
loading fast for me, too.
What is the relation between the US Chamber and the Junior Chambers? Are the Jaycees an auxiliary of the US Chamber?
Yeah Andy, Obama’s heart’s not in it the way Cheney/Bush had their hearts in it. Finally, someone’s trying to figure the darn place out and come up with a real plan but oh no. Clearly we should just send more troops, we don’t really have, over there with no clear understanding of what the heck we’re trying to accomplish. Does Thompson have a plan?
Doesn’t matter if they do it or not at this point. The damage is done. If they proceed, the PR value of any study they produce has already been effectively neutralized. Backing down now won’t make them look any less guilty, arguably more so in fact, but it would save them $50k that they could use for negative ads or something.
bliar out of EU presidency race.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/8367589.stm
Amazing that this war criminal was even in the race.
Did anyone ask the Chamber if they would be returning the contributions of people who thought they were giving money for the study?
I now see where the term “Chamber Pot” came from.
corrected:
The right wing “Chamber [of Commerce] was trying to raise $50,000 to” pay off “a “respected economist” to” spin lies “that could help the Chamber, which is headed by” fanatical right winger Tom Donohue.
Any economist that touches this automatically discredits themselves.
mamograms
What really hurting small and medium and even large domestic businesses is the multinational corporations who take more money out of the local and state communities. The insurance corporations are making big money that maybe medium and large business could pay, but small independently owned business that built this nation are disappearing and the Chamber wants us to believe it’s health care and not the World Trade Organizations whose board of directors who can’t elect dictating our trade policies that are the problem. Many other countries adopted a single payer type system that has help reduce costs because it is in a sense like buying in bulk or pooling a large group’s money, a concept which most business owners understand helps them save money in the long run.
These guys just can’t leave the President alone. No matter what he does to try to help the avererage working class American, he’s wrong, it’ll never work, they’ll form death panels. Enough! This is the only President in my lifetime that actually has a clue about the working class. Lead, follow, or get out of his way.
Everybody is blaming everybody. Why don’t you all just accept the fact we are in a quandry and can’t find the exit, or more like it don’t want too, because we might lose something. Hey we already have lost on all fronts. Believe it is time for a really big change like everybody fessing up to their part in this great charade and calling a spade a spade and start over – your not going to be as rich as you are but it sure would help the Average American to know what is really going on, of course in time we will know, thanks.