PA GOP: Lackeys for Corporate Special Interests Who Fight to Ship Jobs Overseas

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Republican Party showed their true role this week: lackeys for corporate special interests who fight to ship jobs overseas, hurt hard working Pennsylvania families and refuse to disclose their corporate special interest donors who pump millions in ads that nonpartisan groups have proven to be false. As Democratic and Republican candidates denounced the shady advertisements of organizations like the Chamber of Commerce who refuse to release their donors, the Pennsylvania Republican Party went to bat for the group and stood up for the corporate special interests that prop up the Republican Party’s out of touch candidates.

“Why is the Pennsylvania Republican Party standing up for corporate special interests who refuse to disclose their donors and who are fighting to ship jobs overseas?” said Mark Nicastre a spokesman with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. “The Pennsylvania Republican Party are lackeys for corporate special interests. The Pennsylvania Republican Party is putting themselves and their out of touch candidates on the same side of an organization that has fought to ship jobs overseas, opposed an increase in the minimum wage for hard working Pennsylvania families and spent millions in secret donations on attack ads that have been proven false. At least now the people of Pennsylvania know definitively that the Republican Party would rather side with corporate special interests who want to ship their jobs overseas than them.”

The Chamber President: “There Are Legitimate Values in Outsourcing.” The Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said, “there are legitimate values in outsourcing — not only jobs, but work — to gain technical experience and benefit we don’t have here, to lower the price of products, which means more and more of them are brought into the United States…The outsourcing deal over three or four or five years and the two or three sets of numbers are only going to be, you know, maybe two, maybe three million jobs, maybe four.” [CNN, 2/10/04]

The Chamber of Commerce Opposed Increasing the Minimum Wage. “On behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region, I urge you to vote against H.R. 2, The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which would increase the federal minimum wage by $2.10 per hour. This legislation is expected to be considered by the House on Wednesday, January 10, 2007.” [Letter to the House of Representatives, 1/9/07]

The Chamber of Commerce is Funded by Corporate Special Interests and Secret Donors. “Certainly, it is still illegal for corporations to contribute directly to candidates. But they now have equally potent ways to exert their influence. This election year is the first since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allows corporations for the first time to finance ads that directly support or oppose political candidates. And tax laws and loopholes have permitted a shadow campaign network of Republican-leaning nonprofit groups to collect a flood of anonymous donations and spend it widely…. The groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, the American Action Network and Crossroads GPS, which is linked to the Republican strategist Karl Rove, have committed to spending well over $150 million this year. [New York Times, 10/16/10]

The Chamber of Commerce President Tells People Whose Jobs Were Outsourced to “Stop Whining” “Donohue acknowledged the pain for people who have lost jobs to offshoring – an estimated 250,000 a year, according to government estimates. But pockets of unemployment shouldn’t lead to ‘ anecdotal politics and policies,’ he said, and people affected by offshoring should ‘ stop whining.’ ” [Associated Press, 7/5/2004]

Chamber Ad Against Sestak Pulled By At Least Two Pittsburgh TV Stations Because
Ad Was False. In July 2010, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported ” Responding to charges of
inaccuracy from Rep. Joe Sestak’s Senate campaign, two Pittsburgh-area television stations
have agreed to stop airing a commercial, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which
sharply attacks the Democrat’s voting record…The commercial, which began airing Monday
across the state, contends that the Senate nominee ‘ voted with Nancy Pelosi 100 percent of the
time’ and that he voted for ‘ a government takeover of health care.’ …Mr. Dworkin said that Rich
Cook, the executive sales manager for WPGH and WPMY, sister stations owned by Sinclair
Broadcasting, informed the campaign that they would pull the ads. In correspondence supplied
by the campaign, the station executive told Mr. Sestak’s attorney that, ‘ At this time, our two
stations, WPGH and WPMY, will discontinue airing the Chamber of Commerce commercial. It
appears that the ad is false because it is not true that Sestak voted with Pelosi 100 percent of the
time.’ ” [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/15/10]

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