Offering constructive criticism to the social cripples in our midst since early 2005.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by Spanky
Sidd - this is just wrong. I don't know where you get this. Business organizations and associations are the most signficant lobbyist in State Capitals in the National Capitals for Republicans. Whenver a bill comes up in Sacramento the first thing the Repubicans ask is "where does the chamber stand." You have the Manufacturere Assocition, Tech Net etc.

Do you have any idea how many lobbyists there are on K Street, and how many individual corps and individual industries they represent? They tend to get quieter consideration -- it's a lot more acceptable to say, publicly, that "the Chamber of Commerce supports this" than "ExxonMobil supports this", but to suggest that all of those K Street lobbyists (not to mention all of those corporate and industry org. donations) are insignificant is absurd.

Most of the lobbying they do today is anti-competition. Pro-tariffs, ant-flexible hours, limiting the type of businesses that non union companys get into. They were against deregulation of the Arilne Industry, the Phone company. etc.

You will note that I agreed with a lot of what you said in my post.

But did steel manufacturers line up against Bush's steel tariffs? Has Detroit ever opposed tariffs or quotas on auto imports? ADM or Cargill opposed farm subsidies?

You have a very black-and-white (Manichean?) worldview. Unions are anti-business, industry is pro-competition. The world is just not so uniform.

That is nice in theory but it just does not match up to practical application. Since I have been invovled in California State Politics (six years) most bills that effect the economy or business come down to the Chamber v. The Unions. The Unions are always on the side of regulation and restrictions where the Chamber is on the other side. The Unions passed a law that ended flexible hours in the silicon valley (people could not work a four day ten hour workday), they want to stop Costco from selling food, they did not want state government contracts to go to competitive bidding, the wanted to keep the workers compensation system in a state that was strangling business etc.

Once again, I agreed with you on a lot of things.

But how did Safeway and Albertson's feel about Costco selling food?