…an open letter to U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue about the recent defections of companies from the Chamber…
October 7, 2009
Mr. Tom Donohue
President
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
1615 H St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20062-2000
Dear Mr. Donohue:
We urge you to continue your strong opposition to the cap-and-tax bills passed by the House and now introduced in the Senate.
Much has been made in the pro-cap-and-tax mainstream press and trade media about the relatively few companies who have quit the Chamber over “cap and tax.” We say good riddance to rent-seekers and hypocrites:
- Exelon Corp. is one of the very few utilities that are actually planning to make money off of “cap and tax” – up to $750 million annually per $10 increase in the price of CO2 – for doing nothing other than selling the free credits it gets from Congress, according to CEO John Rowe. Consumers and taxpayers are the ones who will be looted for this booty.
- Apple Corp. said it was leaving the Chamber because of its supposed concerns for the environment. If Apple was really concerned about the environment, it would stop exploiting lax-to-non-existent Chinese environmental laws in the manufacture of its products. If Apple really cared about the environment, it would pressure China to adopt the Clean Air Act for starters. For all its green posturing, Apple should quit China not the Chamber.
- Nike manufactures its shoes and clothes in sweatshops in Indonesia, paying its workers approximately $1.25 a day, while competitor New Balance manufactures its products in the U.S. So Nike wants new federal laws that place New Balance at a competitive disadvantage. Perhaps we are being too harsh. Maybe Nike is truly concerned about “global warming” increasing the temperature in its sweatshops and, thereby, decreasing the productivity of its near-slave-labor.
These are three companies out of the thousands that you represent. The Chamber has a long and proud history of being the nation’s strongest voice for American business. We are all depending on your leadership against “cap and tax,” which will do nothing but harm American businesses, families, workers, consumers and, ultimately, America itself.
Sincerely,
Steve Milloy
Publisher, JunkScience.com
…strong words that will be ignored. The only threat these people will listen to is the fear of being removed from office, but with ACORN I don’t think they are even worried about that. It totally disgusts me to see elections where the liberal loses the vote, but then thousands of liberal votes (compared to zero conservative votes) just happen to come out of the woodwork to put the liberal on top. Liberal fraud is at perilous levels, and we’ll be lucky to even clean up a fraction of it.
I just saw a site listing Nike’s profit margin to only be 8.03%. How is that possibly so low considering the slave labor and the outrageous selling price?
One thing that has struck me as unbelievable (but true)……Nike manufactures their shoes in Indonesia where people make $1.25 a day, yet their shoes cost a rediculously high amount. I would be very interested in knowing what their profit margin is…by percentage. Oil industry is 8% to 11%, Wal Mart is 27%, so what is Nike? If it wasn’t higher than 30% I’d like to know what the hell they do with their revenues.
Political correctness seems to have become the new God worshipped by many in the political arena. To borrow a phrase from Patrick Henry… Is political correctness so sweet, the job so dear, as to be purchased at the price of slavery??
Thank you for writing this letter to the CoC Steve, they need strong words of support right now.