In this election year, an army of social and political activists is mobilizing against American business enterprise. Don’t think they are the stereotypical young anarchic radicals of a generation ago.
Today’s enemies of a wealth-creating free economy are very rich, they are serious and they are organized. A powerful anti-business movement is preparing to spend millions of dollars to influence the news media and lobby politicians to get what they want: government controls on labor, capital and trade, regulations on education and energy, and higher taxes.
The anti-business movement claims to speak for workers and consumers, children and seniors, endangered species and the global environment. In fact, its leaders want Washington politicians to pass laws hazardous to our freedoms and a drain on our hard-earned dollars.
Here are some of Washington’s most powerful special interests.
Organized labor: It’s estimated that labor unions in the AFL-CIO and its rival labor federation, Change to Win, will spend over $1 billion on politics this year. All that money comes from union members who have no say over how union bosses spend their dues.
The No. 1 priority: AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Change to Win’s Andy Stern (president of the politically hyperactive Service Employees International Union) want Congress to pass “card-check,” a law letting unions organize workplaces by having employees sign cards stating a union preference, eliminating secret-ballot elections. The union organizers who thought up this misnamed Employee Free Choice Act will spend freely in 2008 to elect politicians in 2009 who will pass the card-check law.
Wealthy left-wing donors: Billionaire philanthropist George Soros owes his fortune to the free market, yet he attacks capitalism and makes grants from his foundation, the Open Society Institute, to fund left-wing groups.
Soros spent $27 million trying to defeat President Bush in 2004. His latest venture: urging fellow billionaires to join The Democracy Alliance, a fund to create a new generation of think tanks, leadership training schools and media outfits for the Left.
Soros’ megabucks collaborators include Rob McKay (Taco Bell) Peter B. Lewis (Progressive Insurance), Herb and Marion Sandler (Golden West Financial), and Hollywood producer Stephen Bing.
The Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts: These and other well-endowed philanthropies (Rockefeller, Carnegie) were created decades ago by great captains of industry. Now foundation bureaucrats control them and use their billions to support “social justice” groups that lobby to regulate industrial production, reduce consumption and restrict individual rights.
American Association for Justice: Legal reforms to end abusive lawsuits won’t get anywhere as long as the 27,000-member trial lawyers lobby has clout in D.C.
Famed trial lawyer William S. Lerach is in jail for giving kickbacks to plaintiffs in his anti-business class-action suits. He calls it an “industry practice.” For good reason, the group dropped its old name, the American Trial Lawyers Association.
National Education Association: The nation’s largest teachers union (3.2 million members) is dead-set against education reforms (merit pay for good teachers, school choice for parents and kids).
Its $341 million in annual revenue comes from dues payers in 14,000 local affiliates that collect even more money. Much of it goes to political campaigns to elect everyone from local school boards to the president.
AARP: The powerful seniors lobby has over $1 billion in annual income from the dues of its 37 million members over age 50 and the royalties and fees it collects on its lucrative insurance and travel businesses.
Its “Divided We Fail” campaign will lobby Congress on health care next year. Earlier it fought for the Medicare pharmaceutical drug entitlement and against Social Security reforms letting workers open private retirement accounts.
The environmental lobby: Its latest crusade is to stop global warming by reducing energy exploration, production and use. It targets oil, gas and coal companies, electric utilities, auto manufacturers and — ultimately — the American consumer.
Ironically, green groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, Wilderness Society and Defenders of Wildlife are headquartered in Washington and New York. These interest groups want to regulate markets and restrict choice.
They reward political maneuvering while punishing hard work and risk-taking enterprise. Typically organized as tax-exempt “nonprofits” and soliciting millions of dollars in contributions (often tax-deductible), Washington’s special interest network awaits the end of the Bush administration. It’s getting ready for a new season of lobbying and influence peddling.
Terrence Scanlon is president of Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that studies the nonprofit sector.
