| Coal baron and Massey CEO Don Blankenship is expected to testify about the Upper Big Branch explosion.
A judge ruled against Massey for a 2008 citation involving coal dust at the Upper Big Branch, which Ken Ward Jr. reminds us is what many investigators think was responsible for the blast that killed 29 miners, but Blankenship has insisted was not a factor.
And Chamber Watch points out that the Chamber of Commerce is not looking out for America, but for the wealthiest members, including Blankenship.
On behalf of corporate CEOs, who would personally gain hundreds of thousands - even millions - of dollars, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been lobbying heavily for a permanent extension of the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy. The CEOs for whom the U.S. Chamber is lobbying include some of the wealthiest executives in the nation, who make tens of millions of dollars in annual income: bankers like Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan (average income: $21,991,394), Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs (average income: $31,949,089), and John Stangfeld of Prudential Financial (average income: $16,375,447); coal mining executives like Massey Energy's Don Blankenship (average income: $12,739,276); and insurance company CEOs like Ronald Williams of UnitedHealth and Angela Braley of Wellpoint (average income: $16,196,989 and $12,204,978, respectively).[1] Each of these CEOs stands to personally gain at least $700,000 to $1.7 million if the Bush Tax Cuts are extended.
Deficits only matter to Republicans when they can hurt poor people, but if it's tax cuts for the wealthy, deficits don't matter. |
