The Agenda Project: You Deserve To Know

Today, the Agenda Project -- a New York based public policy organization -- released a scathing video slamming President Obama for meeting with the Chamber of Commerce just two weeks after his State of the Union address. "Two weeks ago the President promised that he would work to rebuild people's faith in government - meeting with the biggest lobbyists in the country is hardly a step in the right direction," said Agenda Project Founder Erica Payne."The Chamber claims to speak for American business, but half of the Chamber's budget is paid for by 45 big corporations. The President is well aware that the Chamber is in actuality just a high priced lobbyist for a small number of corporations. I hardly think the President will restore our faith in government by fawning over the banks at the center of the financial crisis, oil companies like BP who destroyed the Gulf and insurance companies who secretly funneled $10 million through the Chamber to fight insurance reform," said Payne.

The Chamber of Commerce has faced a steady barrage of criticism in recent months.

-Dozens of local chapters of the Chamber have already distanced themselves from the Chamber's pro-corporate agenda, some have quit altogether. Payne, championing the cause of small business stated "The Chamber works for Goldman, Sachs; BP and AIG -- not for American small business and not for America,"

-Major corporations, including Apple, have abandoned the Chamber over its aggressive climate change denial campaign.

"The Chamber of Commerce is perverting democracy for the benefit of a very small group of corporations," said Payne. "In addition to being the biggest lobbyist in the country, the Chamber was the largest non-party spender in 2010 U.S. elections. At a certain point normal Americas are going to wake up and ask 'what exactly are they buying with their money?'"

Even the Federal courts are caving to the Chamber and demonstrating a clear bias on behalf of corporate interests. The Supreme Court has recently come under fire for their pro-corporate bias.

The Agenda Project is best known for the "Patriotic Millionaires Against Tax Cuts for Millionaires" campaign which was covered by every major media outlet in the country. The campaign led to the shut down of White House phone lines as supporters flooded Valerie Jarett's office with protest calls.

The video is the beginning of a multi-year campaign to fight the destructive effect of the Chamber of Commerce on American democracy.

The video has already generated a lot of interests; airing on MSNBC, in the NYTimes, USA Today, Mother Jones, and the Daily Caller, the Miami Herald, McClatchy, and Yahoo News

Music: Kevin MacLeod

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• The Agenda Project
• Erica Payne
• Barack Obama
• The Chamber of Commerce
• financial crisis
• BP
• the Gulf
• State of the Union
• You Deserve To Know
• lobbyists
• corporate power
• corporations

[Muzzy337]

@rudyABDUL The White House doesn't create jobs. Obama's job is to create confidence in the us economy so people can take risks without losing their asses. HE IS FAILING TO INSTILL CONFIDENCE BECAUSE HE IS AN OUT OF TOUCH POLITICAL ELITIST WHO DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT MAIN STREET. The S&P downgrade of America's credit rating HAPPENED ON HIS WATCH. Say goodbye to that precious second term, Obama. You have FAILED the people and they will vote your sorry ass off the island. OBAMA IS NO BUSINESSMAN!

[rudyABDUL]

Like it or not, those CEOs at the Chamber of Commerce, are JOB PROVIDERS.

Obama never hid the fact that he went to there to talk to those folks. There's even a video of the conversation he had with them. Obama went before the Chamber to ask the CEOs to start hiring people to work in their company.

He is trying to get people back to work. What's wrong with that?

[DemocratNotCommunist]

The chamber of commerce represents the small business owners of the nation you know not big business but like my neighbors who run local stores or serves. To be against them proves the agenda project is nothing more than a communist terrorist group & nothing they post can be taken seriously. I was a clueless progressive democrat but after I starting thinking for myself I now am a conservative democrat. Help me stop the cancer from spreading before america becomes a poor 3rd world country.

[Katfireblade]

Yeah, well, he never hid the fact he was meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, and anyone who has been paying attention even once in the last decade knows the Chamber of Commerce is nothing but big business interests. Even his speech there was directed (very OBVIOUSLY) at businessmen, not government officials. His whole speech was a combination pep talk and 'naughty-naughty' at every corporate face in the room. So why does this video act like this is news to anybody?