CANCER IS A GROWTH INDUSTRY

A Guest Piece
by Gary Schoichet 

 

A story and a follow-up story in The New York Times (7/1 and 7/2/2015) describes how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbies and gives bribes world-wide to stop governments from imposing restrictions on cigarette smoking and advertising.

 

“Lung cancer is a growth industry, a job creator,” said Thomas J. Donohue, chief executive of the Chamber, “and it is our mission at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to support growth, no matter what the cost or where it leads to.”

 

Citing employment statistics from all over the world, Donohue said the Chamber would be derelict in its duty if it did not do all in its power “to increase the number of smokers, be it in the industrial west or the developing east. It’s a question of allowing people to do what they want and helping them along when they pay heed to the false science that says smoking will kill them. Mankind, and women and children kind too have free will. You think they weren’t smoking in the Garden of Eden?”

 

Several outspoken opponents of smoking, and their companies, serve on the board of directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. While some have left the board and the organization, many have said that while they disagree with what the Chamber is doing, “all organizations have disagreements,” said Anthem Health Care’s executive vice president, Wayne S. DeVeydt, and a Chamber board member. “So what if they want to stop taxing cigarettes, want to gut the graphic health warnings on cigarette packs, want to get kids smoking. That’s their job and while I disagree with their stand, I am not leaving the board or the organization because when we give them $1,000,000 a year, they do good work for us, no matter how sketchy the issue is.”

 

The Chamber was a primary player in thwarting health care reform, fueled by millions of dollars from the health insurance industry. “We will continue to suck at the government tit for reimbursements that may seem outrageous, but actually are,” said Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini. “We charge more for the use of scalpels than the U.S. Air Force was charged for toilet seats and screw drivers, way back when. People, this is business the American way. It’s patriotic.”

 

In 2009 the Chamber of Commerce took up climate change, or tried to take it down as in it doesn’t exist. “When cows fart they release CO2 into the atmosphere that attacks the ozone layer,” said the Chamber’s Donohue. “I haven’t heard of any one demanding that cows be given Beano to save the planet. No, they blame it on fossil fuels as if coal is the single cause of climate change, which really isn’t happening anyway. The last time there was climate change was Noah’s flood and that did happen.”

 

Apple, Nike, and the construction firm Skansa all resigned from the Chamber over its climate change position. Had the Chamber been fighting against the rights of workers the companies would still be members. CVS, the pharmacy chain that no longer sells tobacco has resigned from the Chamber because it no longer sells tobacco products.

 

The Chamber’s campaign to increase smoking, particularly among youth is “our outreach to the future of the Third World,” said Donohue. “The business of the Chamber of Commerce is business first and everyone and everything else last. That’s why we’re targeting 11, 12, and 13 year-olds in developing countries where children haven’t been so spoiled, so mollycoddled as in Western Europe and the United States, and where they are expendable. Once we have them, they’re ours for life. ”

 

The Chamber considers itself a democratic organization with either 3,000,000 or 300,000 members depending on how you count and has “125 board members that represent all kinds of businesses and corporations, especially the largest ones who donate the most money who also seem to bring out the worst in us.”  In 2010 50 percent of the Chamber’s funding came from 16 companies that each gave more than $1 million.  “We operate in much the same way as the United States government,” said Donohue.

 

“The right to tobacco is a sacred right,” said Martin J. Barrington, Chairman, CEO, and President of Altria Group, owner of Phillip Morris. “It’s as important as the second amendment and I often wonder how the framers left it out of the Bill of Rights. Listen to it, ‘the right to smoke tobacco,’ sounds as good as the ‘right to bear arms.’ One kills slowly, the other in quicker fashion.”

 

Wherever the struggle to preserve tobacco usage and sales occurs the Chamber is there. Raise the cigarette tax; the Chamber is there proclaiming like a true Republican,  ‘No new taxes.’ Prohibit minors from purchasing cigarettes; the Chamber is there to warn against taking away personal freedom. Take the art off cigarette packs; the Chamber is there to protect intellectual property. Put graphic warnings on packs; the Chamber is there citing science. Tami Overby, a senior vice-president of the Chamber said she was “not aware of any science-based evidence [that larger warning labels] will have any discernible impact on reducing or discouraging smoking,” even though a 2013 Harvard study showed just the opposite. “It’s just a question of picking your science,” she said, “ and I would choose the Chamber of Commerce over Harvard any day.”

 

Founded in 1912 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was usually a voice for moderation. During World War II it described collective bargaining as “an established and useful reality.” Fifty years later its board unanimously backed universal health coverage funded by employer mandates. “We are no longer that U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” said Donahue. “It didn’t pay. Evil incarnate better suits us and us it.”