Business Lobbyist: Health-Care Study Should Be Buried If It Comes Out Positive

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Business Lobbyist: Health-Care Study Should Be Buried If It Comes Out Positive
Zachary Roth | November 18, 2009, 10:32AM

A lobbyist working with the Chamber of Commerce says that if a planned study on the economic impact of health-care reform doesn't support the business community's agenda, he'd recommend burying it.

"If you're doing something like this you want it to be back up the position you've taken," Brian Worth of the International Electrical Contractors (IEC) told TPMmuckraker. If the report showed that reform wouldn't cause significant job losses, said Worth, "I would say sit on it, and don't release it."

...........

Worth also suggested the Chamber may be getting qualms about the plan now that it's been exposed -- since the report's impact would presumably be diminished if it's seen from the start as a PR tool rather than a legitimate piece of scholarship. "I would definitely say they're probably having second thoughts about it," Worth said, adding that he hadn't communicated with the Chamber about it since Gelfand's initial overture.

Neither Gelfand nor a spokesman for the Chamber immediately responded to requests for comment form TPMmuckraker.

Read more: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/busin...

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Pay enough money and I'm sure the study will back your agenda to a tee.

[rfranklin]

2. Consultants hired by management always provide positive results...

when I was working in the corporate world. Whatever management wanted always seemed to be backed up by very expensive consultant research.

[alstephenson]

3. K & R