Corporate and Congressional Disastersby Robert Weissman
Published on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
Corporate crime and wrongdoing is an everyday fact of life in the United States and around the world. Still, the last year has been remarkable for a series of high-profile, deadly corporate disasters: the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe that killed 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the deadly explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine, and unintended acceleration of Toyota cars.
You might think that these disasters, singly and together, would impel desperately needed legislative reform. You might think that, but if you did, you would be wrong.
Despite blanket TV and newspaper coverage of the corporate wrongdoing in each case, despite deep public outrage and fear, despite public clamor for action to prevent the same things from happening, Congress has done ... exactly nothing.And the situation is about to get worse.
To be fair, the House of Representatives in each instance took at least some action, and might have done more if things looked better in the Senate. But Senate Republicans -- sometimes with Democratic allies -- acting on behalf of corporate patrons have blocked reform efforts. There's still a small chance of overcoming the corporate blockade, but with the lame duck session winding down, the window of opportunity is closing fast.