Republican candidate for Louisville’s 3rd Congressional District, Todd Lally, has recieved an endorsement from corporate America’s largest lobbyist group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

According to WAVE3:

The announcement came on Monday that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would be backing Lally and his campaign against the incumbent Democrat John Yarmuth.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters are in Washington D.C., and it represents over 3 million businesses most of which are small businesses.

It’s funny that WAVE would allow a line like “(the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) represents over 3 million businesses most of which are small businesses” to go unchecked, as if the endorsement actually reflects the will of millions of small business owners. Despite its claims of representing America’s small businesses, the Chamber — which isn’t an entity of the U.S. Government but a lobbying front group — has a bad habit of allowing the biggest businesses (and, thus, big special interests) to shape its legislative agenda, which includes (but isn’t limited to):

• opposing the Affordable Care Act, which, despite its flaws, prevents insurers from denying coverage to to children with pre-existing conditions, puts lifetime caps on benefits and canceling a policy for no reason whatsoever. Additionally, the “ObamaCare” act to receive no-cost preventive care and to use the nearest emergency without being penalized because it could, you know, save your life and shit.

• supporting President George W. Bush’s October 2007 veto of the State’s Children’s Health Insurance Program Re-authorization Bill, in part because they don’t want any Mexicans kids getting coverage they don’t deserve.

• doing whatever it can to quash the pro-workers’ rights Employee Free Choice Act by literally airlifting anti-union shills to stage astroturfed protests around the country and spending over $1 million in advertising against the EFCA, which would allow workers to freely form unions if they feel it’s in their best interest to do so, which companies like WalMart aren’t so much a fan of.
• routinely funneling millions of dollars to electioneer state and federal elections. From Public Citizen: “Court records, internal corporate documents and media reports indicate that the Chamber and the ILR engaged in a massive campaign to affect the outcome of state and federal races through direct expenditures and grants made to organizations that carried out the Chamber’s wishes. ‘The Chamber is playing an elaborate shell game to conceal its gambit to stack the courts with hand-picked pro-corporate judges,’ said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. ‘The IRS should promptly investigate its dubious tax reports and address any abuses that it finds.’”

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It should also be known that the Chamber spends more money than any other entity in the world lobbying the United States Congress to do this kind of stupid shit (second only to General Electric, a company that manufactures lightbulbs and military hardware), so draw your own conclusions as ye wish.

Oh yeah: The Chamber really likes Rand Paul, too. Go figure.