Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Trump nominates pro-merger corporate lobbyist as antitrust chief

CREDO action
Stand with Sen. Warren: Block Trump's pro-monopoly pick

Petition to the U.S. Senate:
"Oppose and resist pro-monopoly Makan Delrahim's nomination to run the Department of Justice Antitrust division."

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Dear Katy,

Stand with Sen. Warren: Block Trump's pro-monopoly pick

Donald Trump just loves putting giant corporations ahead of the American people. This time, he has nominated a pro-merger corporate lobbyist, Makan Delrahim, to be the top cop charged with keeping corporations from getting too big.1

Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls it "the latest edition of the fox guarding the henhouse," and she has been boldly fighting his nomination even after other Democrats, like Sen. Amy Klobuchar, decided to give in.2,3

But now, Warren is facing increasing pushback from other senators4 – and needs our help to fight the mega-massive corporate power that makes stuff cost too much and jobs pay too little.

Stand with Sen. Warren: Block Trump's pro-monopoly pick. Click here to sign the petition.

Delrahim served as a "top lobbyist" for giant health insurer Anthem when the company pushed the Department of Justice to allow one of the biggest health care mergers in history.5 In an appalling example of the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, Delrahim previously worked in the antitrust division before spending more than a decade lobbying on behalf of some of the biggest corporations in the world.6 Delrahim was also a Republican Senate staffer at a time when committee staff hacked Democratic computers.7

The next head of the Department of Justice antitrust division will help decide the fate of mergers like those between AT&T and Time Warner and Bayer's plan to buy Monsanto. Delrahim has made it clear he supports massive international corporations and would allow them even more power. He represents neither the Democratic Party's new baby steps toward fighting corporate power nor Trump's false claims to oppose corporate mergers.8

After almost every Democrat on the Judiciary Committee ignored antitrust promises and approved Delrahim, Sen. Warren stepped up to fight and put a hold on his nomination to delay a vote.9 If Sen. Warren is willing to fight monopolies and corporate power, then so are we.

Stand with Sen. Warren: Block Trump's pro-monopoly pick. Click here to sign the petition.

Massive, international corporations squeeze the wages of working people, trample local business and small producers, and have little incentive to provide good products or services. They also buy our democracy to make it work for them – just look at too-big-to-fail banks on Wall Street. We need antitrust cops willing to fight concentrated power by aggressively enforcing laws, blocking mergers and breaking up behemoth corporations.

Washington's failure to block mergers or bust up monopolies has created a nightmare situation for our economy – and we need to do all we can to stop it.

Stand with Sen. Warren: Block Trump's pro-monopoly pick. Click below to sign the petition:

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/warren_makan_delrahim?t=8&akid=24613%2E12967895%2EW_DHzT

Thank you for speaking out,

Murshed Zaheed, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets

Add your name:

Sign the petition ►

References:

  1. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, "When companies can consume their rival companies...," Apr. 3, 2017.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Eric Kroh, "Senate Panel Approves DOJ Antitrust Pick Makan Delrahim," Law360, June 8, 2017.
  4. Li Zhou, "Pushback on Warren's Delrahim hold," POLITICO, Aug. 8, 2017.
  5. David Sirota, "Trump Administration Conflicts? Former Anthem Lobbyist To Oversee Antitrust Division: Report," International Business Times, March 18, 2017.
  6. Kroh, "Senate Panel Approves DOJ Antitrust Pick Makan Delrahim."
  7. Ibid.
  8. Cecilia Kang, "How Trump's Pick for Top Antitrust Cop May Shape Competition," The New York Times, April 25, 2017.
  9. Harper Neidig, "Warren blocking Trump's pick for antitrust chief: report," The Hill, Aug. 7, 2017.

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