Spotlight Shines on ALEC’s Anti-Middle Class Agenda – and its Cost to States

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As the middle class remains under sustained attack in state legislatures, media attention is increasingly turning to the corporate interests orchestrating a national spread of industry-written bills seeking to weaken state economies, strip workers of their rights, suppress voter turnout, and capitalize on the politics of division and fear – all in pursuit of private profit. In a spate of recent reports, specific scrutiny is being focused on the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in allowing corporations access to influence state laws that benefit their bottom lines at the expense of the economic security of families.

Last Sunday’s (Nashville) Tennessean featured a front-page article on the slew of copycat bills written by and for corporations that has hit the Volunteer State this session – a report that could likely be replicated in many states that have seen similar waves of destructive legislation. Some of the efforts advanced in Tennessee’s legislature this include a call to repeal the federal health care law, laws to weaken unions, and a divisive bill to ban Islamic Sharia law which even its sponsors admitted to not reading before filing.

Tennessee State Rep. Mike Turner gave the Tennessean his perspective on the deluge he and his colleagues are seeing this year: “We’ve taken model bills in the past, but very rarely did you see model bills passed without any changes or amendments”, said Rep. Turner. “Some of this stuff they’re running this year is straight out of the ALEC playbook.”

http://www.progressivestates.org/node/27253