Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
Over two-thirds (69 percent) of voters in both parties agree with the statement they “feel angry because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington, rather than working to help everyday people get ahead” (Nov. 2015 poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal). This anger is again inflamed by one more shameful example: HR 1927. This bill being considered in Congress is known as the “VW Bailout Bill” but would apply to all corporate activity, making it virtually impossible for individual citizens to take part in a class action lawsuit to curb corporate wrong-doing.
VW willfully cheated on air pollution regulations by programming 500,000 VW vehicles sold in the U.S. (11 million vehicles worldwide) to give false readings on air pollution testing, allowing the vehicles to pollute 40x more than allowed by law. This cheating allowed VW to gain green car subsidies and tax exemptions costing U.S. taxpayers $51 million as well as allowing VW to promote their vehicles as environmentally friendly when they were not. Now these half-million VW owners have vehicles that are worth substantially less in resale or trade-in and, more important, a peer-reviewed study published in the journal “Environmental Research Letters” says 59 Americans will suffer premature deaths (hundreds worldwide) and more will suffer respiratory problems due to VW’s greed. HR 1927 would only allow a harmed VW owner to enter into a class-action against VW if they first prove they are harmed to the same extent as the filer of the class-action. In effect, requiring a trial before the trial and erecting costly barriers to a consumer’s right to redress.
This is not the first time Congress has exempted or sharply reduced liability for corporations with political clout. The pharmaceutical industry persuaded Congress to establish the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program shielding vaccine makers and doctors from liability and after a court awarded $2.5 million to the relatives of eight people shot by a sniper in Washington D.C., the NRA went into action to secure the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, sharply limiting the liability of gun manufacturers, distributors and gun dealers. Other examples abound.
No wonder 69 percent of Americans in both parties believe the system is rigged against them, because it is. The title of HR 1927 is the “Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act.” Fairness for whom? It does no public good, it only protects corporate profit and takes rights away from the rest of us.
Every once in a while, it piles so high and becomes so unbearable that the stables need to be cleaned. There is only one candidate who understands the depth of this problem and who would work to turn this around along with the groundswell for reform that his election would bring. Bernie Sanders, presidential candidate, has volunteered to do the cleaning and we should give him the job.
– Peter Dragovich, Martinez
