Our Congress

very predictably gave more handouts to corporate backers.

The handout to the NRA is especially galling:

The last important piece of legislation adopted last week was a happy combination (from the standpoint of the Republican leadership) of pleasing both a particular corporate interest and its right-wing ideological base. This was a bill granting the firearms industry a broad exemption from liability to lawsuits by shooting victims. The bill passed the Senate by 65 to 31, with 14 Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, giving it their support.

The bill is the most sweeping anti-lawsuit measure so far adopted by Congress, going well beyond the restrictions contained in the “tort reform” and malpractice reform bills. It would prohibit virtually all lawsuits against gun manufacturers for acts committed using their products, even when, as in the case of the Washington DC sniper killings, there was clear negligence on the part of the firearms dealer who sold the two gunmen their assault rifle. That suit was settled out of court last year for $2.56 million.

In addition to being a windfall for the gun manufacturers—stock prices of the leading companies jumped on the day of the vote—the bill is a shameless piece of pandering to the National Rifle Association. Senate Majority Leader William Frist proclaimed the bill a “national security” measure, suggesting, rather improbably, that if antigun lawsuits proliferated, US-based manufacturers would be forced out of business and American soldiers would no longer have a reliable supply of rifles and pistols.

Just unbelievable but not surprising.