Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Woot! Another corporation dumps ALEC

This time it's Wellpoint.  Undoubtedly the health care company is embarrassed to be associated with ALEC, the escort service that matches corporations with state lawmakers.

You can't claim "integrity" as one of your core values when you're supporting ALEC. ALEC's agenda includes lowering wages, weakening workers' rights, eradicating public education, lifting consumer protections, disenfranchising voters and empowering billionaires.

Here's Wellpoint's statement about its departure from ALEC:
WellPoint, Inc. last attended an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting in the Summer of 2011.  Our representative participated in the Health and Human Services Task Force discussion around a resolution calling on the states to oppose setting up their own exchanges.  Our perspective was (and is) that states should establish their own exchange mechanisms.  We lost the debate that day and ALEC passed a resolution calling on the states to not enact their own exchanges.  We have not attended an ALEC meeting since, nor have we contributed any financial support to the organization. We have no current plans to support ALEC or attend any of their meetings.