I'm from corporate America, the financial services industry & conservative think tanks, & I'm here to help you.

With billions of dollars at stake, a large network of influential conservative groups is mounting a high-priced campaign to help the White House win passage of legislation to partially privatize Social Security and limit class-action lawsuits.

Corporate America, the financial services industry, conservative think tanks, much of the Washington trade association community, the Republican Party and GOP lobbyists and consultants are prepared to spend $200 million or more to influence the outcome of two of the toughest legislative fights in recent memory.

Many of these same interest groups backed Bush administration tax cuts, the 2003 Medicare prescription drug legislation and proposed energy initiatives. As President Bush begins his second term, the alliance has become an institutional fixture, providing both money and manpower to further the Bush agenda and strengthen the Republican Party apparatus.

There are three major bills before Congress -- on class action, asbestos and medical malpractice -- and business leaders are increasingly confident.

'"I think we can get them all and we should get them all," John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, recently told business journalists. Other proponents of tort changes are less optimistic.

[J]ust as Social Security and lawsuit legislation have united right-of-center groups, they have also joined together, in opposition, much of the left: the influential AARP seniors organization; labor unions; the Association of Trial Lawyers of America; consumer, civil rights and environmental groups; and much of the Democratic Party.

(2-13-05, The Washington Post.)