By: Traci L. Buschner1
Last night Tea Party Republicans and more mainstream Republicans alike, backed by hundreds of millions of undisclosed corporate dollars (made possible by the Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case), attributed their success to a ground swell of Americans who want Government off their backs. These newly-elected politicians claim that excessive regulation and Government programs designed to help people who should be pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps are killing America's ability to compete in the global economy.
If this is the case, why are some of America's largest corporations, including several pharmaceutical giants, large banks and investment houses who likely contributed to these “small government” candidates, seeking Government protection from their own employees?
Recently, several mega-corporations and their lawyers met with the SEC -- in a closed door session -- to ask the Government to make new regulations that require employees to follow company internal whistleblower procedures before reporting illegality to the SEC under the new Dodd-Frank Act. While it is not surprising that corporations would press for rules that circumvent the aims of the Act, it is surprising that these large corporations are willing to admit that they cannot monitor and control their own corporate behavior or their own employees and must seek Government protection, literally, from themselves. Does smaller government include Government protection of billion dollar companies who have lost the ability to control their own conduct? The corporations asking the SEC for such protection fail to address why it is important to keep the Government in the dark, even for a short time, when their own illegal conduct may affect hundreds of millions of shareholders whose retirement income depends almost entirely on the value of their shares.
While it is unclear whether the Tea Party and/or the Republican Party will actually seek to demolish Social Security benefits as part of its small government agenda, it would be unfair to deny Government retirement benefits to individuals and also hamstring their ability to rely on accurate corporate financial information – uncorrupted by fraud – when making personal investment decisions.
If Americans really want less Government, why shouldn’t large corporations pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and spend some of their own money to hire capable individuals to make sure the corporation isn’t defrauding its own shareholders? Maybe these corporations should reward whistleblower employees who come to them first? Many believe America has prospered because of competition. Are corporations afraid to compete for information from their own employees? Tea Party and Republican Party candidates are asking individuals who lost jobs, caused by Wall Street malfeasance, to get jobs and stop taking unemployment benefits. Doesn’t the charge to take “personal responsibility” for your own actions extend to corporations as well as individuals?
1. Traci L. Buschner is an associate at Grant & Eisenhofer. A former state prosecutor, Traci Buschner has spent the last 13 years representing plaintiffs in complex litigation ranging from class actions to government contract fraud under federal and state false claims acts. She has been involved in multi-million dollar recoveries on behalf of workers under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and has served as counsel in False Claims actions, bringing tens of millions of dollars to the United States Government. Ms. Buschner represented one of the six main whistleblowers in False Claims Act litigation against Pfizer, Inc., which resulted in the Government’s recovery of $2.3 billion in 2009.
