The Wall Street Journal reports that the Bush Administration, as it winds down amidst the meltdown of our national economy causing the loss of some $2 trillion of Americans' retirement savings and the faltering wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, is moving aggressively to erect further bars preventing injured families from holding accountable the corporations responsible. See "Bush Rule Changes Could Block Product-Safety Suits." The latest instance of lawsuit-protection language for corporations that have harmed and injured American families is a rule announced Oct. 8 that establishes a limit on the number of seat belts car manufacturers can be required to install and prevents lawsuits by injured persons who were unable to be protected by a seat belt. This is the latest installment of the Bush Administration's efforts to insulate corporations from responsibility, accountability and liability for their wrongful actions through the legal doctrine of "preemption." The Bush Administration has wholly abandoned long-standing rules and practices to aid and protect American families in favor of rewarding the corporate interests that it serves. Unlike the $750 billion bailout for the financial services industry that American families were recently touched upon to fund, the preemption bailout goes on by stealth and largely unnoticed. Both achieve the same result: shifting to American families the burdens created by irresponsible and wrongful corporate actions.
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