Truth. We are taught to respect it. It might be said that truth is the basis of morality and ethics. Certainly the search for truth is the basis of modern science.

But the United States Chamber of Commerce already knows the truth. To paraphrase the movie, Treasure of Sierra Madre, “They don’t need no stinking research.”

In a series of memos, the Chamber explains that it has decided to pay $50,000 dollars to a “well-respected economist” to write a study explaining that the health care bill will cost jobs.

“The economist will then circulate a sign-on letter to hundreds of other economists saying that the bill will kill jobs and hurt the economy. We will then be able to use this open letter to produce advertisements, and as a powerful lobbying and grass-roots document.”

This the Chamber’s procedure. We decide on a result. We hire someone who “looks” respectable but has the morals of a syphilitic serial killer. He conducts a study predesigned to our conclusion. We get the research result we want and we can call it science.

Tell me, what does this say about the organization and its lobbying effort?