Chamber of Commerce Eyes Study of Health Reform Costs, Using Results as Political Weapon

An internal e-mail obtained by the Washington Post revealed that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is collecting funds to hire a big-league economist to study the costs of health care reform. The e-mail, disclosing part of the organization's battle plan against President Obama's reform effort, predicts that the business lobby will be able to use the study as a weapon.

"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," wrote James P. Gelfand, the Chamber's senior health policy official. "We will then be able to use this open letter to produce advertisements, and as a powerful lobbying and grass-roots document."

The Chamber of Commerce now says that its bold prediction did not mean that the study's outcome is predetermined. "It is highly likely that this bill will increase costs for business and cost jobs. If it shows the opposite, so be it," a staffer wrote on the Chamber's blog Monday.