Prometheus 6

But don't be fooled...Pfizer may have no position (ha!) but as a member of AWRS they still fund the organization's pursuit of changes that have no impact on the solvency of the program and hence put the lie to their Orwellian name (Alliance for Worker Retirement Security).

You can't trust an organization whose very name is a lie.

Anyway...

Pfizer Is Neutral on Bush Plan
The drug company has been part of an alliance backing the Social Security overhaul. Now it says it's not taking a position on the debate.
By Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger
Times Staff Writers

February 21, 2005

WASHINGTON   A major corporation that has been active in a business coalition campaigning for a proposed overhaul of Social Security said Sunday that it was neutral on the issue   the latest indication of the tenuous support for President Bush's initiative, even from groups considered natural allies.

The statement by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., a longtime member of a business alliance lobbying for Bush's plan, follows the Feb. 11 announcement by the brokerage firm Edward Jones & Co. that it was withdrawing from the same group.

Edward Jones, based in St. Louis, made its decision after it was subjected to picketing and online protests by labor unions and seniors groups, which have now begun targeting other companies belonging to the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security.

Responding to questions from The Times, Pfizer spokeswoman Darlene Taylor said Sunday in an e-mail that "while Pfizer has been a member of AWRS for a number of years working on broad principles for Social Security, we do not have a position on the current Social Security debate."

The positions taken by Pfizer and Edward Jones underscore the conflicting pressures placed on corporate executives by a White House eager for their backing on the president's top domestic priority and by corporate shareholders wary of endangering profits by entering a politically charged battle that could alienate customers and investors.