Republicans have introduced a bill aimed at stripping Major League Baseball of its antitrust protections after the league moved its All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of Georgia’s new voting law, reports Forbes.
“A corporation that happily does business with the communist regimes in Cuba and China, but caves to CEOs who want to punish states with Voter ID does not deserve any special immunities in antitrust law,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said in a news release.
Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Marco Rubio, R-Florida and Josh Hawley, R-Nebraska, are also sponsors of the bill. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., who has 28 cosponsors, has sponsored companion legislation in the House.
“For decades, Major League Baseball has enjoyed a special exemption from the same antitrust laws that govern other businesses in our nation,” Rubio said in a news release. “The league has been able to escape scrutiny in part thanks to its perception as a good-faith guardian of America’s national pastime. But with its reprehensible decision to play politics and punish the State of Georgia, and countless small and minority-owned Georgian businesses, by moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta, the MLB has shown its willingness to use its market power, derived from its antitrust exemption, irresponsibly. Now, Congress is obligated to revisit this unique treatment.”
Hawley said MLB and “woke mega-corporations” have been coddled by government for too long.
“For decades, the MLB has been given a sweetheart deal by Washington politicians. But if they’d prefer to be partisan political activists instead, maybe it’s time to rethink that. With their capitulation to the left-wing Twitter mob and support for Biden’s big lie about election integrity, they’ve forfeited any right to an anti-trust exemption. They must be held to the same standard as the rest of American business.”
MLB’s favorability among Republicans has taken a big hit since is decision earlier this month to move the game to Denver, according to a Morning Consult poll published Tuesday.
The league’s net favorability rating among Republicans fell from 47 percentage points in mid-March to just 12 points at the end of last week, dropping below both the NHL and NFL.
Source: Newmax
