{"id":4233,"date":"2010-07-09T09:30:31","date_gmt":"2010-07-09T14:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=4233"},"modified":"2010-07-09T09:31:15","modified_gmt":"2010-07-09T14:31:15","slug":"us-chamber-of-commerce-scares-millions-out-of-corps-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2010\/07\/09\/us-chamber-of-commerce-scares-millions-out-of-corps-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"US Chamber of Commerce scares millions out of corps, Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the July\/August 2010 issue of Washington Monthly, James Verini writes Show Him The Money<\/a>, about how Tom Donahue and the US Chamber of Commerce raises (from corporations and Republicans, through scare techniques) and spends its huge lobbying dollars.<\/p>\n

The “ask” works. In 2009 the Chamber doled out somewhere in the area of $120 million on lobbying alone, five times what its nearest cohort, Exxon Mobil, spent. Much of that money went to an advertising and grassroots blitz attacking the congressional health care legislation, making the Chamber very likely the biggest spender in the debate. In the weeks leading up to health care\u2019s passage in March, it was spending $800,000 a day trying to defeat the Democratic legislation. Livid that the law went through, the Chamber has now pledged to funnel $50 million\u2014more than twice as much as the entire cash holdings of the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee put together (as of late May)\u2014into an estimated forty House races and ten Senate races this fall. About eight of every ten dollars of Chamber political donations go to Republicans.<\/p>\n

With such torrents of Chamber money raining down on the political process, it\u2019s rather ironic that many Americans believe the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to be part of the government. But, in a way, it\u2019s also fitting. With its legions of lobbyists, policy analysts, economists, and attorneys, its own rapid-response media center and law firm, its hundreds of international chapters and steady stream of officials, legislators, and foreign potentates flowing through its immense bronze-relief doors on H Street, the Chamber does act like a federal agency\u2014or like a third political party on permanent campaign. \u201cThe Chamber views itself as a shadow-government policymaking body,\u201d a former Chamber economist, Lawrence Hunter, said.<\/p>\n

Such policy, of late, has consisted of mounting major battles against regulatory initiatives emanating from the Obama White House. In addition to doing its best to block health care legislation, the Chamber also tried desperately to fend off the financial reform bill passed by the Senate on May 21. Meanwhile, its campaign to influence environmental legislation has relied in part on casting doubt on the exigency, even the existence, of climate change. …<\/p>\n

I asked Donohue what, exactly, the Chamber does. \u201cTwo fundamental things,\u201d he replied. \u201cWe\u2019re advocates. Sure we do studies, sure we do events, sure we do meetings, sure we have all kinds of stuff, but we\u2019re advocates.\u201d And then he surprised me again with his candor. \u201cThe second thing we do is really more interesting,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re the reinsurance industry for individual industry associations and state chambers of commerce and people of that nature.\u201d<\/strong> An example, said Donohue, was when Wall Street found itself on the defensive in opposing new banking regulations. \u201cThey can\u2019t move forward, they can\u2019t move back, or maybe they\u2019re being overrun, and they\u2019ll come to us and say, \u2018Can we collect our reinsurance?\u2019\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd then we build coalitions and go out and help them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

-RichardH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the July\/August 2010 issue of Washington Monthly, James Verini writes Show Him The Money, about how Tom Donahue and the US Chamber of Commerce raises (from corporations and Republicans, through scare techniques) and spends its huge lobbying dollars. The “ask” works. In 2009 the Chamber doled out somewhere in the area of $120 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-richardhsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4235,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233\/revisions\/4235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}