Torture Chamber (on President Obama and the Chamber of Commerce)

[ProSense]

Torture Chamber

Jonathan Chait

President Obama is offering an olive branch to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the right-wing business lobby that spent millions of dollars opposing his agenda and helping elect Republicans. Meanwhile, the Chamber has said it won't be working to unseat Obama in 2012, though this promise actually means it won't be working quite so openly to unseat Obama in 2012:

<...>

Why is the Chamber taking a lower profile? Possibly because the White House is encouraging some competition to the Chamber's pro-Republican line:

The White House has been working behind the scenes to boost an outside group of corporate executives, known as Business Forward, to help set it up as a kind of rival organization to the Chamber of Commerce. The idea is, according to senior Democratic strategists, that the executives who make up Business Forward can stand up and support the president's agenda -- serving as a counterweight to Chamber opposition in order to show that the business community is not unilaterally anti-Obama.

In fact, Jim Messina, deputy chief of staff at the White House, briefed leaders of Business Forward on Obama's agenda at a meeting in Washington on Monday. The group is made up of executives from several major corporations, including AT&T, Ford, Facebook, Microsoft, Fidelity, Hilton Worldwide, Visa, Wal-Mart, McDonald's and Time Warner (the parent company of CNN).

Documents from the event obtained by CNN noted that "17 of America's most respected companies are working with Business Forward to encourage thousands of business executives, small business owners, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to get engaged in the policymaking process."
The documents added that over the next three months, the group plans to "host panels in Washington and around the country on consumer financial protection, trade and exports, cybersecurity and IP, health care and childhood obesity," all of which could be an opportunity to drum up support for some of Obama's signature issues.

If you recall, several companies pulled out of the Chamber in 2009 over its hard-line opposition to cap and trade. The Chamber is run mainly by Republicans who are committed to a classic class-solidarity brand of pro-business advocacy, in which business executives emphasize their shared interests in opposing regulation and protecting low tax rates for wealthy individuals. But there are a lot of executives who want to do something about carbon emissions and other national problems that can't be solved simply by concentrating more wealth and power in the hands of business owners and managers, and the Chamber doesn't want competition. So the apparent detente between the Chamber and Obama may be less friendly than it appears.

[WhiteTara]

1. This was on DU yesterday and I really was impressed with

the list of companies he chose for his/our side. Facebook could bury them!

[global1]

2. Are They Really On His/Our Side Or Are They Playing Both Ends Against The Middle?... nt

[ProSense]

7. Maybe the tea baggers will scare them off. n/t

[kenfrequed]

3. idiocy.

This is not the answer. The answer is to promote a people versus the chamber of commerce spin and hammer it until election day. The republicans did this to Acorn with lies, is someone telling me that we cannot do this with the truth? No, much better to set up a counter group to back conservadem spin which will undoubtedly aid the blue dogs, conseradems, and DLC sorts. Great idea! About as populist as Caviar and likely to create more trouble than it solves.

[ProSense]

4. Typical

"The answer is to promote a people versus the chamber of commerce spin and hammer it until election day."

Where were you during the campaign when the President was hammering the Chamber on buying elections?

The OP is brilliant. We live in the U.S. and you can't ignore business. You can't.

[kenfrequed]

5. "brilliant?"

Really? You honestly think that sort of tactic is brilliant?

I think it is, at best, fundraising strategy and not terribly impressive at that.

To actually turn out your voters you have to turn up something called 'populism.' The reason the repukes managed it and we didn't is because they had this phony 'tea party' nonsense that was stoked and fired up over a year and a half. The administration chose to choke its own message down, and play up on bipartisanship and getting along for a year and a half and then expected that magically they would be able to go after the Chamber in the last month. Idiocy.

You have to actually motivate and energize populism by focusing hard on simple messaging and (and this part is very important) sticking to it after you get elected. This isn't a counter to the Chamber, this is merely formalizing the power of big business for the Democrats.

[ProSense]

6. Yes, brilliant

Peeling off the Chamber's support is actually a great plan. For far too long, businesses have had no alternative coalition and remained with the Chamber simply to push a collective agenda. The businesses that have dropped their membership recently are finding that the Chamber has simply become a political arm of the GOP, regardless of how damaging the Republican agenda is for business.

"To actually turn out your voters you have to turn up something called 'populism.'"

What does this have to do with realigning the business community?

[kenfrequed]

8. Uhm...

It has to do with that magic thing called "Winning elections." And that other thing about "progressive reform."

If you don't embrace a politics that is accessible and can reach out to real peoples conditions than you will not inspire them to vote.

Having a bizzarro universe version of the Chamber of Commerce- only maybe one that is slightly more gay friendly (as long as they buy stuff) and maybe only wants slightly more tax cuts for themselves (at the expense of social security) is not a winning strategy.

So brilliant... not really to get elected, but it will be an excellent method and device to get endorsements in primaries for conserva-dems.

[ProSense]

9. "It has to do with that magic thing called 'Winning elections.'"

I'm sure you can counsel the President on that.

"Having a bizzarro universe version of the Chamber of Commerce"

If you close your eyes the entire business community disappears.

Do you believe the economy is going to recover without the cooperation of the business community? What exactly do you think the economy is?

[kenfrequed]

10. Great

Lets give the wealthy more tax breaks and incentivize business even more. Where will we ever get the money?

Hmmm... I guess Grandma and Grandpa can enjoy a Christmas Catfood hash dinner in the future. Seriously, the economy is an 'either-or' thing. There isn't magic money that can be spent to do right by the poor and working class as well as the business community. Someone is going to have to make sacrifices and the mroe we put ourselves in the pockets of business the less likely the finite supply of money is going to flow towards the people that need it.

Besides, conserva-lite does not win elections because it doesn't stand for anything.

[ProSense]

11. "Lets give the wealthy more tax breaks and incentivize business even more."

Hmmm... I guess Grandma and Grandpa can enjoy a Christmas Catfood hash dinner in the future. Seriously, the economy is an 'either-or' thing. There isn't magic money that can be spent to do right by the poor and working class as well as the business community. Someone is going to have to make sacrifices and the mroe we put ourselves in the pockets of business the less likely the finite supply of money is going to flow towards the people that need it.

See this is the problem when people make definitive statements against policy based on speculation.

Can you provide evidence that the President wants "Grandma and Grandpa can enjoy a Christmas Catfood hash dinner in the future"?

I can show where he provided relief for more than 58 million seniors via health reform, tax cuts and rebates.

[GoldMedals4U]

12. Sadly, I agree

I don't think it's a winning argument.

[ProSense]

13. Welcome to DU

"I don't think it's a winning argument."

It's not an argument, it's a strategy that isn't playing out in debate. A group is rounding up support for the Democratic agenda to counter the Chamber's pro-GOP stance. That's smart.