Free Republic

GOP money floods battlegrounds, threatens Dems' hold on SenateBy Alexander Bolton - 05/01/12 05:00 AM ET Third-party groups allied with the Republican Party have vastly outspent Democratic incumbents and their backers in Senate battlegrounds. The disparity in advertising firepower threatens Democratic control of the Senate and could have an impact on the presidential race as well. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a first-term Democrat from Ohio, has been the primary target of outside groups, which have outspent his allies by a ratio of 10-1 this election cycle. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Crossroads GPS and 60Plus Association have funded the bulk of...

Breaking - Why Is The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Meeting With Muslim Brotherhood Representative, The Freedom And Justice Party?April 4, 2012 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - According to the Muslim Brotherhood's English website, "A delegation from the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) began its first official visit to the United States on Monday April 2 for one week. During the visit, the delegation will hold meetings with major news media and think tanks in New York City, before heading to Washington DC to attend a one day conference on Islamist movements in power at the Carnegie Endowment for...

Republican Rep. Dan Lungren of Gold River is getting some early help for his re-election bid from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. A new television ad airing in the Sacramento area praises Lungren for "fighting to protect California jobs" and singles out his support for repealing the federal health care overhaul. A slight voter-registration edge for Democrats in the new 7th Congressional District and high turnout for the presidential election are expected to make Lungren a top target this year. He faces a rematch with Elk Grove Democrat Ami Bera, the doctor and medical educator who lost to Lungren by...

The recess appointments President Obama announced Wednesday are “almost certain” to be challenged in court, according to a top official with the nation’s largest business lobby. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has not decided whether it will file a legal challenge to the appointments, according to David Hirschmann, who heads the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. But he said he’s confident that Obama’s precedent-shattering move will land the administration in court. "We've made no decisions ourselves," Hirschmann told The Hill. "What we do know is ... it's almost certain ultimately a court will decide if what the president did...

For years, activists against illegal immigration pushed cities across California to adopt ordinances ordering businesses to verify that their employees were eligible to work in the U.S. snip But those victories appear to have been wiped out this month with legislation signed into law that prohibits the state, cities and counties from mandating that private employers use E-Verify. snip Those who sought the state law in reaction to the growing number of localities adopting mandatory E-Verify rules said such moves were a distraction from a larger problem. "As a nation, we are in such desperate need of immigration reform," said...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is issuing an open letter to Congress and the White House calling for measures designed to increase employment, including greater oil drilling, quick road and bridge construction and temporary corporate tax breaks.

No, this isn’t a “second look at Democrats� for the Chamber of Commerce, as National Journal’s Chris Frates reports, but it’s not exactly a love letter, either. The CC loved the pro-markets, small-government demands of the Tea Party, but the flirtation with the debt ceiling has the business community growing more nervous by the day. That has them hoping that Democrats can help bring the issue to a close before the crisis damages the markets and the economy: U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Bruce Josten wrote an alarming blog post recently arguing that Congress’s failure to raise the debt ceiling...

Some national business leaders are outright opposing measures of fiscal responsibility. Fortunately, fiscal conservatives in Congress are fighting back. Case in point: reaction to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I) Chairman John Mica’s (R–FL) proposed six-year reauthorization bill, which limits transportation spending to the federal fuel tax revenues flowing into the trust fund. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s reaction was to label the proposal “unacceptable.” Apparently in their view, the proposal doesn’t spend enough money on the business community. Chairman Mica quickly responded to the president of the Chamber on July 13, calling the reaction “most disappointing and a potential...

The idea of such a bank has been around since the 1990s but has never gained significant attention until now. In March a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate that gained the support of the US Chamber of Commerce, America’s leading business lobby, and the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation — two groups on opposite sides of most debates. The BUILD Act, proposed by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kay Hutchinson, R-Texas, and Mark Warner, D-Va., would create a national infrastructure bank that would provide loans and loan guarantees to encourage private investment in upgrading America’s infrastructure. There are...

History is threatening to re peat itself. Twenty-five years ago, Congress passed the Simpson-Mazzoli Act (better known among conservatives as the 1986 illegal-alien amnesty), which gave a path to citizenship to illegal aliens already here in exchange for prohibiting the hiring of illegal workers -- a provision that has been enforced only sporadically. It was a raw deal for conservatives. On Tuesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) introduced a bill (HR 2164) to require nationwide use of the E-Verify system, which checks a job applicant's citizenship and immigration status, via the Internet, to see if he or she...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration's defender of financial consumers, will venture into the corporate lion's den this week, along with Jamie Dimon, CEO of banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. The two will be speakers at an event set for Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country's largest business lobbying group, in its Corinthian-columned headquarters situated within view of the White House. Warren, 61, is an earnest Harvard Law School professor brought up in Oklahoma, while Dimon, 55, is a consummate New York City insider and one of Wall Street's richest CEOs. He was once...

Nothing wrong with profit sharing - as long as it's a private transaction either between an employee and the company or the union and the industry. But Obama's not concerned about that kind of setup. In fact, he makes it sound as if government would have a role in enforcing such profit sharing (video at RealClearPolitics link) "'If we're fighting to reform the tax code and increase exports, the benefits cannot just translate into greater profits and bonuses for those at the top. They have to be shared by American workers, who need to know that opening markets will lift...

President Barack Obama addresses the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and members of the audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce listen to remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, February 7, 2011. U.S. President Barack Obama (R) is greeted by Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue as he arrives to address the crowd in Washington, February 7, 2011.

In a speech today to the Chamber of Commerce, Barack Obama called for a reduction in corporate tax rates and simplification of the tax code, but he then pitched alternative energy, which is based wholly on tax breaks and subsidies. He said spending must be reduced and then again plugged the boondoggle of high-speed rail, which only benefits politically-connected contractors and unions, and bond traders. He said he favored free trade and then claimed that inventing something here and manufacturing it abroad "breaks the social compact." Obama started by saying that Americans have had their faith shakened in the institution...

"If we're fighting to reform the tax code and increase exports, the benefits cannot just translate into greater profits and bonuses for those at the top. They have to be shared by American workers, who need to know that opening markets will lift their standard of living as well as your bottom line," President Obama told the Chamber of Commerce on Monday morning.

A blog hosted by the Center for American Progress, headed by top Obama ally John Podesta, is blasting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for its tangential ties to the Egyptian government while ignoring the extensive lobbying activities of John’s brother Tony Podesta for the Egyptian government. “There is at least one powerful, multinational entity that has continually stood by Mubarak and the Egyptian elite and has continually fought efforts to democratize the country,” says the blog post, weaving a complicated tale of the Chamber’s Egypt affiliate lobbying on behalf of the Mubarak regime. The problem is: Mubarak’s top Washington ally...

U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue said Tuesday that his organization supports Republican legislation in the House to repeal President Obama’s health care reform law, but signaled that the powerful business lobby won’t employ the same scorched-earth tactics it used last year to try to kill reform. “Last year, while strongly advocating for health care reform, the Chamber was a leader in the fight against this particular bill and thus we support legislation in the House to repeal it,” Donohue said during a speech on the state of American business. “We see the upcoming House vote, however, as an...

The Arlington Chamber of Commerce wants to see a speedy end to the county's HOT lanes lawsuit, arguing that the cost of suing to stop the construction of high-occupancy toll lanes is damaging the county's reputation and hurting efforts to improve transportation on busy interstates. Chamber President Rich Doud said the lawsuit could undermine efforts to relieve traffic congestion in Arlington, damage the county's relationship with the private sector and drive up the HOT lanes project's cost as the lawsuit drags on. The chamber includes ending the lawsuit on its list of public policy priorities for 2011. The county spent...

As WSJ Supreme Court correspondent Jess Bravin wrote before the hearing, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had formed an “unusual alliance” with liberal groups hoping to strike down the law, which penalizes employers who hire illegal immigrants. But heading out of the argument, the story has shifted to the case’s probable outcome: that the law would survive the constitutional challenge. According to Bravin, several justices on Wednesday rejected claims that the state exceeded the limited powers Congress left it to enforce immigration policies.

Since taking office nearly two years ago, President Obama has frequently clashed with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a major business group that has plowed millions of dollars into opposing his plans to overhaul healthcare and impose new regulations on Wall Street. Obama and his aides have criticized the group publicly. But the administration's campaign to neutralize the group went further, according to a source involved in the dispute. Over the last year the White House has hosted meetings with business leaders to discuss policy, and in some of those sessions asked that they persuade the chamber to cancel TV...

How about that, there's someone on the airwaves more unhinged than liberal radio talker and MSNBC heat miser Ed Schultz. And go figure, that someone happens to be a frequent Schultz guest. But between his appearance on Schultz's radio show Nov. 22 and Schultz's MSNBC program several hours later, the caffeine apparently wore off for Mike Papantonio, a lawyer and co-host of the radio show "Ring of Fire," seeing how Papantonio dialed down his remarks from what he initially told Schultz. Here's what Papantonio said during the first hour of Schultz's radio show Monday between noon and 1 p.m. while...

My Fox News colleague Glenn Beck yesterday urged his radio listeners to participate in the “largest fundraiser for the Chamber.” Several readers wanted me to join in. Sorry, but I can’t think of a more perfect illustration of that old saying that “the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend.” If you have followed this blog over the years, you know I have opposed illegal alien amnesty in all forms, opposed the bipartisan TARP bailout from day one, opposed the bipartisan auto bailout from day one, and opposed the Obama stimulus from day one. The U.S. Chamber of...

The White House thinks its got a great campaign issue in falsely accusing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of funneling foreign dollars to Republicans, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews is making it clear he's willing to assist the administration in making its case. Who cares that there's absolutely no factual basis in what President Obama and the "Hardball" host are saying? So hell-bent on making this a serious election issue is Matthews that on Wednesday he accused the Chamber of intentionally increasing unemployment in this nation while harming the economy (video follows with transcript and commentary): CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Let me...

Has the White House been influenced by a convicted domestic terrorist for its attack on the Chamber of Commerce?The latest assault on the Chamber has been spear-headed by none other than the President himself and picked up by David Axelrod, MoveOn.org and all the usual Astro-Turfers who receive marching orders from the DNC. It’s become part of the standard talking points for cable-news pundits and their well-programmed guests and has been the new rallying cry for the left as they try their best to explain the imminent electoral disaster that looms on November 2nd. But one group was well ahead...

Nancy Pelosi? Nope. David Axelrod? Wrong. Unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers? You’re getting warmer…The latest assault on the Chamber has been spear-headed by none other than the President himself and picked up by David Axelrod, MoveOn.org and all the usual Astro-Turfers who receive marching orders from the DNC. It’s become part of the standard talking points for cable-news pundits and their well-programmed guests and has been the new rallying cry for the left as they try their best to explain the imminent electoral disaster that looms on November 2nd.But one group was well ahead of the curve on this movement...

President Obama made a lot of fuss recently about the US Chamber of Commerce accepting foreign contributions. The arrogance is amazing when we compare this to the fact that the USA basically lives on borrowed money from foreign countries. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is not shy to sell US securities to foreigners. You can get details about the Major Foreign Holders of U.S. Debt as of July 2010 here. Below are just few of the numbers in billions: China $847, Japan $821, UK $374, Oil Exporters $224, Brazil $162, Caribbean Banking $151, Hong Kong $135, Russia $131… It goes...

Like one who, on a lonely road, Doth walk in fear and dread, And, having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” -Friedrich Neitzsche If you’re a Democratic candidate right now, you’re haunted by a sense of impending doom. Your numbers are down, the hair on the back of your neck is up,...

Nikki Haley is almost everything the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce could want in a candidate for governor: A former small business owner (she helped run her family's luxury-clothing company in Lexington, S.C.), Haley has served on the boards of two local chambers and campaigns on the traditional business gospel of lower taxes and smaller government. As Haley was steaming toward an easy win in the Republican primary runoff last June, the South Carolina Chamber's board—56 business leaders representing sectors ranging from banking to health care to construction—met at Clemson University to decide whether to endorse her or her general...

***SNIP*** So I'm delighted the Democrats are finally hitting back at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other Republican front groups for dumping millions of dollars of untraceable corporate contributions into the election, with the total likely to exceed $300 million. But since Democrats haven't exactly been innocent of taking special interest money in the past, we, ordinary citizens, need to be the ones driving this issue. We need to make the buying of our democracy the salient issue of the coming election and beyond, because it affects everything else that we need to change. ***SNIP*** We also need to...

Glenn Beck is calling for contributions to Chamber of Commerce in wake of attack by Obama, Axelrud, and others

Listening to Beck. He has just called for listeners to donate to the Chamber of Commerce today. He requested a story go up on The Blaze shortly. Eagles Up! Direct link to donation page: "Make a donation today to help the U.S. Chamber fight for your Business" https://www.uschambersmallbusinessnation.com/join-us/make-a-donation

"Video: Radio Host, Fox News Contributor, Former Supreme Court Law Clerk Laura Ingraham; Obama, It Is Time To Release Your Records Laura Ingraham - Obama It Is Time To Release Your Records - Laura talks about the records that Obama won't release from college records to visitors list for the White House to his 2008 campaign records, Obama, it's time for you to show your records."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFmrVXJdXyY&feature=player_embeddedFrom: http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2010/10/video-radio-host-fox-news-contributor.html

Eager to keep Democrats on the defensive, Republican-allied groups are planning a $50 million advertising drive in a number of House races in an extraordinary surge of spending in the final days of the midterm election campaign. The effort by some of the GOP's top strategists comes amid a wave of new fundraising. American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, two affiliated groups formed this year with the help of operatives Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, said Wednesday they raised more than $13.3 million in one week...

Tuesday afternoon, I spoke with Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce, about the White House pressing the Chamber to release its donors list, after President Obama seized on a ThinkProgress report suggesting that since some Chamber money comes from foreign multi-nationals and foreign-based Chamber affiliates, foreign money may be being spent on the Chamber’s political ads. [Snip] TAPPER: But why not just settle the dispute by opening your books? JOSTEN:  I've explained to you, we're not going to subject our contributors to harassment, to intimidation, and to threats and to invasions of...

Just outside the DC Beltway, in Maryland’s sprawling first congressional district, an electoral battle is underway that exposes unique ideological fault lines beneath America’s political landscape. The campaign pits freshman “Blue Dog” Democratic congressman Frank Kratovil in a rematch against Republican Dr. Andy Harris. Given the political tilt of the district, coupled with the Tea Party tsunami gathering force this year, one would think that this race should be a slam dunk for Harris. A tall, affable family man, Harris is an anesthesiologist, Navy veteran, hardcore free-marketer, and constitutional conservative. By contrast, Kratovil, a former attorney, tries to portray himself...

TAPPER: But what do you say to people who argue you are demonizing an organization for a charge that nobody knows if it's true or not? AXELROD: Well I’m not demonizing the Chamber of Commerce. I’m simply suggesting to them that they disclose the source of the $75 million that they are spending in campaigns and put to rest, put to rest the questions that have been, that have been raised. TAPPER: Isn't that like the whackjobs that tell the president he needs to show them his full long-form birth certificate so he can put to rest the questions that...

Politics: President Obama has doubled down in his attack on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, continuing to call its ads foreign-funded. His charges are false and he knows it. If this isn't beneath his office, what is? One needs to look hard to find any head of a major democracy as openly at war with his country's Chamber of Commerce as Obama is. His charge that the Chamber's $75 million ad campaign ahead of elections is funded by foreign sources is both false and an unprecedented smear, an accusation of a crime. It's deeply disappointing coming from a country's elected...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue is vowing to "ramp up" political advertising in the final weeks before the Nov. 2 election and accuses the Obama administration of conducting a smear campaign against the chamber.

When the likes of CBS “Face the Nation” moderator Bob Schieffer and The New York Times are calling out the Obama White House on its efforts to villainize the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, you have to know something is up. However, President Barack Obama hasn’t completely distanced himself from the Chamber, a fact which has gone largely overlooked by an increasingly skeptical media. According to an Oct. 8 story posted on the IndUS Business Journal on its website, the same Barack Obama that publicly attacked the Chamber of Commerce for alleged foreign contributions is scheduled to speak to the U.S.-India...

The president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vowed Tuesday to “ramp up” his group’s political activity in the face of what he called a “smear campaign” by the White House aimed at stemming Democratic losses in the midterm elections. In a letter sent Tuesday to the chamber’s board of directors and its member companies, Thomas J. Donohue, the business association’s president, accused President Obama and his allies of falsely accusing the chamber of illegally funneling foreign money to its political efforts.

The president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vowed Tuesday to “ramp up” his group’s political activity in the face of what he called a “smear campaign” by the White House aimed at stemming Democratic losses in the midterm elections. In a letter sent Tuesday to the chamber’s board of directors and its member companies, Thomas J. Donohue, the business association’s president, accused President Obama and his allies of falsely accusing the chamber of illegally funneling foreign money to its political efforts. “Let me be clear. The chamber does not use any foreign money to fund voter education activities —...

Bruce Josten, the Executive VP of Government Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, appears on FOX News to respond to claims by the White House and Democrats that the group is using foreign money to run ads against their party. Josten says the Chamber does not solicit any foreign groups for funding of their "issue advocacy" ads. Josten says the group does not run ads for or against candidates, but rather uses money to promote issues important to them. Josten categorically denies any foreign involvement to fund ads. "Absolutely none," he tells FOX News. "I have never seen anything...

The White House’s current effort to disparage the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is an act of desperation in light of the low poll numbers of the Democratic Party going into the November midterm, as some have pointed out. But perhaps President Barack Obama should address some questions about his own fundraising before attacking other organizations. On the Oct. 11 broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” former host and network contributor Brit Hume took on the issue of administration officials using the bully pulpit to push these charges. According to Hume, the charges are baseless and even...

Last week, President Obama called out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, accusing it of funneling contributions to the business advocacy group from foreign corporations to its U.S. political activity. This, of course, ignited a political firestorm. The left had a “eureka!” moment. After all, American typically don’t like foreign actors meddling in their elections. Surely foreign corporations should have no say in who Americans elect? The right, meanwhile, responded in disgust. Today, Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey described the allegations on the Chamber as a form of McCarthyism. I have to side with Ed. The President and his cohorts expect the...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce responded emphatically Monday night to a direct challenge from Vice President Joe Biden to reveal how much of their funds donated to candidates comes from foreign sources. The answer, according to an evening press release? None. "Zero. As in, 'Not a single cent,'" wrote Tom Collamore, senior vice president of Communications and Strategy from the Chamber of Commerce in an e-mail with "And the Answer Is ..." as its subject line. "We accept the vice president's challenge here and now, and are happy to provide our answer," Collamore added, in response to Biden's harsh indictments...

That was the question asked of David Axelrod by Bob Schieffer Sunday on “Face the Nation”. A Liberal newsman and commentator took on and ridiculed Obama’s White House Adviser on CBS – Obama really has turned off many people with his arrogance and incompetence. Barack Obama and the DNC have been reduced to scandal mongering as a political defense against the Republican landslide that will take place in just three weeks. They have been diminished to the level of throwing political crap on the wall and hoping something useful might stick. A recently released DNC television commercial accused the U.S....

Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And so goes the White House with these attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce drummed up by the “professional left’s” blogosphere that it is using foreign donations to finance political advertising. Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer however, had another take on what these attacks are. He said they’re not insane, but desperation of on of the highest degrees. During the Oct. 11 broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Krauthammer attacked the Obama administration, calling this campaign...

It seems like a phony issue for the a struggling Obama administration to be promoting – the allegations that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may or may not be using foreign contributions to fuel political ads against Democrats. However, President Barack Obama would be best advised to make sure his party wasn’t doing something similar before using the bully pulpit to push this meme. On CNBC’s Oct. 11 broadcast of “Power Lunch,” CNBC Washington correspondent Eamon Javers laid out the latest ramped up attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from the president. ...more (w/video)...

If you are an American and you travel anywhere in the world in an official capacity, one of your first meetings is likely to be with the local American Chamber of Commerce. Meeting with AmChams (as they are called) is an essential way to get a better understanding of how American businesses are doing in selling American products overseas. Members of AmChams (who are usually American) have an acute understanding of the local laws, the obstacles that foreign governments often place in the way of trade and the opportunities that exist for further investment. AmChams are the tip of the...

David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s top adviser, said yesterday on “Face the Nation” the the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a “threat to our democracy.” This statement is in response to the allegations that the Chamber is using foreign money to fund elections within the United States.