Posted on 12/14/2013 6:08:50 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Business lobbyists are pumping their fists over Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) slap-down of conservative groups.
Executives at trade groups told The Hill they were pleasantly surprised by the strident remarks this week from the typically laid-back Speaker.
You didn't hear all the applause across downtown?” said Dirk Van Dongen, president and CEO of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW). “Folks were absolutely pleased that he said it. … It needed to be said.”
Boehner this week said conservative groups had “lost all credibility” by opposing the budget pact before it was even released. He said the activist organizations are “using our members, and they’re using the American people for their own goals.”
The rebuke was a clear shot at Heritage Action for America, the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks and other conservative groups that have proven adept at drumming up conservative opposition to legislation.
Business groups, whose frustration with the Tea Party boiled over during the government shutdown, said Boehner’s broadside was long overdue.
“I think we have all said it. The business community has been uniformly frustrated at how strident the ideological groups have been in defiance of reason,” said David French, senior vice president of government relations of the National Retail Federation.
Lobbyists said they are encouraged by the fact that the budget accord easily passed the lower chamber despite the opposition of outside groups. They hope it’s a sign that the influence of the conservative organizations is on the wane.
“Speaker Boehner said what a lot of us had been thinking for a long time, that these 'purity for profit' groups are taking advantage of well-meaning but politically naive members,” said one business group lobbyist.
The pushback by Boehner comes as trade groups are vowing to protect business-friendly candidates in the 2014 elections.
Business groups weighed in for Bradley Byrne in an Alabama special House election and saw him triumph in a Republican primary. Industry donors from Michigan have sought to garner support for a challenger to Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), one of the more prominent GOP rebels.
The conservative groups have often squared off with their industry counterparts in Washington, especially in recent battles over the debt ceiling and the government shutdown. They bristled at lobbyists echoing Boehner’s criticism this past week.
“Corporations are some of the biggest seekers of welfare in this country,” said Barney Keller, a spokesman for the Club for Growth. “Business groups are often on the side of bigger government and when they are, we will be on the opposite side of them. And where they're not, we will be on the same side.”
Dan Holler, a spokesman for Heritage Action for America, said business groups’ backing of Boehner shows that the budget agreement was flawed policy.
“The fact that K Street is applauding confirms that the deal was bad and Speaker Boehner's comments confirm conservatives' worst suspicions about Washington that the game is rigged,” Holler said.
In an MSNBC interview on Friday, Michael Needham, Heritage Action’s CEO, said the Speaker was trying to move past budget issues to find a path forward on immigration reform — which has been lobbied for heavily by business groups.
“This deal increases spending, this deal increases taxes. And that is bad for the county and that is what we want to be focused on,” Needham said. “The Speaker also wants to clear the way for immigration reform next year.”
Business lobbyists have taken hope from the substantial House vote for the budget deal — 332-94, with 169 Republicans supporting the bill. They believe that represents a move back towards the center in the GOP caucus.
“It was a very, very strong vote, especially when you contrast it with the debt ceiling and government shutdown votes. A significant shift,” Van Dongen said. “It seems that a number of members realized that ‘burn the place down’ is not popular with the American public.”
The backing from many in his own party has strengthened Boehner who has had to deal with conservative insurgents on Capitol Hill over the past week.
“Boehner had a good week,” French said. “He is in a stronger position than he was a few weeks ago.”
The ungrateful and disgraceful Boehner would not even have his job if not for the Tea Party successes of 2010.
Even if the GOP is able to somehow get majorities in the House and Senate in 2014, there’s not much reason for celebration. They will continue to go along with the Democrat agenda. It the only game they know; its how they roll.
Amazing how JB (like McCain and others) can only get worked up against the people who put them in office.
They are nice to the Democrats who are lying destroyers of all we hold dear.
They like to pretend they’re aiming at Ted Cruz, but we know exactly who they are aiming at.
Us.
Next stop for these traitors: amnesty.
Exactly. We will se how this goes over with Tea Party members.
We are the voters, not the lobbyists.
That’s the writing on the wall.
No, it's not the business community. It's Big Business that is in cahoots with Big Government. They are the enemy of freedom and opportunity. It's Crony Capitalism.
You can be assured 100% that these ‘business’ groups are all feeding at the government trough.
I think I need to work very hard at not spending any money at all. I need to mend my clothes, reuse everything single thing that I can, buy secondhand when possible. Big business obviously doesn’t need my money because big government has them covered. They can all go to L.
Several months ago one of these so called business leaders made the comment to the effect the US needed to move on to a new understanding of how business works and the US needed to become more like the Chinese model where govt and business work together.
Business supports the govt and govt supports the business by putting their competition out of business.
For all you people that want to hang onto the fantasy we are going to Marxism, if the left was taking us to Marxism business wouldn’t support it.
With Marxism business would become the property of the state.
With National Socialism (Nazism) business and the state work together to put their completion out of business.
That’s where the left is taking us.
The two party system has evoked into the party of government. We are now the USSR.
“........[John] Podesta has revolutionized the influence game by giving it the patina of intellectual respectability. Traditional lobbying has become blasé; it’s much better, much nobler, to enlist corporate “partnerships” in the progressive cause. As first reported by The Nation, the Center for American Progress has a number of corporate sponsors that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to join its “Business Alliance.” In return for payment these corporations gain access to the center’s scholars, its leadership, and its events with major Democratic officials. On Friday CAP released a list of its 2013 “corporate supporters,” including multinationals such as Citigroup and Coca-Cola and Daimler and Samsung; firms such as Albright Stonebridge and McLarty Associates and the Livingston Group that represent foreign interests; and affiliates of foreign governments such as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative in the United States and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.”.....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3101743/posts
They are bringing in slaves to replace the American worker for cheap. Where will the American worker go?
You must be going to south florida, those up here in the north tend to be a tad conservative, like 75%
The NRF apparently is NOT an American organization.
From their home page...
You know... my state... every county voted Red in the past national election. The whole state.
Washington DC should be called 100 square miles of Griftopia surrounded by reality.
Ironically Rush has been touching upon this subject for a while now i.e. how business is now being fed by government. Everywhere you look, government has a hand in what is going on. Either they directly subsidize the business with cash or force you to use it or regulate out of business any competition in favor of the big established companies. Notice how many of the big firms are direct donors to government and or their support groups. In obamacare for example, the health insurors were big time supportors from day one, or coconspirators, because they knew the government was going to hold a gun to everyone’s head to buy expensive coverage.
We have me the enemy and it is us.
Not all of Florida is like that. You have apparently gone to the same places where all the libtards from the northeast migrate to. My part of north Florida is quite conservative.
For starters there isn't a "Nationalism" component. These are global companies and nationalism has nothing to do with it.
As far as the question of Marxism vs. Socialism, both are systems where the government has the ultimate authority. Any other distinction between the two forms of government is not very significant.
Your lucky, we wish we could separate from the south east Florida dem pit as they have the votes there to outpace what we do here. You probably don’t recall but during the recount of the 2000 election while every vote was important, my county just happened to find 200 votes cast for Bush while all eyes were focused on the recount in south florida. We vote 75% conservative every election and try to keep the yankee invasion at bay. Unfortunately two just moved next door to me, both from Alexandria Va no less, and they ceased chatting with me when they noticed my Gadsden flag!
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