Word: chambers
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...announced the launch of a $100 million advocacy campaign to promote and defend "the free enterprise system" two weeks ago, Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas Donohue, 72, maintained that his new initiative was not "a campaign against anyone" or "about any piece of legislation." At the same time, he cited "plans afoot to weigh down America's once vibrant capital markets with excessive regulations, and to raise taxes on our most productive citizens" and also raised the specter of socialism, which he said was making worrying inroads, especially among youth...
...Donohue, a silver-haired former trucking lobbyist, was hoping not to send mixed signals, he failed; in the partisan pressure cooker of the nation's capital, where the chamber is more than ever a lightning rod for the role of business in politics, his critics saw the organization's campaign as simply part of its effort to block the Democrats' agenda on everything from health-care reform and climate change to financial regulation. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
...Chamber is undoubtedly the most effective business organization in the country, but lately it has found itself stumbling. President Obama has slammed it for "completely false" ads against his proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and the White House has increased its efforts to seek out CEOs directly and marginalize the Chamber. Major Fortune 500 players Nike, Apple, Exelon and PG & E, recently quit the organization (or its board) because of its "extreme rhetoric and obstructionist tactics" on global warming, as Nike put it in a letter. The Chamber has spent $17 million on the health-care debate, more than...
While defending the organization against a recent series of high profile defections over its climate change policies, Chamber officials insist they are just faithfully representing their membership's views. The problem with that is the lowest common denominator dynamic in trade associations, in which common policy is set by those with the most at stake. In a petition challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gases - authorized under a Supreme Court decision - the Chamber maintained there are likely to be some positive aspects to climate change. The resulting skepticism among environmental groups turned to outrage in early...
...Outside the chamber, the members of the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Just Russia Party, which was created by the Kremlin to attract opposition votes, demanded a meeting with Medvedev to urge him to live up to his promises. "We do not recognize the nationwide election results," said Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the right-wing Liberal Democrats. "We will not sit in a room with fraudsters...