Politico offers a story about the Obama administration’s full-frontal assault on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has been a relentless critic of the cap-and-trade bill, leading some large appeasers, er, members (including Apple and Nike), to resign from the organization.
Still, administration spokeswoman Valerie Jarrett makes a salient point about the Chamber’s unwillingness to sit down with the White House and its newfound admiration for Adam Smith and Milton Friedman when the Chamber backed the financial system bailout and the $787 billion stimulus.
?How do you ask for all that government assistance and then say you believe
only in the free-market system,? Jarrett recalled asking [Chamber President Thomas] Donohue. ?And
he really didn?t have an answer.?
To be sure, the administration’s policies are hardly business-friendly. And if corporate America ever concludes that rent-seeking may not be a sustainable path to profitability, these heavy-handed tactics may backfire.
Still, Jarrett asks a good question, one that business executives who think about sidling up to the government should consider.
