Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Vote for Jobs, It's That Simple

The U.S. Chamber is currently engaged in a historic, multi-state voter education campaign to ensure American voters know where their candidates stand on the issue of jobs.

Are they supporting pro-jobs policies to advance American Free Enterprise and put America back to work?

Or are they playing politics over smart policy ... blocking common sense measures that will get our economy back on track?

Today, we highlight three of our most recent ads that let voters know where Senator Sherrod Brown, Congressman Rick Berg, and Congressman. Jim Matheson stand:

Ohio: Senator Sherrod Brown

Business owners across the country cite the health care law as a major hindrance to hiring and growing their operations. In Ohio, more than 2.2 million Ohioans voted to reject Obamacare. Pretty clear message, right?

Not to Senator Sherrod Brown, who called the vote “confusing,” saying that it didn’t tell us anything. We’re airing this ad to help remind Ohio voters that it was Sherrod Brown’s vote that helped allow Obamacare to pass the Senate:



North Dakota: Congressman Rick Berg

While Sherrod Brown is voting for job-killing policies like Obamacare - North Dakota Congressman Rick Berg is championing measures to put people in his state back to work. For example, he supports the Keystone XL pipeline, which would create tens our thousands of new American jobs and help secure America’s energy future.  Berg rejected President Obama’s politically motivated decision to reject the XL Pipeline and the jobs it’ll create.  In this ad, we highlight how Rick Berg stood up for new American jobs and new American energy:



Utah: Congressman Jim Matheson

Another Congressman fighting for American free enterprise is Jim Matheson of Utah.  He understands that for businesses to create jobs, they can’t be over burdened by oppressive taxes and regulatory red tape.  Matheson has a record of voting to lower taxes on businesses and reduce government regulations so that American free enterprise can grow, innovate, and create jobs. Watch our new ad about Congressman Matheson here:

These are just a few samples of our voter education efforts that are currently underway. 

We invite you to click here to view all of our ads and learn how you can join our effort to ensure that America Votes for Jobs in 2012.

While Congress is on Recess

Your members of Congress are home this week for their President’s Day Recess.  

The bad news is it’s another week without action on key policy items to put America back to work.

The good news is your members of Congress are back in your district and able to hear you loud and clear.

Take advantage of this opportunity to make sure your members hear from you on key agenda items left undone before they left Washington:

• Stop the NLRB Onslaught:  A new ruling from the NLRB would permit “ambush elections”, shortening the timeframe for union elections to as little as ten days.  This would give businesses very little opportunity to respond to union rhetoric or seek legal guidance, not to mention deny employees critical time to learn about the union and potential consequences of their vote.  Click here to email Congress to urge them to stop this NLRB rule. 
   
• Paving the Road to Recovery:  The current federal highway and transit bill expires on March 31st.  In order for business and commerce for function without interruption, Congress needs to pass a new bill to fund our necessary investment in transportation infrastructure.  Click here to tell your members of Congress to support the transportation reauthorizations bills.
   
• The Keystone XL Pipeline for Jobs:  President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline puts the future of upwards of 20,000 immediate new jobs — and likely tens of thousands more — in peril.  If Keystone isn’t approved soon, we may lose the opportunity to purchase much-needed oil from allies, Canada.  Click here to tell the White House to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Congress may be on recess, but it’s time that we take action and tell Congress we expect them to get serious about these issues when they return.

We can’t afford the cost of continued Congressional inaction on the issues important to our economic recovery. 

Over-Regulated America, Indeed

Last week’s cover story of British news publication, The Economist,  highlighted the absurdities of America’s exploding regulatory state.  The article points out that while some regulations are so senseless it’s comical, their economic harm is no laughing matter. : 

Consider the Dodd-Frank law of 2010. Its aim was noble: to prevent another financial crisis ... But Dodd-Frank is far too complex and becoming more so. At 848 pages, it is 23 times longer than Glass-Steagall, the reform that followed the Wall Street crash of 1929. Worse, every other page demands that regulators fill in further detail. Some of these clarifications are hundreds of pages long. Just one bit, the “Volcker rule”, which aims to curb risky proprietary trading by banks, includes 383 questions that break down into 1,420 subquestions.

Hardly anyone has actually read Dodd-Frank, besides the Chinese government and our correspondent in New York (see article). Those who have struggle to make sense of it, not least because so much detail has yet to be filled in: of the 400 rules it mandates, only 93 have been finalised. So financial firms in America must prepare to comply with a law that is partly unintelligible and partly unknowable.

Even absent the myriad of hoops businesses are forced to jump through, the uncertainty created by regulatory monstrosities like Dodd-Frank make it exceedingly hard for business to grow when they don’t know what the ground rules will be.

The U.S. Chamber has been a leading voice in the effort to fight back against out-of-control regulation in America that harms businesses and makes it more expensive and difficult to grow and hire. We’re advocating for legislation that seeks to reign  rein in overzealous regulations and the agencies that create them, as well as implement parameters to take into account the economic impact of regulation moving forward.  

Click here to take action, and ask Congress to prevent future harmful regulations like these by supporting the Regulatory Accountability Act.

Tweets this Week: Watch the Chamber's Newest Voter Ed. Efforts

Each Friday we'll bring you the most popular tweets of the week from our U.S. Chamber Grassroots twitter handle, @USChamberAction!

@USChamberAction: White House set to release budget today. Too much to ask (of both sides) to separate politics from budget-setting? http://ow.ly/92fqq 

@USChamberAction: Pretty awesome: @generalelectric to partner with @USChamber to hire 5k Veterans through the @HireOurHeroes program http://ow.ly/944bS

@USChamberAction: Watch Now: 16 states. 20 Ads. Watch the Chamber’s newest voter education efforts and join the fight: http://ow.ly/8YcSX #vote4jobs

@USChamberAction: "Where the pipeline goes remains a question" RT @energytomorrow: # construction begins in Canada via @dopor_org http://bit.ly/AmzwQY

@USChamberAction: TAKE ACTION: Visit our Grassroots Toolkit for 7 different ways to urge Congress to invest in America's infrastructure: http://ow.ly/98Oz6

Follow us for real-time updates! 

Grassroots Toolkit: Transportation Reauthorization

This week, both the House and Senate have been considering legislation to reauthorize the federal highway and transit programs.  While there are differences between the two packages, both bills include critical programmatic reforms and represent important investments in infrastructure around the country.  

The time is now to make sure Congress gets the job done – and we’ve outlined different steps you can take to encourage them to do so.  With the expiration of current law looming on March 31st, both the House (H.R. 7) and the Senate (S. 1813) need to pass bills and quickly move to conference so that a bill can be finished by March 31st.

This Week— Contact your members of Congress TODAY and tell them to Make Transportation Job Number One and pass a federal highway and transit bill! 

Here are some tools to help:

• Understand the basics; here is a quick guide to the issues.
• Contact your members of Congress and ask them to pass bills out of the House and Senate via email or phone (202-224-3121). 

Spread the word to employees, colleagues, friends and family: 

• Share this e-mail to your friends, family and colleagues
• Pass along the Chamber-led ATM coalition ads now airing on TV and radio

Next Week—February 20-24—Get some face time by meeting with your members!

Next week is Congress’ President’s Day Recess Work Period. Your Senators and Representatives will be at home connecting with you—their constituents—so ask for time on their calendars during office hours, attend public meetings that they’ve arranged, or offer to give them a tour of your business and talk to your employees who are affected by transportation investment.  Click here for more details on how to set up a meeting with your members, and here are some talking points to help guide your discussion.

A Bad Case of Budget Déjà Vu

Haven't we seen this before?

We're talking, about the president's 2013 budget proposal, released earlier this week -- as well as the U.S. Treasury's Greenbook, which highlights the president's tax proposals.

The President is calling for increases in the top marginal tax rates, reduction or elimination of itemized deductions, and higher taxes on growth-stimulating investment.

No meaningful tax reform. Higher taxes.

Add to that the spending increases in the proposed budget and you get a serious case of déjà vu.

In the fragile economy, the last thing our job creators need is to be saddled with higher taxes.  

The general rule is what you tax, you get less of.  And so, in increasing taxes on work, productivity, saving, and investment even more, the sad result will be less work, less productivity, less saving, and less investment.

Further, rather than seeking to make the tax code more conducive to economic growth, President Obama puts an even greater reliance on using the tax code to raise revenue.  He calls for the double taxation of profits American worldwide companies earn abroad, and $41 billion in tax hikes on job-creating traditional energy producers.

American employers, families and workers are suffering under a complex tax code that costs billions each year in compliance costs.  There’s never been a better time than now for serious proposals that lessen and simplify the tax burdens on millions of Americans.

But from the White House, it’s just déjà vu all over again. 

Read more in this article, where Caroline Harris, the U.S. Chamber’s Chief Tax Counsel, tells the McClatchy that, “there is something there to dislike for everyone."

What do politicians have to do to win your love this Election Year?

It’s Valentine’s Day, and love is in the air.

Of course, politicians across American will be trying to spread the love all year long — or, at least, until November 6th.

This Valentine’s Day, we’d like to give you the opportunity to tell these politicians exactly what it would take to make you love them more.

What do politicians have to do to win your love this Election Year?

U.S. Chamber Launches New Voter Education Ads

Crossposted from FreeEnterprise.com

In an early and aggressive election year move, the U.S. Chamber launched a multistate television ad and grassroots communications blitz in 12 House Congressional Districts and in 8 states with 2012 Senate races. 

Twenty-one television ads are rolling out in 16 states and more than 40 media markets. The voter education ads draw a contrast between leaders who stand up for free enterprise and those who support big government by highlighting issues impacting job creation and economic growth.

Several of the ads note members of Congress who support repeal of President Obama’s health care law, including Reps. Mike Coffman (R - CO), Charlie Bass (R-NH), Robert Dold (R-ILL), Frank Guinta (R-NH), Jim Renacci (R-OH), Fred Upton (R-MI), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Mike Patrick (R-PA), and Sean Duffy (R-WI).

Ads highlighting Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) and Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND), note their support for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. In the Lugar ad, titled “Dick Lugar for Jobs,” the voiceover notes that Lugar “fights for energy jobs and energy security, even when a president gets in his way.”

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Claire McCaskill (D-MI), Senate candidate Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-RI) are singled out for their support of the health care law. The Brown ad, which is the third to run in Ohio, notes that 2.2 billion Ohioans rejected government run healthcare.

“American families deserve to know who has the courage to fight for job-creating policies in Washington and who is hurting their pocketbooks,” said U.S. Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue.  “We’re asking the public to hold members of Congress accountable for their positions on Obamacare, job-killing regulations, energy security, and a culture of wasteful spending in Washington.”

The U.S. Chamber plans to play a major role nationwide in the 2012 elections, educating voters about candidates who have demonstrated consistent support for America’s job creators and who will work to advance a pro-growth agenda in Congress and those who haven't and won’t. The Chamber seeks to capitalize on its electoral successes of 2010 with an “Advance and Protect” strategy in 2012: advance pro-business interests in the Senate and protect pro-growth gains in the House.

This is the third round of voter education ads the Chamber has run this election cycle. The previous ads included a six-state ad campaign that hit Iowa, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Washington.

The Chamber’s ads can be viewed here.

VIDEO: Free enterprise will bring America back

Last week, the U.S. Chamber launched its second round of 2012 Issue Ads in states and districts across the country.  It's all part of our largest voter eduction efforts to date - and it's only just the beginning.

These ads clearly demonstrate that the 2012 Elections will be a contest between those who believe Free Enterprise will bring America back, and those who favor Big Government.In listening to people around the country and looking at the principles our nation were founded upon, it's clear that Free Enterprise is the way to go.  

Please take a moment to view these videos and learn more about the issues affecting communities around the country.

New Employment Numbers Look Good, But What Are You Seeing?

New employment numbers just out this morning show that 243,000 jobs were added to the American economy in January, bringing the unemployment rate down to 8.3%.  That returns the unemployment rate back to where it was in January 2009.

Good news, right?  Well, yes and no.

It is, of course, a positive development that actual jobs created exceeded the 150,000 that were being predicted.  We always want to see more jobs being added by American employers, but we have a duty to dig deeper and take a more serious look beyond just these surface numbers.

U.S. Chamber Chief Economist Dr. Martin Regalia notes that when you take a closer look, there are some unsettling facts:

“More and more people are removing themselves from the workforce because they are discouraged over their inability to find work. At this stage of the business cycle—more than 2.5 years into a recovery—it’s not a good sign that people are leaving the workforce.”

That so many have chosen to cease looking for employment is a clear sign of the continued fragile state of our economy.

If the Americans who have removed themselves from the workforce entirely were to be considered, the unemployment rate would be far higher than 8.3%.

What are you seeing in your hometown?  More job creation? New businesses opening?   We want to hear from you. Please leave a comment below to let us know the economic situation where you live.

Running From Our Economic Shadow

You might remember Phil Connors as Bill Murray’s TV weatherman character in the classic comedy film, Groundhog Day.  In the movie, the cynical and jaded Connors wakes up, over and over and over again, to relive the same day — Groundhog Day.

It’s only when Connors sheds his cynicism and begins to reexamine his life and his priorities that he finally ceases repeating Groundhog Day and moves on with a better life.

Connors’ frustrations seem unfortunately familiar lately as we’ve been living our own Groundhog Day lately, waking up to the same frustrating economic news, day in and day out.

But, taking hint from Connors’ redemption, we hope that soon the politicians in Washington will begin to reexamine their policies and their priorities.  We hope they’ll begin to remove the excessive burdens on businesses.  We hope they’ll come to their senses on the Keystone XL pipeline so we can create new American jobs and help secure America’s energy future. We hope they’ll begin to embrace a real jobs agenda that promotes economic growth and prosperity for all.

What do you think Congress should to so that we can stop waking up each morning the relive our own bad economic Groundhog Day?

Ominous Budget Numbers: It's Time for Congress to Get Serious

We hear a lot of talk coming out of Washington about getting serious about fixing the stalled American economy.  But every day that passes without measures to cut spending or create growth makes it harder to take the Congress seriously.  

The day the president delivered the State of the Union speech marked exactly 1,000 days since the United States Senate had last passed a budget. We often hear pundits chide a "do-nothing Congress" and, in this instance, they're correct.  The failure of the Senate to pass a budget — any budget — for more than 1,000 days is a grievous display of irresponsibility on their part, especially with the budget deficit continuing to balloon to record numbers.

But the "do-nothing Congress" charge is only partly correct.  There are no less than 22 job-creation bills that have passed in the House aimed at addressing our economy’s sluggish growth and stalled job creation. All 22 of those bills have languished in the Senate, without so much as an up or down vote.

If Congress is really serious about fixing our economy, and if they're serious about creating jobs and growing American prosperity, the first step is to take action.  

That means producing a budget that begins to deal with American's exploding debt problem.  That means considering the 22 pieces of House-passed job creation legislation.

It means Congress doing the job the American people sent them there to do. 

We want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on yesterday’s CBO report?