Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Stand Up for American Enterprise!

Stand with the job creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs that drive growth.

This week, the U.S. Chamber is celebrating our 100th Anniversary -- a century of standing up in the name of American Enterprise and representing the voice of businesses across the country in Washington D. C. 

In order to properly honor the entrepreneurs, the innovators, and the small business leaders that are the drivers of our free enterprise system, we’re asking all of our friends to unite on Facebook and spread the word to STAND UP for American Enterprise.

Click the image below and sign in with Facebook to show your family and friends that you stand up for American Enterprise and the issues that are vital to its success: lowering taxes, stopping Obamacare, increasing American energy, and reining in government regulations.

The real power of this tool lies in its ability to share and spread this message right there with your Facebook network. So take a moment to click and show your friends that you care about free markets and the people and principles that make America great.

We hope you’ll stand with us.

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. 

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."

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?

State of the Union: More Government or Free Enterprise?

If you watched the president’s State of the Union address last night, you witnessed a speech that focused on many issues central to our economy. Unfortunately, he missed the mark. As U.S. Chamber President Tom Donohue said after the speech:

"Too many of the solutions he proposed rest on higher taxes, more spending, and an avalanche of new regulations. The way to create the jobs Americans need is to grow our free enterprise economy, not to further expand the federal government."

We’re ready to work with anyone in Congress or the White House on solutions that will put Americans back to work without raising taxes or adding to the deficit. Read the Chamber’s jobs plan here.

It’s possible. And it’s time to demand real solutions.

Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts on the president’s speech. You can also join us on Twitter for a national conversation taking place now.

Unclogging the Jobs Agenda

As we begin 2012, the American economy is stalled in too many ways.  Unemployment remains high, economic growth is sluggish and the big hand of federal government looms large.

Washington continues to stand in the way of job creation, economic growth and prosperity.

For their part, the U.S. House of Representatives has worked to provide relief from this stifling environment.  The House has passed 24 different pieces of legislation that seek to expand free trade, aid in capitalizing business ventures, expand energy production and development, reduce the regulatory and tax burdens on business, and reign in out-of-control government agencies like the National Labor Relations Board and the Environmental Protection Agency.  

Only two of these — repeal of the 1099 reporting mandate included in Obamacare and repeal of the 3% withholding tax mandate — have become law.

The remaining 22 bills have two things in common:  Each of these measures would go a long way to getting the American economy growing again.  And, all of them have stalled in the United States Senate.

You can go here to view our full chart highlighting these bills that have passed the House only to remain untouched by the Senate.

 

2011 A Year in Grassroots

The Growing Backlog of Jobs Bills in Congress

This session, the House has passed more than 25 bipartisan pieces of legislation that will create jobs. However, they’re stalled in the Senate awaiting action before a single new job will be created.  

Check out this “Jobs Tracker” resource that House Majority Leader Cantor’s office compiled including content and status of each jobs bill passed thus far in the 112th House of Representatives .   You’ll notice many red “stuck in the Senate” signs flashing.  Talk about a backlog.

These are bills aimed at things that will help to get our economy moving again like empowering small businesses, increasing competitiveness for American manufacturers and helping to reform our increasing domestic energy resources.  Many of these bills track closely with the recommendations of the U.S. Chamber’s six-point jobs plan. 

This is a significant reason the upcoming 2012 election will be so important.  We need elected officials who are willing to stand for jobs and pass the legislation needed to get our economy going again. Learn more about our efforts leading up to November 2012 and watch the ads currently running in important battleground states. 

Two Weeks Until Super Committee Deadline

T-minus two weeks until the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction deadline to produce $1.2 trillion in deficit savings. 

Yesterday, the Chamber's Executive Vice President for Government Affairs, Bruce Josten, spoke with Reuters correspondent, Thomas Ferraro, about the threat of automatic cuts  and the need to  fundamentally set a new course on restructuring entitlement programs. 

The decisions made by the twelve members of the Super Committee will impact every business and every individual in America. Visit the Super Committee website today to hold the members accountable

Pelosi, Unplugged: Boeing Should Unionize or Say Bye-Bye to New Plant, New Jobs

It’s no secret that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been the poster child of overreach and overregulation from the federal government. This unelected board of bureaucrats has issued ruling after ruling that overtly seeks to benefit Big Labor at the expense of American employers.

When The Boeing Company wanted to open a new plant — with upwards of 1,000 new jobs — in South Carolina, the NLRB sued to stop it, because the jobs would be non-union (South Carolina is a “Right to Work” state.)  

If you’re like us, you agree that this NLRB decision is an egregious abuse of power that threatens American jobs..    But,  if you’re like Rep. Nancy Pelosi, you think the NLRB decision was right — and that Boeing should simply unionize ... or not build its new plant.

Believe it or not, that’s exactly what Congresswoman Pelosi told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo in this recent interview:

What do you think of Pelosi’s comments?  Log in and leave your comments, or share your ideas with us on Twitter @USChamberAction.

Ghouls, Goblins and Government Regulation

The Mic is Now Open ... for American Small Business Owners

It’s understandable that American small business owners feel like their concerns aren’t being heard.

According to the results of our past few Small Business Outlook Surveys, they’ve been asking for federal government to get out of their way ...yet the federal government has 

However, recently, one government agency has taken a step in the right direction. This week the U.S. House Small Business Committee launched their new website, Small Biz Open Mic, providing a platform for small businesses to share their story and an outlet where they know their voice matters. done the exact opposite

Introducing Friends of the U.S. Chamber's New Super Committee Site

With stagnant job growth over the last two years, an uncontrollable deficit and entitlement programs that will bankrupt our country if unaddressed – the future of our country hangs in the balance.

The Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the Super Committee could be a game changer.

 

With Congress unable to overcome its partisan stalemate, these 12 members have been tasked with the near impossible – find a common ground and cut trillions in spending to improve our fiscal health moving forward.

This is no easy task and one that will require the participation of all American citizens to ensure the committee uses this opportunity to cut spending and establish a path for entitlements and the tax code moving forward.

Our recently launched site is dedicated to giving you a voice in the debate that will shape our future and the future for generations to come.

As you’ll see, we make it easy for you to contact the committee members — and all members of Congress, as well as follow news about the committee’s progress.

The site also provides tools for you to urge elected officials to set the country on a sustainable path to deficit reduction without undermining its long term competitiveness.

This path includes meaningful entitlement reform and comprehensive tax reform that promotes, rather than hinders, American economic growth and competitiveness.

Visit our site and engage with the Super Committee today.

Few times in history have such a small group of lawmakers held the fate of our economy in the balance -- it’s up to you to hold them accountable.

We hope you’ll visit our new site today, and spread the word about this important initiative. 

Let's Talk Jobs: White House Office Hours on Twitter

Is the White House listening to your thoughts on jobs?  Tonight and tomorrow the White House will be holding Office Hours on Twitter, and we’ll be keeping an eye on the following events to ask the @WhiteHouse about their plans to put America back to work. 

Tuesday, September 13 at 5:30 p.m. EDT: David Plouffe, senior advisor to the president  answering your questions on Twitter during White House Office Hours using the hashtag #WHChat. 

Wednesday, September 14th at 4:00 p.m. EDT: White House Office Hours with Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic council. 

We hope you’ll join us in supporting the Chamber's six-point plan to spur economic growth in the private sector without adding to the deficit. Join in on the action by  following and retweeting  @USChamber and @USCCMiller during these times.

Are Your Members of Congress Talking About Jobs?

No new net jobs in August.  That's the bottom line from the national jobs report released on Friday.  

With more than 25 million people unemployed or underemployed, we need a plan to get America back to work. 

Has your Member of Congress proposed a plan? 

Click here to find out and communicate with your members of Congress on Facebook.

 

According to a recent survey of congressional staffers, 2/3 of those surveyed think Facebook is an important way to understand constituents’ views. 

With the President’s speech on jobs later this week and many members of Congress introducing their own plans, visit Facebook to see what’s being discussed in your community.  If you're looking for six ways they can take action now without adding to the deficit or increasing the size of government, feel free to post a link to the Chamber's jobs plan on your members' pages.

With Congress back in Washington, let’s use every means possible to make sure their top priority is getting America back to work too.

The Unpopular Crowd

The Federal Government, Less Popular Than Every Private Business Sector 

Over the last few years, some politicians in Washington, D.C. have done their best to demonize American business and propose a policy agenda of “punishment” against these job creators.

They’ve tried to paint American employers as everything from “corporate jet owners” to tax evaders.  However, it appears their efforts have proved unsuccessful.

According to a new Gallup survey, the federal government is less popular than every other business sector in the country (heck, even lawyers are more popular than the federal government).

Take the oil and gas industry for example.  This sector has been attacked as “Big Oil” and targeted for tax hikes by the Administration and some members of Congress.  Even so, oil and gas remains more popular than their accuser.

These survey results are in similar accord with what we saw in our recent survey of American small business owners — that they trust the private sector more than the federal government to get our economy back on track.

Take a look at this Gallup graph to see exactly how federal government stacks up against 24 other business sectors:



Who’s number one on your most popular list? Who do you believe can lead the way back to prosperity? Weigh in by submitting a comment below. 

Make the Most of August Recess

It’s hard to believe that August is almost over and Congress will be back from recess in just over a week.  Hopefully, that means that most of you have been able to attend a local town hall meeting held by your member of Congress.

 
If you haven't attended on already, it’s not too late to speak out.  Visit America's Town Hall today. 

Be Heard at America's Town Hall

Before the President even signed the debt ceiling increase into law earlier this week, many members of Congress had already left town for the August recess, moving eagerly to a more popular topic: JOBS.

This August Recess, we’ve launched America’s Town Hall –an online resource to track your member’s meetings on the Twitter #TownHallTrack feed, discuss town hall sentiment on our comment map and reach out to members of Congress about your top priorities.

Creating American jobs needs to be more than a talking point – it needs to be comprehensive approach to empower small businesses and the private sector to resume hiring and growth.

So long as Congress uses job growth as a back-pocket priority – our economy will continue to stall. 

As you know, we’ve been calling for Congress to make pro-jobs policies a priority since day 1 – and unfortunately many of their policies are the problem, not the solution.  

Join us online support pro-growth policies that will remove uncertainty and hold Congress accountable during the August Recess while they’re in your district.

Visit America’s Town Hall today. 

P.S. Recent reports show that long awaited progress is being made on the pending Free Trade Agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea; the passage of which would result in up to 250,000 new American jobs.  Visit America’s Town Hall and urge your members to stay on top of this issue, even when they’re outside the beltway.

Default Is Not an Option -- Spread the Word

Cross-posted from Chamberpost

We have been telling you for weeks and months that defaulting on our debt is not an option – it has real, immediate, and potentially catastrophic consequences.

As Tom Donohue and Rob Nichols outlined in their joint USA Today op-ed just last week, failure to raise the debt ceiling would have calamitous results. It would halt government operations, make our debt and deficit situation worse, debase the value of the dollar and threaten its status as the world’s reserve currency, and hamper U.S. growth and job creation.

And we are going to remind you again. If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, there will be real impacts, for every American. Interest rates will rise for everyone – which means higher rates for American consumers and the small businesses who drive our economy. Car loans, mortgages, and business and student loans will all be more expensive.

Now, make no mistake; too much spending and the need for real entitlement reform has led to the debt crisis we’re in today. But jeopardizing our country’s credit rating and fiscal security by refusing to compromise isn’t the answer.

The result from political inaction could be devastating. Congress needs to increase the debt limit but, the debt ceiling is just the symptom; the real problem is the explosion of federal debt. 

According to new figures released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), debt is forecasted to rise to 190 % of GDP by 2035. CBO’s annual long-term budget outlook forecasts a surge in public debt this year that will rise to 70% of GDP by the end of fiscal year 2011 compared to   62 % by the end of 2010.  Beyond the 10 year budget window, the situation deteriorates even faster. 

We need to stop this downward spiral and get America back on the right track. Click here to contact Congress now and tell them to act immediately to raise the debt ceiling and enact serious spending reforms to fix our debt crisis.

The White House and Congress face a looming August 2 deadline to resolve their differences and raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. The need to raise the debt ceiling provides leverage for meaningful, long-term, bipartisan action to rein in long-term deficit spending and entitlement reform. Financial markets would be reassured and we’d avoid a potential spike in interest rates, which will only stall our struggling economy.

Click here and contact your Senators and Representative in Congress TODAY and tell them that default is unacceptable.

Chart via the Congressional Budget Office.

Where are the Jobs?

Crossposted from Chamberpost

After a less-than-impressive jobs report on Friday, the Chamber's Chief Economist, Dr. Martin Regalia, offered a pretty succinct overview of what's stalling hiring on ABC News' This Week.

While some on the economic roundtable say the threat of war and a military buildup will jumpstart the economy (huh!?), and others say businesses are only facing new regulations from the financial sector (tell that to a small business owner who's reviewing the health care law.  Or the clean energy companies looking to act on the 400+ projects that are being held up), Marty pointed out that there's "A lot of noise in the system is detracting from momentum."   It's time for Washington to strip away these distractions by moving forward with a decision to raise the debt ceiling. 

Once businesses are no longer facing this kind of concern and uncertainty, they'll be able to move forward with what they do best: expand and create jobs.

Vote Alert: Increase Energy Production and create American Jobs

Energy Prices? Jobs? Deficit?  Check, check and check!

Here at the U.S. Chamber, our business is jobs.

And, you don’t have to read a public opinion poll to know that jobs joins rising energy prices and the federal deficit crisis as the three top issues on voters minds these days.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have some legislation that dealt with all three issues at one time?

Consider your wish granted.  The House is set to vote today on two bills — H.R. 1229 and H.R. 1230 — aimed at increasing energy production and creating American jobs.

H.R. 1229 would help put residents of the Gulf Coast back to work through offshore drilling, and H.R. 1230 would enable the U.S. to produce more domestic energy in areas barred for energy production under government moratoria.

And, as The Hill reports, H.R. 1230 would also help reduce our federal deficit:

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Friday released an estimate that said H.R. 1230, the "Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act," would bring in an estimated $40 million in revenues over the next decade, and would cost just $2 million to implement.

More energy production and jobs.  Lower deficit and energy prices. 

Sounds like a win-win to us.

Encourage your  members of Congress do the right thing by voting “YES” on these two bills today.

The Townhall Trend: Rising Gas Prices.

Thanks to those of you who both attended Townhalls while your members of Congress were home and shared what’s being said, what’s going on, and how you're involved.

From everything to small business owners forced to lay off employees because of increasing energy costs and attack ads against members of Congress willing to stand up to the EPA’s unilateral regulation of greenhouse gases – we heard a wide range of important issues.

One of the common concerns was over raising gas prices – an issue we will continue to weigh in on in the days ahead. At the U.S. Chamber, we recognize that increasing domestic drilling is one of the easiest and quickest fixes to this impending crisis. Urge your members of Congress to stop the de facto drilling moratorium and do more to increase access to domestic resources.

To hear more about what our allies across the country are hearing, read the full responses below.

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From my conversations with contractors, non-profit organizations, city, county and state officials, everyone is worried about current issues in the economy and understand there needs to be something done to curb the national debt. The price of fuel has already caused loss of disposable income. This in turn means that they are going to focus on essentials of life, food, roof over their head, which has taken a major hit in value, getting to and from work. …We have neglected our infrastructure for so long that it now cost millions more to correct the neglect and short sightedness on our roads and designs for the future transportation needs. Taking steps to rehabilitate distressed properties should continue. It prevents loss of property values for other properties and it puts people to work who in turn pay taxes instead of drawing on taxes for the unemployed. I believe these renovations should require them to incorporate better energy efficiency, which in turn will reduce our needs for foreign oil and safeguard our environment into the future and allow our lower income person(s) to have affordable housing. Every time the cost of fuel goes up, I loose in profit. I have already had to let 3 persons go or reduce their hours. This will likely continue unless the housing and building industry turns around.
-  Greg, Cambridge, MN

Something needs to be done about the ridiculous fuel prices! The hard working common person cannot afford the impending $5.00 per gallon price and its repercussions! We need our government to step in to stop the price hike or our country will no longer flourish as we know it now. I personally am strapped financially and this puts a major burden on my finances. I need to go to work... but can't afford the fuel! A vicious cycle... Help! – Laurie, Pennsburg, PA

Anyone who votes to NOT raise the debt limit and to put this nation in default will jeopardize my entire life-savings, my stocks and bonds and everything I have worked like a dog for all my life. That could change Obama's slow recovery directly into a great depression with 30% unemployment and a great deal of suffering for a generation. I could NEVER forgive anyone who did that. – Richard, Denver, CO

Fred Upton is my representative and, because of his chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, he is being bombarded in print, radio and TV for "gutting the Clean Air Act." College students are going house-to-house with petitions that enable signers to indicate their disapproval of Fred supporting "dirty air" legislation. And Fred usually finds protesters awaiting his arrival at publicized public meetings. I attended five meetings in the last three days where Fred was present. He handled himself very well, responding to questions. He seems to be getting used to having a target on his chest. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera to any of these sessions. One meeting was hosted by the Kalamazoo Chamber and featured Fred along with one of your energy experts, Karen Harbert.
 – John, West Scotts, MI

[My Congressman]praised unions, bashed efforts in Columbus, Ohio to reduce public union bargaining powers and said unions work in the public and private sectors. – Tim, New Carlisle, OH

Senator Tom Cole (Oklahoma) held a town meeting in Moore, OK. He gave us an update on what's going on in DC. Various citizens asked questions regarding the economy, gas prices, Real Estate, Veterans' care, our growing national debt among other items. He was very informative and pledged to keep fighting for better days for our great nation. – Victor, Oklahoma City