Personal About Politics: Chamber of Commerce – Outdated and Out of Touch

The U.S Chamber of Commerce appears to be showing its age.

First they seemed to forget how many businesses they actually represent, claiming 3 million when in reality the number turned out to be closer to 300,000 after an investigation disclosed the discrepancy. Next they touted archaic ideas about global warming causing several big name companies to drop their affiliation with the group, and finally they raised the ire of the White House last week after launching a $100 million “free enterprise” campaign.

They have placed themselves squarely in the crosshairs of not only the Obama administration, but of conventional wisdom regarding greenhouse gasses and global warming.

The Chamber first showed just how far out of the mainstream they are back in June with their response to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency which stated carbon dioxide is a hazard to human health.

Mother Jones listed some excerpts from the Chamber’s 86-page document questioning the EPA’s report:

“The Administrator has thus ignored analyses that show that a warming of even 3 [degrees] C in the next 100 years would, on balance, be beneficial to humans because the reduction of wintertime mortality/morbidity would be several times larger than the increase in summertime heat stress- related mortality/morbidity.”

And from there the comments get even more bizzarre.

“Humans have become less susceptible to the effects of heat due to a combination of adaptations, particularly air conditioning. The availability of air conditioning is expected to continue to increase:

And:

“Reduced exposure to cold days is a significant factor in the increased life expectancy experienced in the U.S. over the past 30 years. This benefit from reduced exposure to cold can be further attributed to people migrating to warmer climates”

And:

“Overall, there is strong evidence that populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.”

And finally:

“[T]he scientific evidence is clear that cold is a more potent hazard than heat.”

There certainly is a disconnect in the Chamber’s thought process. It apparently did not occur to them that the increased use of air conditioning and “technological adaptations” they tout as a cure-all are part of the global warming problem.

It was after this obvious 19^th Century thinking that 21^st Century companies jumped the Chamber ship. Nike resigned from the Chamber’s board, and Pacific Gas and Electric, PNM Resources, Exelon and Apple all resigned their memberships.

Speaking to The Hill, Daniel Weiss, the director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, called Apple’s defection “earth-shattering.”

“This is a real black eye for the Chamber, and demonstrates that its radical anti-global warming stance led to real soul-searching among its more enlightened corporate members.”

In a rather bizarre twist on Monday, the Yes Men, an activist group, staged a fake press conference after sending out a fake press release proclaiming that the Chamber had dropped its opposition to climate change legislation. The hoax was disclosed after a legitimate Chamber official burst into the press conference and declared it phony. (CBS News)

As if they weren’t taking enough heat, the Chamber decided last week to jump feet first into another fire by launching a $100 million “free enterprise” campaign, which Sam Stein of the Huffington Post reported is being pitched as a way to create jobs but is aiming mainly to defeat regulatory reform. “More than anything else there is widespread belief among White House officials that the Chamber is becoming a relic of the past,” Stein said.

“This ‘free enterprise’ nonsense is nothing more than a smoke screen to cover up the fact they are opposing popular legislation,” said Eddie Vale, AFL spokesman. (The Washington Times)

The Chamber has come out forcefully against several key planks of the Obama agenda including a public health insurance option and consumer protection and they have promised to throw hefty resources behind their opposition. And thrown they have. In addition to the $100 million campaign, Roll Call reported yesterday (Monday) that the Chamber spent a record $34.7 million for federal lobbying in the third quarter of this year.

“I do think that the Chamber’s approach is somewhat old school,” Valerie Jarrett, a senior Obama adviser and the president’s liaison to the business community, told the Huffington Post. “I think that the strategy of running a negative ad campaign instead of having constructive dialogue seems wasteful, wasteful of an opportunity and wasteful of money.”

“We were hoping to have a constructive dialogue with the Chamber,” Jarrett added, “and it is regrettable that they decided to spend a huge amount of money launching this campaign.”

Jarrett said she had a conversation with Tom Donohue, Chamber president several months ago when he first mentioned the organization’s free enterprise campaign. She said she challenged Donohue to explain how the Chamber could be “all in favor of using taxpayer dollars” to bail out big banks and financial institutions while it now calls for free enterprise to fix health care, the environment and irresponsible lending.

Donohue said, “Well, I don’t think we need those checks and balances.”

“Yes you do,” Jarrett told him, “we have concrete evidence that you do because without them the taxpayers ended up carrying the burden.”

“The question we have is,” Jarrett mused, “does the Chamber really represent the business community the way they used to? It seems as though their members are disengaging.”

Disengaging, indeed. In fact, a day after a story in Mother Jones appeared questioning the validity of their claim of 3 million members, the Chamber quietly revised its membership number from 3 million to 300,000 on it’s website. That’s a dramatic drop! But, considering their numbers mysteriously inflated overnight in 1997, it’s not surprising.

In February 1997, the Chamber’s membership figure jumped from 200,000 to 3 million, two weeks before the current president, Tom Donohue took office, where it has remained ever since.

According to Mother Jones, the Chamber’s claim to “represent” the 3 million individual members of local chambers is solely based on the fact that those local chambers are members of the national group – even though many of those chambers’ individual members do not have a direct relationship with the national body. Many state and local chambers don’t want the national body to speak for their members.

One has to wonder, since the national organization has become embroiled in so much controversy, if any state, local or individual members will want to retain their memberships. I’m guessing that new number of 300,000 members may continue to drop.

Perhaps it’s time for the Chamber of Commerce to retire.

Cheri Cabot, Politics Correspondent

Cheri’s column, “Personal About Politics,” published every week, will reflect on how the life of a 60 year-old, middle class woman is affected by politics, policy and the current state of the nation - a look at the personal aspects of politics. Her column is part of Gather Essentials.

Cheri is a freelance writer, living in Southern California.  She has two grown children and is the proud grandmother of three.

You can find all of Cheri’s columns on Personal About Politics at www.personalpolitcs.gather.com, The Obama Watch at theobamawatch.gather.comor her home page here, www.ccabot.gather.com.