MAGA-fied GOP Wants Little to Do With the Chamber of Commerce
The business lobby finds the policy interests of corporate America are less important to an increasingly populist Republican Party.
One of the most urgent items this year for the US Chamber of Commerce was championing a deal between the Biden administration and House Republican leaders to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a government shutdown. So the nation’s largest business lobby went into overdrive, huddling with 150 members of Congress and flying state and local chamber officials to Washington to bolster its case with lawmakers.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minnesota) wishes the chamber hadn’t bothered. It was his job in early June to round up support for a debt-ceiling bill negotiated by GOP leaders, and he says the chamber’s involvement made this more difficult.