海角大神

The climate bill headed for a vote in the House on Friday adds to the climate of uncertainty troubling American businesses, says U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue.

鈥淭he bill that is up in the House has 402 new regulations that are going to affect how people can run their business and how they can apply their capital,鈥� Donohue said at a Monitor-sponsored lunch for reporters. The Chamber opposes the House climate change bill although Donohue said the group does support legislation to deal with the issue.

The search for information

The flurry of legislation and regulation at the start of the Obama administration is, 鈥渕ore stuff in a shorter period of time in a smaller diameter pipe than I have ever seen,鈥� he said.

The result of proposed new legislation and regulation is that 鈥渃ompanies are waiting to get answers鈥� on healthcare costs, climate regulations, and financial market rules, among other things, Donohue said. Such uncertainty has the potential to slow the pace of business investment.

The Chamber, which is the country鈥檚 most influential business lobby, plans a major advertising campaign to sing the praises of the free enterprise system at a time of increased government involvement in the economy. The Chamber program, called 鈥淐ampaign for Free Enterprise鈥� could cost up to $100 million.

Singing free enterprise's praises

鈥淚t is important for this country and many of our trading partners to look back over a period of time and assess what it was that made this country鈥檚 economy the envy of the world,鈥� Donohue said. 鈥淚t was an enterprise system that was based on open and free capital markets. It was a system that was based on free trade with all of its shortcomings. It was a system that was based on the right to fail and fall right on your kiester.鈥�

The liberal columnist E. J. Dionne recently that the chamber鈥檚 campaign 鈥渃ould be one of the year鈥檚 most consequential political developments鈥� and should be viewed by the Obama administration as a 鈥渄eclaration of war.鈥�

Donohue said the campaign was not an attack on the administration. 鈥淎bsolutely not. It is not the intention, it is not the objective, and it is not what is going to come out.鈥�

Not rolling over for Obama

The Chamber has good relations with the Obama White House, Donohue said. 鈥淭here are no business people in the White House -- about none. There are a lot of smart people there,鈥� the chamber executive said. He added, 鈥淲e are dealing with them on all kinds of things.鈥� Relations, he said, 鈥渁re in fact even better than I thought they would be and we are trying to be fair and helpful. But that doesn鈥檛 mean we roll over and play dead just because they are excited about something when in fact we know it ain鈥檛 going to work.鈥�

One area where Donohue expressed considerable skepticism was the Obama administration鈥檚 ability to bring down healthcare costs in the aggregate. Among the reasons that would be difficult, he said, was a planned reduction in the number of uninsured people, population growth, and the growing healthcare needs of aging baby boomers.

鈥淪o sure, we an cut costs on a per capita basis. We can become more efficient. We can become more effective. We can get better health results. But you are not going to lower the cost of across the board healthcare in this country unless you do one thing -- limit care," Donohue said.