Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Big Business Suffers Buyer's Remorse

This article is a couple of weeks old, but still very pertinent:
Even though money for major road and bridge projects is set to run out this weekend, House Republican leaders have struggled all week to round up the votes from recalcitrant conservatives simply to extend it for 90 or even 60 days. A longer-term transportation bill that contractors and the chamber say is vital to the recovery of the construction industry appears hopelessly stalled over costs.

At the same time, House conservatives are pressing to allow the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which has financed exports since the Depression, to run out of lending authority within weeks. The bank faces the possibility of shutting its doors completely by the end of May, when its legal authorization expires.

And a host of routine business tax breaks — from wind energy subsidies to research and development tax credits — cannot be passed because of Republican insistence that they be paid for with spending cuts.

Business groups that worked hard to install a Republican majority in the House equated Republican control with a business-friendly environment. But the majority is first and foremost a conservative political force, and on key issues, its ideology is not always aligned with commercial interests that helped finance election victories.

“Free market is not always the same as pro-business,” said Barney Keller, spokesman for the conservative political action committee Club for Growth.

There could be real-world consequences to the conservative rebellion. The 90-day extension of the highway trust fund that House Republican leaders say they will pass this week in lieu of a broad highway bill would keep existing projects moving for now. But business groups say few new government-funded infrastructure projects can get under way without longer-range certainty about federal backing.
It really sheds a new light on Scott Walker's claim about making Wisconsin open for business and Paul Ryan's preposterous "Road to Prosperity," doesn't it?

1 comment:

  1. A big boo-hoo for the GOP leaders who allowed this and for the CEOs who lobbied for this.

    BUT: This means thousands and thousands of jobs. I have several family members in these industries who will suffer again, and we will have to help them again, and put off retirement again, and that doesn't help those who want our jobs . . . and the conservatives are just starting to get that the economy is an ecosystem?

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