"Traditional Ties Between Business Community, GOP Are Fraying On Capitol Hill"

[applegrove]

Traditional Ties Between Business Community, GOP Are Fraying On Capitol Hill

AP by Erica Werner/Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/30/gop-business_n_5543239.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Traditional ties between the business community and the Republican Party are fraying on Capitol Hill, where the House GOP has bucked corporate interests on a series of priorities this year, from immigration to highway funding to trade.

Rebuffed in Congress, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have found more success backing pro-business candidates for election, but even they don't always deliver.

It adds up to a significant shift in how the GOP operates, ushered in by the rise of the tea party movement and its distrust of the federal government and of big corporate America. But whether the business community's success this year in electing its favored candidates in primaries can swing the pendulum back its way remains to be seen. There's plentiful evidence that the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups are struggling to get a hearing from congressional conservatives who outright reject their goals and are having outsized influence on House leaders and legislation.

"I think it's the Chamber that's drifted away from conservative pro-business values, not Republicans," said Rep. John Fleming, R-La., a conservative who said that the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups may speak for corporate America, but they don't speak for him. "I think that the Chamber has been moving away from its traditional role and that is to protect small businesses. I don't know why."



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