The Chamber of Commerce defended businesses and banks from populism Wednesday, responding in particular to the rhetoric of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“Elizabeth Warren is a person who has some views we don’t share,” Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue said in a press conference following his “State of American Business” speech Wednesday.
“The idea that enterprise and American companies should be more vigorously regulated by the government, and in fact controlled by the government, is a view that we don’t share,” Donohue said of Warren’s criticism of banking regulation.
Warren is a “very pleasant woman if you sit down and have a cup of tea with her, or a drink,” Donohue said. “But we don’t share her views on the economy … I don’t think if she runs for president the American people will share her views, either.”
Donohue said government regulation of banks has gone too far in response to the financial crisis, citing “the absolute frustration of running a bank or a financial institution and having half a dozen regulators in your building telling you what you’re supposed to do every day.”
Lawmakers should be open to technical and clarifying changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, he said, calling the law a “tome” that was “written in anger and it was written in a hurry.”
Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs, said, “Something’s awry in this whole process of how we’re racing to regulate,” without considering how parts of the law might be poorly written or executed.
Liberal Democrats, including Warren, have pushed back against such changes to Dodd-Frank, warning that the strategy of bank lobbyists is to chip away at the bill through smaller technical changes and bigger changes attached to must-pass bills. President Obama signed larger bills including small but significant changes to the law in December and January, worrying some advocates of tight bank regulations.
Donohue issued a forceful warning against economic populism and defense of business in his speech Wednesday morning, delivered at the Chamber’s Washington headquarters across from the White House.
“Contrary to what some of our political leaders have said, businesses really do create the jobs. They really do build things,” Donohue told the audience of hundreds. “Whether they reside on Main Street or even on Wall Street, businesses are not the enemy.”
He called for a “governing center” of legislators willing to compromise on a number of issues prioritized by businesses, ranging from immigration reform to cybersecurity.
“You can be a committed conservative, a passionate progressive, or even one of a shrinking number of moderates and still work together,” Donohue said.
The Chamber is a major player in congressional races, generally supporting Republicans but also some Democrats. It intervened in GOP primaries last year to oppose some Tea Party candidates opposed to certain Chamber priorities.
The organization typically stays out of presidential races, but Donohue said in December that it could step into the 2016 race if a populist from either the Left or Right threatened what he described as the American system of free enterprise.
