Business Groups Oppose Obamas Budget After Supporting Stimulus
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers issued statements criticizing the $3.55 trillion proposal, which would raise taxes on businesses and wealthy Americans to boost domestic spending and lay plans for a health-care system overhaul.
“The administrations proposed budget will take us in exactly the wrong direction,” NAM President John Engler, a former Michigan governor, said in a statement yesterday. The benefits of the NAM-backed stimulus plan will be “dwarfed by major, job-destroying tax increases on thousands of manufacturers of all sizes across all industry sectors,” he said.
Obamas budget, proposed yesterday, would impose almost $1 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade on the wealthiest Americans, Wall Street financiers, U.S.-based multinational corporations and oil companies to pay for tax breaks for lower earners as well as spending on health care, education and the environment.
“The budget is a new game” following approval earlier this month of the business-backed $787 billion economic stimulus plan, said James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington. The stimulus plan didnt include major tax increases.
“If businesses can frame the proposal as being a roadblock to recovery, Obama will have to scale back his ambitions dramatically,” said David Primo, a political science professor at the University of Rochester in New York.
Small Businesses
Chamber of Commerce Vice President Bruce Jostenwrote today on the groups Web site that the proposed tax increases would harm small businesses.
“They are the most successful of the businesses and the effects of increasing taxes will be significant,” wrote Josten. The chamber, the nations largest business lobby, represents companies including Armonk, New York-based International Business Machines Corp. and Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike Inc.
Another group that supported Obamas stimulus plan, the Financial Services Roundtable, took aim at the presidents proposal to end subsidies for private student loan providers such as Reston, Virginia-based SLM Corp., better known as Sallie Mae, and making the federal government the sole provider of federally backed college lending.
“The presidents budget would end a successful public- private partnership that has fostered both innovation and competition that has benefited students,” said Steve Bartlett, president of the roundtable, whose members include New York- based Citigroup Inc. and Portland, Maine-based TD Banknorth Inc.
Strong Supporter
NAM, whose members include Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries Inc. and Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co., has said its rankings of lawmakers will consider whether they supported the stimulus package because it would boost the economy.
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