http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/28/whos-missing-from-debt-talks-corporate-america/
> If the specter of a default has spooked corporate America, you
> wouldn't know it by watching their hired guns in Washington over the
> last several weeks.
>
> Aside from sending a handful of letters urging Congress to act, the
> big business lobby has mostly hugged the sidelines as the partisan
> standoff over the debt limit crisis intensified. That appears poised
> to change, now that there are only five days to go until the Treasury
> Department says it will run out of money to pay all the federal
> government's bills.
>
> [...]
>
> But the argument points to what has been perhaps the most powerful
> motivator in keeping big business mum: fear of what could end up in
> whatever package makes it into law. As long as tax hikes remained on
> the table as a means of trimming the deficit, industries that could
> see their bottom lines bitten wanted to reserve the right to object.
>
> Indeed, it's not that there's been no active lobbying on the debt
> ceiling by corporate interests. From April through June, more than 140
> outfits reported lobbying work on the issue, according to a review of
> disclosure reports by the Sunlight Foundation. The vast majority
> appears to have engaged to protect narrow tax privileges, or even seek
> new breaks. Blue Cross Blue Shield, Oracle (ORCL), Exxon Mobil (XOM),
> Pfizer (PFE), Devon Energy (DVN), Northrop Grumman (NOC), and Wal-Mart
> (WMT) all reported at least monitoring the talks. Some no doubt felt
> more threatened than others. With President Obama making a refrain of
> the charge that Republicans want to protect a tax break for corporate
> jet owners at the expense of seniors and middle-income earners, the
> National Business Aviation Association launched an effort to defend
> the provision as a job-creator.
>
> [...]
>
> Or, as one Republican lobbyist describes the investment by K Street's
> power-players: "They couldn't have done less if they tried, spent zero
> dollars and no cents. And it's because they're gutless. They've not
> done anything because they don't want to pop their heads above ground
> and get their heads taken off."