> On Jul 29, 2011, at 4:39 AM, SA wrote:
>
>> [The best thing about the debt ceiling thing is how it tends to throw into relief certain underlying dynamics in American politics. It's like when the tide goes out and suddenly you can see the ocean floor, which was there all along but invisible.]
>>
>> http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/28/whos-missing-from-debt-talks-corporate-america/
> Yesterday's FT had a somewhat different take:
>
> http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6a2695fc-b86f-11e0-b62b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1TV8v507K
>
> A prominent business lobbyist who asked not to be named told the FT shortly before last year’s election that many of the dozens of new Tea Party candidates formed an unknown quantity in Washington, but there was confidence that, on big issues like tax and regulation, there was a kinship between the business community and the emerging Tea Party movement.
>
> That bet has paid off in many respects, not least by putting pressure on Obama administration regulatory agencies. But there have also been areas of disagreement between business and the new Tea Party right, about trade and the need for more government spending on infrastructure. Another business lobbyist, who also requested anonymity, said that in private meetings with new Tea Party members, lobbyists were not getting the reception they once had – especially in areas in which lobbyists were seeking greater government spending.
Ah. That's much clearer than the Fortune bit. But it's related to what I take to be the subtext of the quote from the GOP lobbyist at the end of the Fortune thing. When he decried business' failure to "stick our necks out," he meant the failure to directly take on the Tea Party in the same way they would undoubtedly take on liberals who were pushing for something uncongenial to their interests. I take that to mean that there's an interesting structural problem - business is afraid to challenge those who are currently threatening their interests for fear of weakening a bloc that after all does defend their interests much of the time. On a (very!) different plane it's sort of like German business disastrously supporting Hitler because the alternative appeared "worse."
SA