The Tea Party by Ronald P. Formisano

Author:Ronald P. Formisano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2012-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

Developing Strains in the Alliance

The complicated relationship between the Tea Party and big business goes beyond the predictable exploitation of the passionate by the self-interested. Tea Partiers supplied with technical help and infrastructure are not necessarily manipulated as much as they are practical, taking advantage of a relationship they regard as one of mutual benefit.

Besides, neither Koch Industries, Wal-Mart, and their allied free marketers nor the astroturf lobbying groups lined up with the Tea Parties represent all of big business, corporate America, or the multitude of the nation’s small businesses. Indeed, the enterprises of many global corporations based in the United States clearly are in implicit conflict with Tea Party positions—such as its hostility to free trade, its economic nationalism, and its opposition to government involvement with business. Corporations that benefit from government programs and largesse cannot be comfortable with certain “pure” Tea Party demands. Of course many benefits corporations receive from the U.S. government are relatively hidden and escape public view, permitting firms to denounce “big government” while accepting corporate welfare.

Since President Barack Obama took office, FreedomWorks has complained about corporations that have endorsed administration policies. FreedomWorks has pointed angrily to PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) and its backing of the health care legislation and to companies in the Climate Action Partnership that backed cap and trade efforts. Flush with victory in the 2010 midterm elections, Armey announced a campaign to boycott corporations that had cooperated with the government. FreedomWorks launched a wave of attacks, particularly on the CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, calling him the “king of crony capitalism.”

Immelt’s offenses included accepting the necessity to move GE to “green energy” as well as Obama’s January 2011 invitation to serve as his liaison to business. “For too long,” said FreedomWorks executive director Matt Kibbe, presumably with a straight face, “corporate elites have lobbied to profit from the size and growth of government at the expense of hard-working Americans,” a practice the finer points of which his colleague Armey might well inform him. Unmentioned went the rivalry between GE and Koch Industries in the energy field and the Kochs’ fierce opposition to any efforts to combat climate change.

FreedomWorks might have called attention to GE’s profits of $14.2 billion worldwide and $5.1 billion stateside and its tax refund of $3.2 billion. Armey and Kibbe, however, as seasoned corporate lobbyists, know better than to raise issues redolent of corporate welfare or tax avoidance.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as noted earlier, poured money into electing Republican and Tea Party congressional candidates in 2010. But the Chamber of Commerce is also nervous about various Tea Party proposals to eliminate the Federal Reserve, seal the nation’s borders, and end investment in infrastructure. Tight controls on immigration, favored by most Tea Party grassroots networks, could deprive the agricultural industry of a major source of cheap labor.

During 2010 the Chamber of Commerce donated to the U.S. Senate campaigns of such Tea Party darlings as Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida (both of whom won).

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