WASHINGTON (AP) – For more than half a century, the voice that emerged from the monolithic building of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Beaux Arts, near the White House, was predictable: it was the embodiment of the American business and, more specifically, a set of interests with the Republican Party.
The party’s bond with the American corporation, however, is eroding.
The cracks have opened up due to the GOP’s embrace of conspiracy theories and the rejection of conventional climate science, as well as its removal from the 2020 election results. The most recent flash point was at Georgia, where a new Republican-supported vote restriction law has been harshly criticized of Delta Air Lines and Coca Cola, their headquarters are in the state, and caused Major League Baseball to take the game out of the 2021 Atlanta stars.
Republicans were furious. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky warned his actions were “pretty stupid,” alienating “many Republican fans.” GOP strategists argued that they no longer needed the money of American companies to win elections while trying to change brands as a blue-collar workers ’party.
This extends the opportunity for President Joe Biden and Congress Democrats to find an ally in an unlikely place when the party has unified control of the federal government for the first time in a decade. Biden is pushing for an ambitious $ 2.3 trillion infrastructure package that includes corporate tax increases, which the White House characterizes CEOs as initial investments that will ultimately make companies more profitable.
“It’s important to make the country more competitive,” said Cedric Richmond, White House director of public engagement. “We believe the plan is so important to the country that we stand up for it and sing its praises to all companies.”
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo estimates she has spoken to more than 50 business leaders about the plan, including a round of Easter weekend phone calls. It is encouraging companies to focus on the whole package rather than tax increases.
“You can’t look at any piece and say a number makes you leave,” he said. “They say,‘ It’s fair. Let me think about it. ‘ That’s how they manage their business. ”
If the corporate divide with the Republican Party widens it could help answer questions about the country’s political leadership and the extent to which companies can continue to influence Washington.
“No one in the business community wants hostile communities, angry manpower with fingers and turbulent shareholder bases,” said Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean of the Yale School of Management. “It makes it much harder for you to have all the electoral groups at war, which have become the hallmark of the Republican Party.”
Corporate America’s marriage to Republicans has long been convenient, coupled with the belief in low taxes and the need to repeal regulations. But the relationship, already strained during Donald Trump’s presidency, has come under increasing pressure as companies take cultural positions.
That Republicans and businesses report to increasingly different constituencies helps explain the tension.
A strong majority of Republican voters are white (86%) and over 50 (62%), according to APVoteCast, a national poll in the 2020 electorate. However, figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that workers are more diverse and younger than the Republican base.
James Bailey, a professor of management at George Washington University, published an analysis last year that suggested that people who identified as Democrats cared more about a company’s political activity than Republicans. Of the employers, he said the uproar over Georgia’s voting law “is a great opportunity for them to join the socially active young consumer and do so without much cost.”
Equally important, democratic counties have become the main drivers of growth. The counties that supported Biden last year accounted for 71% of all U.S. economic activity, according to the Brookings Institution.
Democrats say companies are comfortable partnering with them to address long-term issues, such as infrastructure, after a decade of deadlock in Congress, though companies don’t like the possibility of tackling the project. law.
“Responsible corporate leaders want economic growth and predictable and competent policy, that’s what Democrats offer.” said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, who is leading the arm of the House Democrats’ campaign for the 2022 midterm elections.
Many Republicans are exasperated by corporate efforts to attract consumers through liberal social policy.
“They will never meet the demands of the left,” said Steven Law, a former House attorney who now heads the Senate Leadership Fund, an outside group with a large expense aligned with McConnell. Meanwhile, “they risk alienating their natural allies to the Republican party.”
Still, Republicans have been the main proponents of the rift, seeking to take advantage of the culture shock to turn the party’s base into the next election. Early indicators suggest that businesses could face a setback.
The Republican-controlled House of Georgia voted to withdraw a tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks from Delta each year for its criticism of the new restrictive law, which voting rights groups have excoriated as an attack on democracy. The planned punishment was declared debatable after the Republican Party Senate could not adopt it before the adjournment of the legislative session.
Disclosures about campaign funding suggest that U.S. money from companies is not as influential as before.
About a decade ago, corporate-sponsored political action committee donations accounted for a significant portion of the fundraising pie. But it has stalled as a source of campaign cash, as court rulings allowed wealthy Republican Party activists to pour money into the political system.
Only 10 megabytes of the GOP account for half of the donations to major super-political action committees controlled by Republican congressional leaders since 2012, collectively pouring $ 541 million into committees, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of donors who they gave more than $ 1,000. Megadors also contributed twice as much as conventional PACs and other groups representing a wide range of corporate interests.
The political spending of the House has also fallen hastily. After spending $ 29 million in 2016, mainly supporting Republicans and attacking Democrats, the group’s contributions fell to $ 10.9 million in 2018, according to data from the Center for Responsible, Nonpartisan Policies. In 2020, the group supported 23 Democrats, which Republicans saw as a betrayal.
This has diminished the position the group, once unassailable, held on GOP congressional leaders.
“You absolutely lose no love for companies, especially when they constantly weigh in on things they don’t understand,” said Josh Holmes, McConnell’s political adviser. “There is no sympathy.”
There are still commonalities between Republicans and businesses about the value of tax cuts. The Chamber and the Business Roundtable oppose raising the corporate rate to 28% from the 21% level set in 2017, as well as an improved overall minimum tax. Still, both groups want government spending on infrastructure.
Neil Bradley, head of House policy, said the business community at large is not fully aligned with either party. But the hyperpartisan nature of current politics is creating pressure to choose a side.
“It really makes people want to sort everything out into a red camp or a blue field,” he said. “Companies are not partisans. They are not Republicans or Democrats. They have to operate and function in divided governments, operate in states that are solid blue and solid red. ”
Republicans warn, however, that companies face a considerable risk of taking online disputes into account.
“They should tread carefully because they risk going into the middle of a cultural war that won’t win them friends or many enemies,” said Law, McConnell’s ally.