Law & Principles

Chamber: Obama and Biden more 'pro-business' than DeMint

April 7, 2009

Brandon Dutcher

Oklahoma's own Jim Inhofe is one of the most fiscally conservative, pro-free-enterprise, pro-limited-government members of the United States Senate. And yet, he failed to receive a recent "Spirit of Enterprise Award" from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. What gives?

Even more interesting, Timothy P. Carney points out, is that "Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., had the most conservative voting record in 2008 according to the American Conservative Union (ACU), and was a "taxpayer hero" according to the National Taxpayer's Union (NTU), but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says his 2008 record was less pro-business than Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton.

"Similarly, Texas libertarian GOPer Rep. Ron Paul-the most steadfast congressional opponent of regulation, taxation, and any sort of government intervention in business-scored lower than 90 percent of Democrats last year on the Chamber's scorecard."

As Stephen Moore has pointed out before ('Liberalism's echo chambers'), "pro-business" is not synonymous with "pro-free-enterprise."