Chamber of Commerce Gives Ultimatum to GOP

As the Republican Party doubles down in its self-prostitution to angry white Christofascists and white supremacists - the twin pillars of today's GOP - the party is increasingly alienating the business community despite its efforts to enrich large corporations and protect the very wealthy.  Some of those disgusted with the GOP's racism and anti-immigrant platform are businesses, as in the chambers of commerce across America.  Now, Tom Donohue (pictured above), the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has laid down an ultimatum to the Republicans: don't even field a presidential candidate in 2016 unless Congress passes immigration reform this year.  The move is in keeping with the Chamber's growing effort to defeat Tea Party/Christofascist challengers in GOP primaries.  Here are excerpts from Politico on this bold ultimatum:

The GOP shouldn’t even field a presidential candidate in 2016 unless Congress passes immigration reform this year, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said Monday.

“If the Republicans don’t do it, they shouldn’t bother to run a candidate in 2016,” Donohue joked at an event on infrastructure investment in D.C. “Think about that. Think about who the voters are. I just did that to get everybody’s attention.

Donohue, whose group has spent months pushing House Republicans to support immigration legislation, was speaking about what he thought a dysfunctional Congress could still get done in 2014.

“You think Congress can get immigration reform done this year, in an election year?” moderator Eamon Javers asked Donohue.  “Yes, yes,” Donohue replied.

National Association of Manufacturers President Jay Timmons said he also thought immigration reform could pass this year, perhaps in a lame-duck session.

“This is a unified position of the business community,” Timmons said.

Reform backers have focused on the weeks before the August recess as a time when the House could move on immigration. A bipartisan bill that included a pathway to citizenship, increased border enforcement and increased levels of legal immigration passed the Senate last year.

The efforts have drawn fierce opposition from conservatives, whose objections include concern about proposals to offer a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Some also argue that parts of the bill would hurt employment for U.S. citizens.

The GOP talks about its "big tent," but the tent keeps on shrinking as too many in the party continue to drink the Christofascist/Tea Party Kool-Aid.

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