If You Think the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Is in Favor of Free Markets, Then You Might Want To Think Again

Once again, Ron Paul gets the lowest GOP score from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

By: Timothy P. Carney

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has issued its 2009 congressional scorecard, and once again, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex. — certainly one of the two most free-market politicians in Washington — gets the lowest score of any Republican.

Paul was one of a handful of GOP lawmakers not to win the Chamber’s “Spirit of Enterprise Award.” He scored only a 67%, bucking the Chamber on four votes, including:

* Paul opposed the “Solar Technology Roadmap Act,” which boosted subsidies for unprofitable solar energy technology.

* Paul opposed the “Travel Promotion Act,” which subsidizes the tourism industry with a new fee on international visitors.

* Paul opposed the largest spending bill in history, Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill.

Read more at the Washington Examiner.

Last year Tim Carney wrote:

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% of Democrats last year on the Chamber’s scorecard.

Evidently, pro-business does not mean pro-freedom in the US Chamber of Commerce’s perspective, but only more mercantilism and corporatism.