Hey, Big Spender!

by Tom Bozzo

Look who’s into big government now, via TrafficWorld:

“We need to spend an enormous, massive amount of money in rebuilding America’s infrastructure, not only in the short term, but in the long term to underpin the economy once it’s up and growing again,” said R. Bruce Josten, the [U.S. Chamber of Commerce]’s top lobbyist.
…
Lawmakers are also considering funding other forms of infrastructure projects, an idea that has the support of the Chamber.

The total amount of the stimulus package is still being hammered out, but Josten said a group of economists brought in at Pelosi’s request estimated between $300 billion and $500 billion.

“There is a very strong possibility that even if there is a stimulus in the lame duck [session] it would be followed very quickly in the 111th Congress, under President Obama, with a second stimulus package,” Josten told reporters Thursday.

Funny that this is the same U.S. Chamber of Commerce that intervened heavily in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race to help save the country from the likes of Al Franken.

Officials at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, fearful of a union-friendly Democratic Senate, have dubbed the race “ground zero” in the effort to stop a 60-seat majority. The chamber and its affiliates have spent more than $3 million on ads designed to scare voters about Franken and Democrats, according to sources on both sides.

While the Chamber was especially keen on keeping enough Republicans in the Senate to forestall passage of the Employee Free Choice Act by filibuster, they also advocated ‘affordable, quality health care’ a la Norm Coleman (stop laughing) and attacked Franken for allegedly wanting to raise taxes to pay for, we can only guess, things like affordable, quality health care and 12-figure infrastructure projects.

I can only imagine that future of the K Street Project will involve a demonstration of lobbyists’ eagerness to kiss ass across the political spectrum.