Observer » The Club for Growth

Club for Growth Labels Schumer ‘Job-Killing Protectionist’ [Update]

Amanda Sterling — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:30:28 -0400

Club for Growth president Chris Chocola is denouncing Chuck Schumer, calling the senator a "job-killing protectionist" in response to Schumer's recent criticism of China's economic policies.

"Americans benefit from free trade," said Chocola in a press release this morning. "It forces companies to innovate and compete leading to greater variety, lower prices, and better quality goods and services."

Club for Growth, which advocates and promotes free-market principles, has a long history of denouncing politicians who the group believes are not fiscally conservative enough. (The Club recently declared Donald Trump the "King of Protectionism" in response to his call for a 25 percent tax on Chinese imports.)

Schumer has been outspoken lately in his criticism of China's economic policies following a trip to Beijing earlier this month; and yesterday he declared his intention to unveil "a bunch of legislation" that would encourage the country to play nice with the U.S. by accelerating the appreciation of the yuan.

In the past, Schumer tried to take similar legislative action when he sought to impose a tariff on Chinese imports, which the Club for Growth calls "protectionist."

"Chuck Schumer likes to talk about how he's looking out for the middle class," said Chocola. "But he wants to hit Americans in all income brackets with a massive new sales tax on the goods they buy every day."

UPDATE: A Schumer spokesman emailed a response from the senator. "It is a betrayal of free-trade principles to let China continue taking unfair advantage of the rest of the world's economies. Every major American company that I met with in China told me that China does not trade fairly and their protectionism against foreign firms is getting worse. There is no bigger step we can take to promote U.S. job creation, particularly in the manufacturing sector, than to confront China's currency manipulation and I intend to do just that."

Club for Growth Ad Attacks Huckabee

Katharine Jose — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 20:43:14 -0400

Mike Huckabee's "dark horse" status in the G.O.P. race is slipping away as he becomes an obvious target for groups that fear he really will become the nominee. In this ad, The Club for Growth attacks his tax record. The Huckabee campaign says these clips are out of context.

Rudy and the Club for Growth

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:45:00 -0400

In a private address to a conservative group last weekend in Florida, Rudy Giuliani described himself as the only real fiscal conservative in the presidential race. He also took a hard line on security policy, and stressed the notion that his views were consistent.

The speech and the following question and answer session, which I reported on in this week's paper, also showed how Giuliani is continuing to try to smooth over his differences with conservatives on social issues.

Talking about fiscal discipline to members of the Club for Growth, Giuliani said, "We need a president who has actually practiced it, there in the battlefields, and won battles for fiscal discipline and I'm the only one that's done that." On the subject of security, he said that Democrats aspired to a foreign policy that would "appease" terrorists.

He seemed to take a dig at his Republican rivals, who have been criticized of pandering to the Republican base by reversing some of their positions. "When a candidate for president starts twisting up all their views to get your support now," Giuliani said, "it reduces their effectiveness to lead."

He then proceeded to offer carefully calibrated answers to questions about his positions on immigration, gun control and abortion rights.

To a questioner who said that more people died from abortion than in Sept. 11th, Giuliani replied, "What you are saying I take very, very seriously."

"I've thought about if for many, many years," he continued. "I've discussed it, prayed about it, and I respect very much your view. I'm against abortion, I think abortion is wrong. If it were a personal decision I advise anyone not to have an abortion," said Mr. Giuliani, who added "We have to leave it to individual choice."

-- Jason Horowitz

"I Don't Want to Take Back the Congress"

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:27:48 -0400

I was at the New School last night to listen to SEIU President Andy Stern, who talked about the union's potentially landscape-altering plan to form a PAC to target... Congressional Democrats.

SEIU's PAC, called They Work For US, is modeled on The Club for Growth -- an anti-tax lobby that keeps Congressional Republicans on a tight leash, Stern told me. The idea of the new PAC from SEIU -- the largest and most politically powerful health care union in America -- would be to go after Democrats who vote against their interests on economic issues.

Some Congressional Democrats -- including New Yorkers Greg Meeks, Joseph Crowley and Ed Towns -- have already sparked the union's ire by voting for free trade agreements and Republican-sponsored bankruptcy bills.

I asked him if his union's focus on Democrats was in conflict with the party's effort to take back the Congress this year.

"I don't want to take back the Congress, I want to elect people that make work pay," he said [full quote]. "Our union was the largest contributor to the Republican Governor's Association and the Democratic Governor's Association in 2004."

You can hear more from Stern here.

-- Azi Paybarah