A guide to a successful future - United States Chamber of Commerce's 1993-94 National Business Agenda - Editorial

Nation's Business, March, 1993

President Clinton has received many recommendations from the private sector on how he can meet his basic campaign pledge, the revitalization of the economy. He will receive more throughout the legislative year.

Members of Congress are likewise receiving suggestions from many quarters on actions they should take to resolve the serious problems that the nation now confronts.

One set of proposals to which the president and Congress should pay particular attention is the 1993-94 National Business Agenda, an action plan listing policies and strategies that will enable this country to meet the challenges of a fast-changing world.

Titled Renewing American Enterprise, this agenda merits particularly close attention by the president for two reasons.

One iS the grass-roots origin of the plan. It was developed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from member input at meetings designed to assess opinions of entrepreneurs in all regions of the country.

The other reason is the Chamber's standing as the nation's most broadly based business federation.

The individuals who helped shape the plan at the regional meetings provide the products, services, and jobs that drive much of the U.S. economy. They not only are demanding change from the status quo of recent years but also are offering specific policies. Speaking through the business agenda, they are calling for fiscal responsibility in government, fair and effective trade policies, freedom from onerous regulatory burdens, a tax system that encourages enterprise, an education system adequate to the high-tech global economy, and health-care reforms based on market solutions. See Page 54 for details.

Policies set forth in the National Business Agenda would achieve those goals, many of which the president already shares.

Not only are the business agenda's proposed solutions on target, but also the timing for the Chamber approach is particularly apt. The introduction to the agenda notes:

"Change is what American voters demanded in the 1992 election. Change is what American business faces at home and abroad. And change is what the U.S. Chamber Federation's membership recommends in 25 policy areas critical to renewing American enterprise."

Part of that change, the agenda states, is an emerging national consensus that "we as a country can no longer afford constant confrontation among business, workers, government, environmentalists, and other interest groups, especially in the face of unforgiving global economic competition."

One result of such conflicts was political gridlock in Washington.

The near-record turnover in the U.S. Congress and a new Democratic president offer opportunities for a solution-based approach to national problems in place of stalemate based on conflicting ideologies and interests.

The agenda declares:

"The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Federation is uniquely suited to play a leadership role in the new environment that emphasizes bringing all parties to the table. That is the essence of the Chamber, and indeed the reason it was created more than 80 years ago."

The Chamber continues "to stress the importance of bringing diverse interests together to forge consensus positions," the agenda notes.

The Chamber offers its plan with the backing of its unique federation. It is made up of individual businesses, state and local chambers of commerce, trade associations, and American Chambers of Commerce abroad--the full span of American enterprise.

The National Business Agenda notes that this membership "wants business to work with the Clinton administration and the 103rd Congress to create a new environment, taking advantage of our nation's comparative advantages and setting the stage for a renewal of American entrepreneurship in the next century."

These are goals that the president and the legislators can and should enthusiastically support.