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Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commercem said something Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, could work on was learning how to 'sit down and shut up' after the firebrand conservative led a Republican effort to defund President Barack Obama's signature health care law resulting in a 16-day federal government shutdown and near credit default.

A reporter said, "people are assuming that the business community would kind of like him to sit down and shut up," Donahue replied, "Well, that might be one thing we could work on."

Donahue said while the Affordable Care Act is deeply flawed, the chamber supports its aims at lowering health care costs and providing access to affordable health insurance. And he said Cruz and other Republicans, should focus more on getting results rather than political grandstanding.

"I sort of think about him as a tennis player. You know if you are going to rush the net all the time you better have a lot of motion to the left and the right and he hasn't proved that to me yet," he said. "Remember the issue – it's not the substance, it's what is the result?"

Donahue said the chamber, which traditionally supports small government, low tax policies most commonly associated with Republicans, would be supporting some Democrats as well as Republicans in the upcoming 2014 midterm elections.

"We will support, to some peoples' discomfort, numbers of Democrats in both houses," he said. "The bottom line is this is all about the economy, so for us it's all about the American business community and all about the country." http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/21/chamber-prez-to-ted-cru
z-sit-down-and-shut-up]

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Could US Chamber of Commerce be counterweight to tea party?

The chamber will begin making decisions about its congressional election activities in the first quarter of 2014, according to Bruce Josten, the chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs, who also spoke at the breakfast.

Last week, Mr. Josten sent a "key vote alert" to House and Senate members urging them to vote for a budget deal which would reopen the government. “Groups calling for default are clearly less interested in the Main Street concerns of business large and small,” the note said. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/monitor_breakfast/2013/1021/Coul
d-US-Chamber-of-Commerce-be-counterweight-to-tea-party]

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The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the most powerful groups in Washington, depicted Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday as an arrogant upstart with a lot to learn about getting things done in Washington — as opposed to merely stirring trouble and commanding attention.

Some Texas business leaders have begun denouncing Cruz’s tactics, fearful of economic damage.

Said Donohue: “He still has a lot of relationships to make. My view is, he hasn’t got the votes to do what he wants to do. So then what does history show? After a while he’ll start talking to people about how to get done what he wants to get done, instead of telling everybody how he’s going to get it done.” http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20131021-chamber-of-
commerce-chief-slams-ted-cruz-over-shutdown.ece]

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