Chamber of Commerce spends against Obama

WASHINGTON, July 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent more than $150 million lobbying against some of President Barack Obama's major initiatives, records show.

The effort, which currently involves expenditures of $3 million a week, has set records for lobbying, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The chamber, widely regarded as the country's most powerful business lobby, has had some success in getting changes to healthcare reform and financial regulation but has been unable to block the bills from passing. A number of chamber-endorsed candidates have been defeated in Republican primaries, the Post said.

"They have in fact sought to defend and act from the principles which they believe in," Dirk Van Dongen, president of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors and a Republican lobbyist, told the Post. "I think that's gutsy -- win, lose or draw. ... My gosh, we are not here to wind up in the Rose Garden as trees and shrubs for signing ceremonies of legislation that we oppose."

The chamber has said it plans to spend $75 million supporting Republican candidates during the 1010 campaign season. It spent $1 million on the Massachusetts campaign of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican who won a special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Edward Kennedy.