At ATA, Thoughts on Policy-Making and Politicking
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) speaking to ATA committee in Orlando. Photo: David Cullen
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Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) speaking to ATA committee in Orlando. Photo: David Cullen
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You could certainly be forgiven if you were attending the American Trucking Associations’ annual confab here in Orlando this week and thought you’d made a wrong turn and stumbled into one of those partisan party retreats that Capitol Hill denizens hold somewhere outside the Beltway every now and then.
In this case, you might have thought you had fallen in among a conclave of roaring elephants. And why wouldn’t you, what with the carefully spaced array outside the exhibit hall of regally tall and handsomely mounted posters displaying blown-up photos of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence interacting with various ATA leaders over the course of this year, each accompanied by a quote underscoring how the industry’s top lobby has literally parked itself at the White House.
In ATA President and CEO Chris Spear’s second state-of-the-industry address, he vividly recalled the photo-op friendly to the max White House visit ATA’s leadership enjoyed with President Trump back in March as well as the appearance by some ATA leaders at a campaign-style rally the president held earlier this month in Pennsylvania.
At the latter meeting, Trump floated a proposal to cut corporate tax rates by 20% and to eliminate the estate tax. “With the president now championing our best interests, the entire nation is paying attention to what we have to say,” Spear remarked. He also declared that, “With the president now championing our best interests, the entire nation is paying attention to what we have to say.”
If they wasn’t enough to get folks trumpeting like a bellicose herd of you-guess-what, at this meeting ATA also executed something of a double coup, booking-wise, in that not none and not one but two members of the Cabinet addressed standing-room-only crowds at …Read the rest of this story
