The generally accepted maxim is:

conservative = good for business  liberal = bad for business

But is this accurate?

Do  conservatives and conservative lawmakers take positions and stands  which are hurtful or detrimental for business and the business climate?

Conservative Republicans have roughed up the business community this year — and it's not over yet.

The  U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and  major companies like Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc. all wanted quick  reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, which helps finance American  companies' overseas sales. Congress had reaffirmed the independent  federal agency some two dozen times since its creation in 1934. But this  year it took months of pleas, briefings and negotiations to overcome  conservative opposition.

Similarly, industries ranging from  asphalt to steel pressed for the popular transportation bill to rebuild  the nation's infrastructure. Conservatives wanted to give authority to  the states. Nine short-term extensions later — and almost three years  after the last transportation bill expired — businesses finally  prevailed last month.

The business community is now pressing the  Senate to ratify a treaty governing the high seas, arguing that it would  open a new path to oil, gas and other resources and produce thousands  of jobs. Prospects are uncertain as conservatives stand united in  opposition. They condemn the pact as a threat to U.S. sovereignty.

Perhaps  the most telling clue is that proponents call it the Law of the Sea  Convention — shorthand LOSC — while opponents refer to it as the Law of  the Sea Treaty — LOST.

Republicans like to tout themselves as the  best friends of business, and the rhetoric only grows louder in an  election year. They talk forcefully about their job-creation agenda and  determination to undo the burdensome regulations they say arise out of  President Barack Obama's policies.

Yet when it comes to many of  industry's top legislative priorities, conservative Republican lawmakers  and like-minded groups including the Club for Growth and Heritage  Action have thrown up roadblocks to tasks that had been easy before the  2010 elections sent a large class of conservative tea party insurgents  to Congress.

They and their ideological leaders argue that the marketplace should dictate what businesses thrive and falter, not Washington.

"What  we find now is this cronyism and this corporate welfare, it's  corrupting the politics because there's nothing now that goes through  that doesn't have a corporate interest," Republican Sen. Jim DeMint told  The Associated Press in an interview. "It's not just the Ex-Im Bank.  It's the transportation bill that has huge entities involved. The farm  bill basically guarantees large corporate farmers."

The South  Carolina lawmaker warned that the combination of big government and big  industry is creating a nation that is becoming "too big to succeed."

Democrats also are giving the business community fits beyond the normal ferment over workplace and union issues.

Industry  and corporations are pushing for Congress to approve permanent normal  trade relations with Russia this month, now that Moscow is slated to  join the World Trade Organization. Normal trade ties would open Russian  markets to more U.S. goods and investments. Russia has the ninth largest  economy in the world, but its imports from the U.S. were a paltry $11  billion in 2011.

Democrats, led by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland,  want to impose tough sanctions on Russian human rights violators, and  Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has signaled he  will link the human rights legislation to any bill normalizing trade  relations.

Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that  business prospects in Congress could become even more difficult next  year if the November elections, as expected, increase the ranks of  conservatives in the DeMint mold — especially in the Senate.

http://news.yahoo.com/conservatives-rough-business-070726123.html

Do conservative lawmakers need to re-think their positions?

Do  both Republicans and Democrats need to stop the posturing and do what  is in the best interest of the nation to allow business to succeeed?

Are lawmakers keeping the economy hostage and sluggish for politiccal gain?

From  the Cornfield, in politics there are never "best friends for life".  There is only what is the most beneficial for the next election.

Some how, some way we need to change the mindset in Washington, DC.