June 12, 2009 2:33PM # Save Free Enterprise–Starting Now By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE As [Dan Mitchell noted below](https://www.cato.org/2009/06/11/beyond-irony-part-ii/), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a “Campaign for Free Enterprise” to stop the “rapidly growing influence of government over private-sector activity.” Chamber president Thomas Donohue [told the *Wall Street Journal*](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124467571817103985.html) that an “avalanche of new rules, restrictions, mandates and taxes” could “seriously undermine the wealth- and job-creating capacity of the nation.” Indeed. Given the scope and extent of the Obama administration’s assaults on private enterprise — national health insurance, energy central planning, pay czars, abrogation of contracts, skyrocketing spending, and so on — free enterprise can use all the help it can get. I welcome the Chamber to the fight. But it would be nice if the Chamber had joined the fight for economic freedom [a bit earlier](https://www.cato.org/2009/06/11/beyond-irony-part-ii/), say back in February when many of us were trying to stop the administration’s massive “stimulus” spending bill. That bill’s official cost is $787 billion; with interest, it would be about $1.3 trillion; and if you assume that its temporary spending increases will be extended, [it will cost taxpayers about $3.27 trillion](http://blog.heritage.org/2009/02/12/true-cost-of-stimulus-327-trillion/) over 10 years. Back then, Donohue had a few criticisms of the bill, [but](http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/62082.html) > The bottom line is that at the end of the day, we’re going to support the legislation. Why? Because with the markets functioning so poorly, **the government is the only game in town** capable of jump-starting the economy. Or they might even have started defending free enterprise last fall, instead of [going all-out to push the TARP bailout](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/14106.html) through Congress. Converts to the cause of limited government are always welcome. But we might not need a $100 million Campaign for Free Enterprise if American business had opposed big government when the votes were going down in Congress. Still, better late than never. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).