As it became known, President Barack Obama proposals are opposed by Chamber of Commerce. Thus, the Chamber has emerged as a multitasking, multimillion-dollar defender of the private sector against presidential initiatives. As lawmakers spend time at home during their August vacation hearing from constituents, the chamber is adding its own heat to the season. 

With 3 million members, the chamber is working with local and regional affiliates on letter-writing campaigns to lawmakers and plans to track their public appearances to make sure they hear the chamber's point of view. The summer effort is just a start.

$2 million campaign was set against Obama's plans that would make the government a competitor in the health insurance market, targeted to make the case for insurers, which oppose a government-run insurance alternative but want to work with the White House to mandate coverage for all.

The Chamber has also become a pointed critic of a White House plan to create a consumer finance protection agency and is assembling finance sector trade groups to push for a delay in legislation.

The Chamber is also readying an ambitious $100 million campaign to advocate for businesses and a free enterprise system, which chamber officials believe is under attack. The chamber is putting lawmakers on notice: the issues campaign will be timed to lead into the 2010 congressional elections.

Critics take notice of the Chamber objects to government interference in the private sector even though it supported federal efforts to rescue the financial industry with hundreds of billions of dollars and to bail out struggling automakers. The chamber is setting itself up as a foil to the administration on health care while insurers and the health industry seek to negotiate with the White House.