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Is the GOP still the "party of business"?

With the party's long-standing and ongoing push for lower taxes and fewer regulations — both in Washington and in state legislatures — Republicans can reasonably make that claim.

Yet some of the congressional Republican rhetoric in the battle over a continuing resolution, the debt ceiling and defunding Obamacare makes it clear that there's a significant amount of tension between the party and the business community.

Much of the strong language comes from the Tea Party and its friends on Capitol Hill.

In his 21-hour marathon speech in the Senate this week, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas spoke of the need to listen to the little guy rather than the CEOs and titans of business.

At a recent rally on the Capitol grounds, Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee decried the exemptions big business has gotten from the White House on Obamacare — lumping that group in with what he calls the president's "cronies." He was cheered when he asked the crowd, "Is that fair?"

The Tea Party crowd answered with a resounding "Noooooo!"

And it's not just this particular summer of discontent that has driven this narrative.

Conservative voices in the party have been grumbling about big business since the law known as TARP — passed in late 2008 in response to the mortgage crisis — was signed by President Bush with strong backing from Wall Street and the business community.

Then came the auto industry bailout. More GOP outrage.

Toss in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's calls for passage of comprehensive immigration reform, and it's easy to forget that the GOP and big business have long been close allies.

Last week the chamber sent a letter to members of the Republican-controlled House, urging them not to flirt with a government shutdown. The correspondence warned that such threats, combined with the talk of not raising the debt ceiling later this month, could trigger disruptive consequences for an economy that's already underperforming.

"I like to deal in reality," says Bruce Josten, the business group's top government affairs officer.

That reality, he explains, is the need to deal with things like entitlement reform, fixing the immigration system and protecting the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

As for the politics of all of this, Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College says Republican members of Congress come mostly from safe GOP districts — which means they are worried about pleasing the activist voices in their party.

Right now, that often means the Tea Party. Pitney says the debate over defunding Obamacare indicates that the activists, and not the business community, have captured the attention of GOP officeholders.

Against that backdrop, the chamber hosted an event at its Washington headquarters this week. The keynote speaker was former Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Asked about the battles this week in Congress, Daniels, who is now president of Purdue University, says he hopes the parties get past this current skirmish.

A budget needs to be passed and a shutdown should be averted, he says. Further, Daniels called the Chamber of Commerce an important institutional voice — one that he hopes it will use more loudly.

After the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus that reportedly killed more than 1,000 people and has been blamed on Bashar Assad's regime, the Syrian president's ambassador to the U.N. claimed that opposition forces had used such weapons at least three times in the days immediately after.

As Russia's RT.com reported on Aug. 28:

"Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said he had requested of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the team of experts currently in Damascus investigating an alleged use of chemical weapons last week also investigate ... other attacks.

The attacks took place on August 22, 24 and 25 in Jobar, Sahnaya, and al-Bahariya, Jaafari told journalists Wednesday. The 'militants' used toxic chemical gas against the Syrian army, the diplomat said."

A Texan known for talking is making news again.

And it's not Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis, whose June filibuster of a Texas abortion bill gained her national headlines, is reportedly running for governor. The Los Angeles Times, citing Democratic sources, says Davis will announce her candidacy next week.

Davis, 50, hopes to succeed Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is retiring at the end of his third term. If she gets the Democratic nomination, Davis would likely face Republican Greg Abbott, the state attorney general.

Davis' chances in red Texas are still to be seen. The New York Times, which also cited Democratic sources in reporting that Davis would run, put it this way:

"Ms. Davis's decision has the potential to turn the race to determine Gov. Rick Perry's successor into a rare competitive showdown between long-suffering Texas Democrats and the Republican conservatives who have ruled state politics for decades. She would enter the race as a substantial underdog, but her candidacy would represent the most serious challenge to the Republican lock on the office. Two Republicans, Mr. Perry and George W. Bush, have held the office since the party began its winning streak in governor's races in 1994, with Mr. Bush's victory over the incumbent, Ann W. Richards."

Two high-profile Texans are fighting the Affordable Care Act.

Gov. Rick Perry has loudly dismissed the law, and fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor this week to rail against it at length — 21 hours and 19 minutes to be exact.

On the other side of the issue, you have Rosy Mota and her clipboard, standing at the door of a CVS pharmacy in one of Houston's Latino neighborhoods, stopping shoppers.

"Hello, would you like a brochure about the new health care coverage that's coming into effect? We'll be here if you have any questions," she tells a customer.

Mota works for Enroll America, a national organization that has borrowed its tactics from the Obama re-election campaign. The group has combined sophisticated data-mining techniques and digital maps to figure out where the uninsured in Houston live, down to the block and house level.

Enroll America has just seven workers for Houston's 800,000 uninsured residents. But the it is part of a coalition of organizations that includes the city health department, the county's public clinics and groups like the Urban League. They're all trying to get the word out about health insurance marketplaces and help the uninsured buy coverage made possible by the health law. The exchanges are scheduled to open Oct. 1.

"Regardless of whether you are for the Affordable Care Act or you're against the Affordable Care Act, we're not looking at it that way," says Houston health official Benjamin Hernandez. "We're saying that, from a public health perspective, getting people insured and getting them into the system is a good thing to do."

The state of Texas is not providing any money or staff to help people sign up. So the city is using federal money funneled through the United Way and also tapping its own resources.

In fact, it considers the project so important that it's using the same command-and-control structure that it uses during hurricanes. Instead of shelters and relief centers, the city is compiling a list of block parties, church events and festivals where people can learn about how to sign up for Obamacare.

In addition to uninsured whites, black and Latinos, Houston has large populations of immigrants from Vietnam, China and South Asia. Last week Asian-American health advocates met with the city health director and a Medicare official. They shared concerns about people's lack of information and trouble finding interpreters.

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