Part 2

Disney, Pfizer and ExxonMobil declined to comment. Jessica Boulanger, a spokeswoman for Business Roundtable, said in a statement they are engaged in “a significant, multifaceted campaign” to battle back tax hikes, and she said they would “continue to ramp up our efforts in the coming weeks.”

Brian Newell, a spokesman for PhRMA, stressed the group supports general pricing reforms — just not the ideas Democrats are pursuing. “The industry is willing to come to the table and do its fair share to help deliver real relief to patients at the pharmacy, not empty promises that will do more harm than good,” he said in a statement.

The raft of new lobbying arrives as lawmakers begin their work to translate Biden’s broader economic vision into fuller legislation. Democratic leaders have pledged their forthcoming reconciliation measure can expand Medicare coverage, offer universal prekindergarten to all children, provide new help to low-income families and invest substantial sums toward combating climate change.

Hoping to notch Biden a win, Democrats have aimed to send the reconciliation package to the president’s desk as soon as September. Their race to enact legislation has set off a mad dash on Capitol Hill, a process that is sure to test the president’s political influence — and the durability of Democrats’ narrow, potent and fractious majorities in both chambers of Congress.

In a sign of the obstacles Democrats already face, the U.S. Chamber last week took a firm stand against reconciliation, promising to do “do everything we can” to prevent Congress from adopting the package in full. The group’s president, Suzanne Clark, issued the statement hours after the House adopted the $3.5 trillion budget that enabled Democrats to begin crafting tax and spending provisions — an approach, she said, that would “halt America’s fragile economic recovery.”

The Chamber’s opposition marked a major shift in tone from earlier this summer, when the business lobby locked arms with Democrats to help advance another centerpiece of Biden’s economic agenda. The group threw its full weight behind a bipartisan Senate package to improve the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and internet connections, arguing the roughly $1 trillion in fixes were long overdue.

Once the Senate adopted the package, however, the Chamber turned up the pressure on the House. Last week, for example, it unleashed a series of widely viewed ads on Facebook praising the nine moderate Democrats who had threatened to block the party’s budget unless they could first secure a House vote on infrastructure spending. Democrats ultimately resolved their internal stalemate, paving the way for both packages to proceed this month, but not before the Chamber sought to highlight the party’s internal divisions in ads that together received millions of views.

The Chamber declined to comment about its plans, including its behind-the-scenes work to assemble a new coalition to fight Biden’s $3.5 trillion agenda. Neil Bradley, the group’s executive vice president, blasted Democrats for pursuing a bill “that proposes to fundamentally rewrite the rules of the road across virtually every major industrial sector.”

Other corporate interests are training their sights on Democrats’ plans to pay for the reconciliation bill through tax increases on businesses. Biden has proposed to raise rates to 28% from 21%, along with a slew of additional changes targeting profits earned overseas. The move has spawned outrage from companies that had spent significant sums four years ago to secure more favorable tax rules under President Donald Trump.

The list of opponents includes the RATE Coalition, a group who currently counts support from Capital One, Disney, FedEx, Lowe’s and Lockheed Martin. Over the next few months, the group is preparing a seven-figure digital advertising campaign to oppose Democrats’ plans and highlight businesses that might be hurt in the process, according to a person with knowledge of the effort, who requested anonymity to describe the planning.

“Any increase in the rate would position our country even further behind global competitors like China — and carry devastating consequences for American workers, who ultimately bear as much as 70% of the corporate income tax,” said former Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat who serves as the group’s chief adviser.

The ad blitz evinces the broader philosophical divides between corporate America and congressional Democrats over the future of the economy. Many business leaders say the policies enacted in the era of deregulation under Trump contributed to significant economic gains until the coronavirus arrived. But Democrats sharply disagree, stressing Trump’s tax cuts primarily benefited the wealthy — all the while leaving too many workers struggling to make ends meet.

The debate framed the course of the 2020 presidential election, and it looms large over the congressional midterms next year, putting new pressure on Democrats to sell their vision to voters to prevail. Their political task could prove all the more complicated if the party’s candidates have to weather a well-funded deluge of critical advertisements, particularly from angry corporate interests that hope to scuttle Democrats’ majorities in Congress.

Amazon says it’s looking to hire 55,000 people “A lot of Americans live in districts represented by more moderate candidates, and those members don’t necessarily know whether they’re going to be in office in a couple years” said Sarah Bryner, the director of research and strategy at the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks lobbying spending. “By targeting people in districts of what we might say are vulnerable members, which tend to be more centrist, companies hope to exert pressure essentially.”

The advertising has been especially aggressive on prescription drug pricing reforms, as the pharmaceutical industry — arguably the most well resourced in Washington — seeks to stave off Democrats’ latest proposals.

Party lawmakers in the House and Senate have eyed a variety of ideas that would empower Medicare to negotiate rates on behalf of seniors, saving patients money while covering some of the costs of the reconciliation package. But the industry’s leading lobbying group, PhRMA, for years has argued that Democrats’ ideas would result in fewer lifesaving drugs making it to market.

To raise its voice, PhRMA already has poured more than $15 million into lobbying Washington this year, its federal disclosures show. Working on behalf of members including AbbVie, AstraZeneca and Pfizer, it also appears to have mobilized through an intricate web of outside political organizations. Many of these groups, which have taken PhRMA money in the past, have run ads sharply criticizing Democrats, including the party’s most vulnerable lawmakers entering the 2022 midterm elections.

One such group, the right-leaning American Action Network, in August announced a $5 million ad campaign against Democrats that blasted the reconciliation package broadly and likened its drug pricing proposals to socialism. The network has received past support from PhRMA, including a $4.5 million donation reported on the pharmaceutical group’s 2019 tax filings, which were obtained by The Washington Post from the Center for Responsive Politics. AAN did not respond to a request for comment.

A separate ad blitz arrived earlier this summer during the Olympics, when an organization billing itself as the Coalition Against Socialized Medicine specifically took aim at Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the leader of the Finance Committee that oversees prescription drug reforms.

“Imagine a future in which a coronavirus vaccine was never discovered,” began the 30-second television spot, before flashing images of emptied classrooms, shuttered storefronts and displaced Americans sleeping on the streets. Faulting Wyden’s proposals, the ad concluded, “It won’t be hard to imagine at all.”

The coalition bills itself as the work of the American Conservative Union, along with the public backing of other right-leaning groups including American Commitment, FreedomWorks and Heritage Action. Each of the organizations has received thousands of dollars in past support from PhRMA, according to copies of the drug lobby’s 2017, 2018 and 2019 tax filings with the IRS, the most recent available.

The coalition did not respond to a request for comment. PhRMA, meanwhile, declined to comment on the ads. Debra DeShong, the group’s executive vice president of public affairs, previously said in a statement that Democrats’ plans threaten to “turn Medicare into a piggy bank to fund projects that have nothing to do with lowering out-of-pocket costs for medicines.”

The opposition has not sat well with lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the leader of the Senate Budget Committee, who chiefly crafted the budget measure that enables Democrats’ reconciliation package. In an interview earlier this summer, he rebuked the industry’s efforts as a “sign of the greed that pervades corporate America.”

“These guys don’t lose,” Sanders said when asked about the expected lobbying barrage. “They’re going to lose this round.”