On the day he won the Nobel Peace Prize, President Barack Obama took a swing at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

This time, the issue was whether to create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which Obama said is needed to “ensure transparency and fair dealing” on loans and other financial products. The Chamber contends consumers can best be protected through existing regulators, and argues the new agency would make credit more expensive and harder to get.

Obama criticized the Chamber on October 9 for spending millions on a “completely false” ad campaign that claims “local butchers and other small businesses will somehow be harmed by this agency.”

At issue is whether allowing customers to delay payments for products or services would be considered to be a financial service subject to regulation by the agency. The White House contends it wouldn’t be, but the Chamber wants to see that exemption spelled out in legislative language.

The president singled out the Chamber again later in his speech.

“Big financial firms and their lobbyists” are “using every bit of influence they have to maintain a status quo that has maximized their profits at the expense of American consumers,” Obama said.

“In fact, over the last 10 years, the Chamber of Commerce alone spent nearly half a billion dollars on lobbying—half a billion dollars,” Obama said.

That’s true, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Since 1998, the Chamber has spent $488 million on lobbying, more than twice what the No. 2 lobbying organization, the American Medical Association, has spent.

Some of that money was spent lobbying for measures that the president wanted: the economic stimulus package, the automotive industry bailout, and the Cash for Clunkers car incentives. The Chamber, however, has fought the president on other issues, including the details on health care reform and the best way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Chamber officials are not upset about the president’s criticism. They view it as a compliment. It shows Obama is worried about the Chamber’s effectiveness, said Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs.