Image: Drudgereport.com
President Obama spoke at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today where he urged cooperation and asked business leaders to support his economic agenda. The Wall Street Journal noted the Chamber includes “some of his toughest business critics” and points out, “Chamber and White House officials clashed during Mr. Obama’s first two years in office over the president’s health-care and financial-markets regulatory overhauls, as well as environmental rules and tax policies.”
Yet the president’s outreach to the business community seems to once again be more rhetoric than reality. According to the AP, “White House officials say Obama’s speech will not break new policy ground, nor will he offer an olive branch.”
Indeed, today’s speech appears to be part of a pattern where President Obama will double down on policies harmful to business and job creation like his unpopular health care bill, the complicated Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, or EPA regulation of greenhouse gases, but then the White House will declare a new outreach to the business community to smooth things over.
One year ago, The Washington Post reported, “Declaring himself an ‘ardent believer in the free market,’ President Obama tried to rally business leaders Wednesday to support the administration’s goals of health-care reform, climate legislation and financial regulation.” In July of last year, after Democrats in Congress pushed through the health care and financial regulation bills, Politico wrote, “The White House has launched a coordinated campaign to push back against the perception taking hold in corporate America and on Wall Street that President Barack Obama is promoting an anti-business agenda.” In November, The Washington Post wrote, “President Obama is moving to cool down his war with the United States Chamber of Commerce, one of the most bitter political feuds of the last two years.” And a month later The Post reported, “The Republicans in Congress aren’t the only people the White House is trying to make peace with. President Obama will meet Wednesday with a group of 20 chief executives, including the heads of American Express, Google and UBS, as he continues a persistent but at times unsuccessful effort to win the business community’s trust.”
And yet little has changed in the way of policy. As the WSJ reported last month, “President Barack Obama’s government-wide review of federal regulations will have little effect on two of the president’s major regulatory victories: an overhaul of Wall Street and the health-care market, according to a White House budget official.” And according to a report in today’s Journal, “The Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces rules that affect the U.S. economy from factories to farms, is the No. 1 target of complaints from business groups collected by House Republican leaders. EPA rules were cited more than those from any other agency in more than 100 letters sent by trade associations, businesses and some conservative groups to House oversight committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) in response to his call for businesses to identify regulations they deemed burdensome, according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.”
The Washington Post adds, “The Post reviewed more than 200 letters and reports that businesses sent to Issa targeting regulations across the federal government. The rules under scrutiny include familiar issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, health-care reform and the landmark Wall Street overhaul. . . . In their letters, business leaders express alarm about the slow pace of the economic recovery and what they characterize as the growing role government is playing in the private sector. ‘Business owners remain on edge regarding the tidal wave of federal government regulation that has been advanced or proposed over the past two years. . . .The pain of the harsh recession was intensified and lengthened by this hyper-regulatory environment,’ Karen Kerrigan, president of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, wrote in a Jan. 12 letter to Issa.”
With only 36,000 jobs added last month, it’s clear that more needs to be done to foster an environment where businesses can create new jobs. Unfortunately, the White House seems more focused on presenting the image of reaching out to business, instead of changing its policies that are stifling job creation.
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<Hat tip:jackohoft
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