Barack Obama crossed the River Styx yesterday to meet with the US Chamber of Commerce. His speech was personable and reasonable, but the only thing he accomplished by being there was to offend his base yet again. Appealing to the assembled CEOs to create jobs out of patriotism is a fool’s errand. Asking the US Chamber CEOs to be patriotic is like asking the KKK to be black. They just don’t come in that flavor. If a CEO stops maximizing profit to do the right thing, he will find himself under the corporate bus faster than a Republican who compromises. Furthermore, these CEOs are doing the exact opposite. They are outsourcing jobs and using the savings to increase their own earnings.
Today, President Obama addressed the leaders of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a highly ideological right-wing trade association representing mostly large international corporations. Obama urged the audience of business executives to “get in the game” and spend some of the trillions of dollars corporations have compiled in the past year on job creation. Indeed, much of the executive leadership of the Chamber has spent the past few years rewarding themselves with millions in additional compensation while eliminating American jobs.
Trucking Manufacturer Navistar Inc [Chamber delinked] Is On The US Chamber’s Board Of Directors:
– In 2010, Naivstar CEO Daniel Ustian increased his total compensation by 27%, from $6.64 million in FY 2009 to $8.43 million in the year that ended October 31. The company has enjoyed [Murdoch delinked] healthy profits: in 2009, it earned $320 million, or $4.46 a share, and in 2010, it made $223 million, or $3.11 a share.
– Navistar has slashed jobs at factories across the country. In Springfield, Ohio, Navistar laid off 250 workers from a truck assembly plant. At its plant in Arkansas, the company laid off 477 in 2009 after letting 300 workers go in 2008. Amid the layoffs and plant closures, Navistar, a major military contractor, opened a new factory in Mexico last year.
Telecommunications Giant AT&T [Chamber delinked] Is On The US Chamber’s Board Of Directors:
– AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson was awarded a compensation package valued at $20.3 million in 2009, a jump of 35% from 2008. Last year, AT&T devoted an extra $8.99 million into Stephenson’s pension plan, ensuring that his retirement will include a pension “equal to 60 percent of his highest average salary and bonus in three of his last 10 years at the company. Although he’s not currently eligible for retirement, his pension is valued at an estimated $31 million today.”
– In recent years, AT&T has aggressively downsized its American workforce. In 2008, the company killed over 16,000 jobs as the recession hit. But in the last two years as AT&T enjoyed record profits, the company announced layoffs of “hundreds” in Kansas, 96 in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, 150 in Connecticut, 525 technicians in California, and 140 jobs in Oklahoma.
Agricultural Manufacturer Deere And Co. [Chamber delinked] (John Deere Company) Is On The US Chamber’s Board Of Directors:
– Samuel Allen, the CEO and Chairman of Deere and Co., was awarded a compensation package in 2010 three times the size of his pay in 2009. Allen’s compensation was $12.29 million in 2010.
– As Deere and Co. recorded high profits, the company slashed jobs. The company killed 367 jobs in East Moline, Illinois, 325 in Iowa, and 89 jobs in North Dakota.
Health Insurance Company WellPoint [Chamber delinked] Is On The US Chamber’s Board Of Directors:
– In recent years, WellPoint has reported record profits and extraordinary executive compensation. In 2009, WellPoint CEO Angela Braly was awarded a 51% compensation boost from $8.7 million in 2008 to $13.1 million.
– During the same period of high profits and highly compensated executives, WellPoint shed thousands of jobs. In 2009, WellPoint laid off 1,500 employees across the nation. Following the first round of layoffs, the company got rid of an additional 136 jobs in Missouri and 111 in Wisconsin. Notably, during this same period WellPoint’s trade association secretly transfered $86 million to the Chamber to fight health reform.
Despite bloated rhetoric about the virtues of “free enterprise,” the Chamber demanded taxpayer bailouts for its bank members (AIG, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, etc.), billions in taxpayer money for its defense contract members, taxpayer money for cleaning up BP’s oil spill, and preferential tax cuts for its millionaire executives.
As ThinkProgress has documented, the Chamber has a history of being singularly focused on boosting profits, not creating American jobs… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Cenk Uygur came to essentially the same conclusion I did, and he interviews Robert Borodage from Campaign for America’s Future.
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It makes sense that his intent was to gain corporate support for infrastructure and education spending, what he gains from so doing is not worth adding to the commonly held perception that he a corporate shill, no different from the Republicans.
Onama, when you lie down with US Chamber Dogs, you get GOP fleas.
9 Responses to “Obama, When You Lie Down with Dogs…”
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Sometimes reaching across the eisle is not always productive. I was left scratching my head about Obama’s visit with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
He’s probably trying to steal the Republicans fire, but the hater will stay Republican and he is demolishing his base.
Obama is playing the CoC for a more “moderate” image for voters. The CoC will use him in return. Neither care more about American jobs as much as their own interests.
Dave, I agree. The 2012 posturing was plain.
I don’t know guys………Obama has a way of being “dumb like a fox.” Sometimes it pays to “dazzle ’em with bullshit’ to accomplish your ends. These 😕 guys were ready to pounce on ANY perception of being anti-business and I’m sure FOX already had the next talking head’s show written…….
Obama may very well be “dumb like a fox” and dazzling with bullshit, but it’s his supporters being dazzled. A dumb like a fox strategy works when you want to lull your adversary into dropping their guard. When you and your adversary pursue the same ends and support the same policy, the only thing it does is keep your supporters on your side hoping at some point you’ll work for rather than against them.
Thus far Obama has proved himself an extremely capable politician who has delivered everything his corporate benefactors have wanted. He’s the best president the health insurance industry has ever paid for, and one of the best ever purchased by wall st and the military industrial complex.
In politics and everywhere else, you get what you pay for.
I fall between you two. Obama is trying to accomplish whatever he can, but he is still negotiating from the middle, when he needs to start at the left.
Well I for one do not feel any sympathy for the U S Chamber Of Nazi’s. I say off with their heads since I no longer want to paint the Roses Red.
Fascism has come to America and it is wrapped in the Flag and carrying a Bible, brought to you by The Republican Nazi Party.
AP it is true that the Nazi’s had corporate bonds, but I classify the Chamber as Corporate Plutocrats.