{"id":4036,"date":"2011-02-08T08:02:44","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T16:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4036"},"modified":"2011-02-08T08:02:44","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T16:02:44","slug":"obama-when-you-lie-down-with-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/08\/obama-when-you-lie-down-with-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama, When You Lie Down with Dogs…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s errand.  Asking the US Chamber CEOs to be patriotic is like asking the KKK to be black.  They just don\u2019t 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.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"JapanToday, 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 \u201cget in the game<\/font><\/a>\u201d 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. <\/font><\/p>\n

Trucking Manufacturer Navistar Inc [Chamber delinked] Is On The US Chamber\u2019s Board Of Directors:<\/font><\/p>\n

\u2013 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<\/strong><\/span>. 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.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u2013 Navistar has slashed jobs at factories across the country. In Springfield, Ohio, Navistar laid off<\/font><\/a> 250<\/strong><\/span> workers from a truck assembly plant. At its plant<\/font><\/a> in Arkansas, the company laid off 477<\/strong><\/span> in 2009 after letting 300<\/strong><\/span> workers go in 2008. Amid the layoffs and plant closures, Navistar, a major military contractor, opened<\/font><\/a> a new factory in Mexico last year<\/strong><\/span>. <\/font><\/p>\n

Telecommunications Giant AT&T [Chamber delinked] Is On The US Chamber\u2019s Board Of Directors: <\/font><\/p>\n

\u2013 AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson was awarded a compensation package valued at $20.3 million in 2009<\/strong><\/span>, a jump of 35% from 2008<\/font><\/a>. Last year, AT&T devoted an extra $8.99 million into Stephenson\u2019s pension plan, ensuring that his retirement will include a pension \u201cequal to 60 percent of his highest average salary and bonus in three of his last 10 years at the company. Although he\u2019s not currently eligible for retirement, his pension is valued at an estimated $31 million today<\/font><\/a>.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

\u2013 In recent years, AT&T has aggressively downsized its American workforce. In 2008, the company killed over 16,000<\/font><\/a> jobs as the recession hit. But in the last two years as AT&T enjoyed record profits<\/font><\/a>, the company announced layoffs of \u201chundreds<\/font><\/a>\u201d in Kansas, 96<\/strong><\/span> in Reynoldsburg<\/font><\/a>, Ohio, 150<\/strong><\/span> in Connecticut<\/font><\/a>, 525<\/strong><\/span> technicians in California<\/font><\/a>, and 140<\/strong><\/span> jobs in Oklahoma<\/font><\/a>. <\/font><\/p>\n

Agricultural Manufacturer Deere And Co. [Chamber delinked] (John Deere Company) Is On The US Chamber\u2019s Board Of Directors:<\/font><\/p>\n

\u2013 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<\/strong><\/span>. Allen\u2019s compensation was $12.29<\/font><\/a> million in 2010. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u2013 As Deere and Co. recorded <\/strong><\/span>high profits<\/strong><\/font><\/span><\/a>, the company slashed jobs<\/strong><\/span>. The company killed 367<\/strong><\/span> jobs in East Moline<\/font><\/a>, Illinois, 325<\/strong><\/span> in Iowa<\/font><\/a>, and 89<\/strong><\/span> jobs in North Dakota<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

Health Insurance Company WellPoint [Chamber delinked] Is On The US Chamber\u2019s Board Of Directors:<\/font><\/p>\n

\u2013 In recent years, WellPoint has reported record profits and extraordinary executive compensation<\/strong><\/span>. In 2009, WellPoint CEO Angela Braly was awarded a 51% compensation boost from $8.7 million in 2008 to $13.1 million<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u2013 During the same period of high profits and highly compensated executives, WellPoint shed thousands of jobs. In 2009, WellPoint laid off 1,500<\/strong><\/span> employees across the nation<\/font><\/a>. Following the first round of layoffs, the company got rid of an additional 136<\/strong><\/span> jobs in Missouri<\/font><\/a> and 111<\/strong><\/span> in Wisconsin<\/font><\/a>. Notably, during this same period WellPoint\u2019s trade association secretly transfered $86 million<\/font><\/a> to the Chamber to fight health reform. <\/font><\/p>\n

Despite bloated rhetoric about the virtues of \u201cfree enterprise,\u201d the Chamber demanded taxpayer bailouts<\/font><\/a> for its bank members (AIG, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, etc.), billions<\/font><\/a> in taxpayer money for its defense contract members, taxpayer money for cleaning<\/font><\/a> up BP\u2019s oil spill, and preferential tax cuts<\/font><\/a> for its millionaire executives. <\/font><\/p>\n

As ThinkProgress has documented<\/font><\/a>, the Chamber has a history of being singularly focused on boosting profits, not creating American jobs\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em><\/span>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

Cenk Uygur came to essentially the same conclusion I did, and he interviews Robert Borodage from Campaign for America\u2019s Future.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/font><\/p>\n

Onama, when you lie down with US Chamber Dogs, you get GOP fleas.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s errand.  Asking the US […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}