DC Trawler

Obama loves big business almost as much as he loves big government

Mike Riggs Contributor
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Have you read Amanda Carey’s fantastic story about CINOs, AKA capitalists in name only? If not, here’s a snippet, and you can read the rest later:

On Wednesday, President Obama met with a group of about 20 CEOs in a five-hour long summit, reportedly in an attempt to soothe the souring relationship between big business and big government. From almost all accounts, the “charm offensive” was successful.

By the end, Boeing CEO John McNerney is reported to have said, “We all wanted to move beyond the talk that made this confrontational environment. We made our apologies.” Honeywell International CEO David Cote said after the meeting, “Government is the enabler of business…Government and business need to work together.”

What Cote did not mention is that his company has already been working closely with the Obama Administration, and was a major beneficiary of the Recovery Act — as were many of the other companies represented. According toRecovery.gov, Honeywell received over $44 million in grants from the Department of Energy (DOE) for renewable energy initiatives. Honeywell also raked in more than $24 million in a variety of different government contracts from agencies like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Defense.

Sort of infuriating, isn’t it? James Fallows does us one better by pointing out that not only is OMB Director Peter Orszag taking a job at Citibank–an institution which Obama’s (and GW’s) big government policies saved–but that the Washington Post hasn’t seen fit to write a single word about the hire.