President Barack Obama is increasingly using the Chamber of Commerce talking points as he heads into his re-election campaign amid growing public disenchantment with his failed economic policies.
Congress needs to approve free-trade treaties, pass a patent-reform bill and spend more money on infrastructure, he declared in his hastily arranged Rose Garden statement today, following the release of June’s dismal job-numbers.
Congressional action, and a bipartisan deal on deficit spending, he said, will “give our businesses the certainty that they will need in order to make additional investments to grow and hire and will provide more confidence to the rest of the world as well, so that they are committed to investing in America.”
Obama has frequently criticized the Chamber and its business members, yet his talking points matched a Chamber statement issued the same day.
“We need to approve the three pending free trade agreements … We need to invest in infrastructure to rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges and put idle construction workers back to work … and we need to promote certainty and fiscal responsibility by promptly increasing the debt limit and reaching agreement on a binding and enforceable deficit reduction plan,” said the Chamber’s comment on June’s job report.
This rhetorical convergence exemplifies Obama’s focus on the contribution of industry’s confidence to economic growth. On June 29, for example, Obama told a press conference that “we will reach a deal that will require our government to live within its means and give our businesses confidence and get this economy moving.” (Ohioans fighting to kill Obamacare with state constitution)
In recent months, Obama has also delayed the release of some agency regulations opposed by industry, praised high-tech manufacturing in several speeches given in swing-state locations, and showcased his panel of business advisers.
Still, the rhetoric does not close the wide gaps between Obama’s day-to-day reliance on government expertise and the Chamber’s emphasis on free enterprise. The Chamber wants the president to relax existing and pending environmental regulations that restrict numerous sectors, especially the oil industry. Chamber officials also say the administration has failed to promote the free-trade deals, and continues to push job-killing regulations.
The Chamber declined to comment.
Obama’s current rhetoric is far different from the early days of his administration, when Obama and other officials criticized Wall Street investors, auto-industry executives, other senior level business executives, as well as the Chamber of Commerce. (FEMA faces House heat for taking over flood insurance policies)
In October 2009, for example, Obama accused the Chamber of running false advertising when trying to prevent the creation of a new regulatory agency. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending millions on an ad campaign to kill it … [their claim] is, of course, completely false,” Obama said. Companies, he added, “are doing what they always do — descending on Congress, using every bit of influence they have to maintain the status quo that has maximized their profits at the expense of American consumers, despite the fact that recently a whole bunch of those same American consumers bailed them out as a consequence of the bad decisions that they made.”
That critical tone greatly widened the political gap between Obama’s White House and business. “We know what [Obama’s] instincts are — they are Robin Hood-esque … [and] he is anti-business,” George Buckley, CEO of 3M, told the Financial Times in February 2011.
So far, Obama’s new business-friendly tone has had no effect on business leaders, nor on the economy.
His efforts to build industry’s confidence in economic growth took another hit July 8, when government data for June showed that private sector created only 57,000 new jobs, nudging the unemployment rate up to 9.2 percent and the underemployment rate to 16 percent.
Those rates would have been higher had 250,000 people not quit the workforce, and more than offset the workforce’s normal monthly growth of 100,000. This normal growth is driven by the arrival of young people and immigrants.
The June numbers immediately shaped stock prices on Wall Street, which fell almost a percent, or 103 points, to 12,616.
Those financial declines are matched in polls, which show the public’s confidence is sliding steadily downwards. On June 8, for example, the GOP-affiliated polling group Resurgent Republic, reported that “Independent voters [in four swing-states] uniformly expressed pessimism and could not see a light at the end of the tunnel.” The poll surveyed voters in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, and Colorado.
Obama’s re-election team says it will win the election because it is experienced and because there are a growing number of Democratic-leaning minority voters. The re-election team also points to the president’s solid support among liberals and progressives, which it believes allows the president to embrace policies that appeal to swing-voting independents, such as deficit-reduction policies.
Obama can appeal to those voters, White House aide David Plouffe said July 7, because they want to “get away from the stale ideas of the left or right and focus on what’s going to be right for the country.”
That hope is driving the president’s business-friendly language and his public stance in the debt-ceiling negotiations.
“Obviously, over the last couple of days, the debate here in Washington has been dominated by issues of debt limit, but what matters most to Americans, and what matters most to me as President, in the wake of the worst downturn in our lifetimes, is getting our economy on a sounder footing more broadly so the American people can have the security they deserve,” Obama declared during a Rose Garden speech earlier today.
“To put our economy on a stronger and sounder footing for the future, we’ve got to rein in our deficits and get the government to live within its means, while still making the investments that help put people to work right now and make us more competitive in the future,” he said.
Obama’s below-water job-performance numbers, however, may be offset by voters’ generally favorable attitude towards him personally. This personal regard may not switch votes into his column on Election Day, but Obama used his Rose Garden speech to underscore his empathy with voters.
“I read letter after letter from folks hit hard by this economy. None of them ask for much. Some of them pour their guts out in these letters … hard as things might be today, they are positive that things can get better. And I believe that we can make things better,” he said.
“In light of the deep concerns these voters hold on the economy,” said hte Resurgent Republic report, “it is unlikely that any sense of personal affinity toward President Obama will outweigh pocketbook issues as 2012 nears.”