Gary Shapiro is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream,” released earlier this year.
Shapiro, who is the president and CEO of the Consumers Electronics Association, told The Daily Caller in a recent interview that President Obama is presiding over an administration that is the most hostile to business in his memory.
“You have investigations and breakdowns of companies like Gibson. You have monopoly investigations of great American companies like Google. You have an attack on American business which is unprecedented by this administration at different levels. This is the most anti-business administration in my lifetime,” he said.
“You could go back to Clinton and Carter and others, and Johnson and Kennedy, and say, did they do things where there was regulation? Yes. But it was more like business is good — they create jobs. Here business is bad.”
The association that Shapiro heads deals with over 2,000 electronics companies. While he said his membership was generally supportive of Obama’s candidacy in 2008, he couldn’t imagine they would support him now.
“We three years ago surveyed our membership and they supported the election of Obama over McCain,” he said. “I guarantee if we surveyed them today we would not get this response.”
Asked whether he believes President Obama is personally anti-business, Shapiro said he doesn’t believe the president even has the experience to be either. (RELATED: Limbaugh: Obama jobs bill is ‘nothing more than a wet dream tax bill)
“I don’t think President Obama has the background or experience to be pro-business or anti-business,” he responded. “He has very little executive experience. The only thing he ever ran was a presidential campaign and a Senate office before he became president.”
Shapiro said that of the current Republican presidential contenders, there is no question that the business community views former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the most attractive leader.
“He has a business background. He has created jobs. He has invested,” Shapiro explained. “If a search firm was searching for a president they would hire him in a second.”
If America is to have a chance to lead the 21st century like it did the 20th century, Shapiro said we need leadership with a different mindset.
“We need a different mindset. We need strategic immigration. We need free trade, lower tariffs and we need a pro-business, pro-job creator, pro-innovation mindset,” he said.
Watch the full interview below where Shapiro explains the importance of innovation and how we can foster an environment in America that supports it.
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