Jim Hoft
GatewayPundit
2/7/2011
His answer to everything… Socialism.
Obama told the Chamber of Commerce today that “Corporate profits have to be shared by American workers.”
The article continues, with video, at GatewayPundit.
At HotAir.com, Obama to Chamber of Commerce: Learn to share
Barack Obama spoke to the Chamber of Commerce today, part of his push to repair ties with the business community after two years of rapid regulatory expansion and hostility from the White House. How did he do? It depends on whether the Chamber expected conciliation from Obama, or more haughty dictates on how they should spend and invest their money. If they came for the latter, well, they weren’t disappointed. The first clip from the Associated Press hits a couple of money quotes from Obama’s speech (full text here)…
Video at HotAir.com
…Of course, your responsibility goes beyond recognizing the need for certain standards and safeguards. If we’re fighting to reform the tax code and increase exports to help you compete, the benefits can’t just translate into greater profits and bonuses for those at the top. They should be shared by American workers, who need to know that expanding trade and opening markets will lift their standard of living as well as your bottom line. We cannot go back to the kind of economy – and culture – we saw in the years leading up to the recession, where growth and gains in productivity just didn’t translate into rising incomes and opportunity for the middle class.
Wasn’t that the economy that created 5% unemployment?…
…The “must be shared” line misses the point. First, many businesses have profit-sharing and stock-purchase plans in place, and the defined-contribution retirement plans that most private-sector workers have rely on company contributions, which also rely on profitability. But even more so, the purpose of business is to make money for its investors, not to act as full-employment laboratories to make politicians look good…
Read the whole thing at HotAir.com
Update: Michelle Malkin thinks Obama and the Chamber are equally despicable.
“Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse.” — from Virgil’s Aeneid, translated by John Dryden
Today, President Obama will address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — the very same organization he slandered as a foreign money-funneling operationbefore the midterm election shellacking just three short months ago.
Desperate to goose up his administration’s abysmal jobs numbers, President Obama is on a public relations quest to create the appearance of “mending fences” and “easing tensions” with the Beltway business lobby — a lobby that should in no way be mistaken for representing the majority of American businesses and entrepreneurs.
I remind you again:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of the staunchest promoters of amnesty and joined with the AFL-CIO/ACLU to oppose immigration enforcement measures. They oppose E-verify and sued Arizona over its employer sanctions law.
The Chamber supported TARP, the auto bailout, and the stimulus.
The Chamber is supporting a pro-Obamacare, pro-TARP, pro-card check, pro-stimulus, pro-amnesty Democrat in Arizona over his free-market GOP challenger.
And the Chamber is now playing footsie with the AFL-CIO on a joint campaign to support increased government infrastructure spending — despite the massive Big Labor pay-offsembedded in these new pork-lined projects. (Refresher: Obama signed E.O. 13502, a union-friendly executive order in his first weeks in office, which essentially forces contractors who bid on large-scale public construction projects worth $25 million or more to submit to union representation for its employees. More here.)
While the White House pushes for a bonanza of new “public-private partnerships,” let me refresh your memories of some of the Democrats’ great ideas of “public-private partnerships”…
…taxpayer-funded black hole FANNIE MAE;
…Chicago’s shady Shorebank and its crony-supported successor, Urban Partnership Bank;
…the failed Chicago Olympics wealth distribution boondoggle;
…and the failed Richard Daley/Valerie Jarrett Chicago low-income housing boondoggle.
This isn’t about letting the best ideas and businesses thrive. It’s about picking winners and losers. It’s about “managing” competition and engineering political outcomes under the guise of stimulating the economy…
Read the whole thing.
Update 2: Rasmussen Reports, 68% Believe Government and Big Business Work Together Against the Rest of Us
