Bend Over America Obamas Got the Fever

[JG55]

http://www.brutallyhonest.org/.a/6a00d834516bb169e20120a8c8f751970b-500wi

Edited February 24, 2010 by JG55

[molonlabetn]

that

[Guest jackdm3]

I'm no socialist, Obama tells CEOs

Business is economic engine but government is catalyst, the president says

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Alert Email Print Share By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- President Barack Obama told business leaders Wednesday that he's no socialist plotting a government takeover of the economy.

His administration isn't anti-business, he said in a speech to the Business Roundtable, an organization of chief executive officers of major U.S. corporations. "It's pro-America and I don't apologize for it."

"Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, I am an ardent believer in the free market," Obama said. "I believe businesses like yours are the engines of economic growth in this country."

Reuters

President Barack Obama.

"I firmly believe that America's success in large part depends on your success," Obama said.

"We are all in this together," he said in asking the business leaders to help him create a smarter government that will be pro-growth and pro-jobs. Obama's remarks came on the eve of a high-stakes summit with congressional leaders about the way forward on health-care reform, momentum for which seems to have stalled on Capitol Hill just short of the finish line.

On top issues such as health care, Obama has dealt directly with the Business Roundtable and similar groups of top executives, rather than letting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce represent the business point of view. That strategy has had some successes, notably in energy policy -- but it's been at the cost of angering one of the biggest and most influential lobbying organizations in Washington.

U.S. Banks in Transition: Reforming and Recovering

Jayan Dhru, Standard & Poor's global head of Financial Services Ratings, says U.S. banks are still in recovery mode as they manage the credit cycle while reducing leverage and risk. Reforming the banking sector will have unintended consequences on the broader economy.

On Wednesday, he asked the assembled CEOs to help him to effect change on a variety of domestic fronts: reforming health care, rewriting the rules for banks, and moving the U.S. toward a greener economy.

"These steps would provide more certainty for businesses, not less," he said.

Obama also told the business leaders that his efforts to rescue the economy from recession and make it greener, retool bank regulations and overhaul health care are all based on the same criteria: "Is this good for America? Does it help us compete? Does it grow our economy? Does it create jobs for the middle class and those trying to join it?"

Government's place

Finding scapegoats or assigning labels to political opponents is counterproductive, he argued. When every proposal is "greeted with cries of 'government takeover' or even 'socialism,' " he said, 'it prevents us from asking hard questions about the right balance between the private and public sectors."

Government cannot and should not do everything, but neither should it stand to the sidelines and do nothing, Obama stressed.

"Government hasn't stepped in to supplant private enterprise, but to catalyze it -- to create the conditions for entrepreneurs and new businesses to adapt and survive," Obama said.

Government's role has properly been limited to three areas, Obama said.

First, it's involved in setting up the basic rules of the marketplace to ensure "honest competition, fair dealing, and a level playing field," he said. "On balance, those rules have been good for business, not bad."

Second, Obama said, Washington has a role providing for the things society needs that individuals cannot or will not do themselves, such as national defense, infrastructure and research investments as well as investments in the people.

And third, government needs to be the provider of a social safety net, Obama said.

While the boundaries of such a net are open to debate, "most Americans and business leaders would agree that programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment insurance have not only saved millions from poverty, they have helped secure broad-based consensus that is so critical to a functioning market economy," the president said.

Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch.

[Guest SUNTZU]

Yep, we're all in this together, he's absolutely right. A few work, they take, and everyone else bellies up to the trough for the handout.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

"I'm no socialist." "I'm a marxist" is what he should have said.