OBAMA:
Wall Street’s PAID TOADY!
“Obama
used the event to reassert his pro-business credentials, all but groveling
before an organization whose CEOs head firms that control half of all US
corporate profits.”
On eve of health care summit
Obama courts US corporate elite
By Tom Eley
25 February 2010
25 February 2010
In
in a bid for corporate support on the eve of his televised health care summit
with Republicans, President Obama on Wednesday told top CEOs gathered at the
Business Roundtable that his health care reform would improve the
competitiveness of their firms.
Obama
used the event to reassert his pro-business credentials, all but grovelling
before an organization whose CEOs head firms that control half of all US
corporate profits.
“Contrary
to the claims of some of my critics, I am an ardent believer in the free
market,” Obama assured his audience. “I believe businesses like yours are the
engines of economic growth in this country. You create the jobs. ... I firmly
believe that America’s success in large part depends on your success.”
Far
from creating jobs, US corporations have shed them by the millions since 2007,
while the past year has made abundantly clear that the success of major
corporations has nothing to do with the well-being of the American people. The
former have enjoyed enormous profits as a result of trillions of dollars in
federal money pumped into the finance markets, while the population as a whole
continues to suffer through the worst social crisis since the Great Depression.
REASONABLE REWARDS?
Obama
reiterated his mantra that “most Americans—including myself—don’t begrudge
reasonable rewards for a job well done.” In fact, Americans not only “begrudge”
executives’ salaries that are hundreds of times greater than those of workers,
they wonder why the CEOs, whose predatory financial schemes triggered the
economic collapse, have not been arrested and prosecuted.
The
president stressed that any government intervention into the market would be
temporary, thereby reassuring the CEOs that the worst economic crisis since the
1930s would result in no reforms of the financial system. The highest elected
official, supposedly the democratic representative of the people, felt obliged
to justify the role of government before his audience of multi-millionaires and
billionaires, declaring that it served a “limited” and subordinate, but
necessary, function in enabling the financial elite to increase its wealth and
profits.
“Government
hasn’t stepped in to supplant private enterprise,” he declared, “but to
catalyze it, to create the conditions for entrepreneurs and new businesses to
adapt and to thrive.”His pro-business bona fides established, Obama moved to
his primary aim—to win support among the corporate elite for his health care
legislation, which has been stalled by Republican political maneuvering.
Republicans fully support the central purpose of Obama’ ;s “reform” agenda,
which is to slash Medicare spending and drive down health care costs through
the limitation of medical services to tens of millions. But they sense a
political opportunity to capitalize on widespread and justified fears over the
reform’s reactionary character.
Obama
called health care an “undeniable drag on our economy,” while hailing “the
willingness of the Business Roundtable to work with us” in addressing the
issue. “Still, I know there are many who have been skeptical of our reform
efforts,” he said. “[I]t’s been an easy political tactic to characterize any
effort at health reform as a ‘big government takeover.’”
“The
truth is just the opposite,” Obama continued, adding that the plan would
deliver “more customers” to insurers, and pointing out that the legislation had
“incorporated almost every serious idea from across the political spectrum
about how to contain the rising cost of health care,” resulting in a proposal
that “would reduce the deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two
decades.”
“One
of the benefits of health care reform is that by bringing down the cost of
Medicare and Medicaid, it would significantly reduce our deficit,” Obama added.
“I know this an issue of great concern to many of you. Believe me—it’s been on
my mind too.”
The
30 minute speech offered other revealing moments, among them a rather frank
admission that the Wall Street bailout now necessitated attacks on social
programs.
“The
steps we took to save the economy from depression last year have necessarily
added to the deficit,” Obama said. “But I’ve also said that we intend to pay
for what we added. My administration is doing what families and businesses all
across the country are doing during these difficult times: we’re tightening our
belts and making tough decisions. We’re investing only in what we need and
sacrificing what we can do without.”
He
boasted that the administration has “identified more than 120 programs for
elimination—a total of $20 billion in savings for next year,” and has imposed
“a freeze on non-security, discretionary government spending for three years.”
Obama
repeated his goal, first announced in his State of the Union address, to double
US exports in five years, a plan that presages trade war and the restructuring
of US manufacturing on the basis of near-poverty wages.
Obama
told the CEOs that the US cannot go back “to the pre-crisis status quo,” which
he described as “an economy too dependent on a housing bubble, consumer debt,
financial speculation, and growing deficits.”
“We
will pursue a more strategic and aggressive effort to open up new markets for
our goods,” he said. The US economy must “send more products overseas” and
“borrow less and produce more.”
(OBAMA,
ALWAYS A BACK SLIDER WHEN IT COMES TO THE SPECIAL INTERESTS. THEY NOW CAN KEEP
THEIR CORPORATE PROFITS ABROAD TO AVOID TAXES!)
At
the same time that he promised a vigorous expansion of exports, Obama partially
reversed another of his campaign pledges—to eliminate loopholes that allow US
corporations that make money abroad to avoid paying taxes. “Mr. Obama said he
modified his proposal, originally designed to raise as much as $210 billion,
after listening to complaints from businesses, which say the deferral rule lets
them better compete against overseas competition,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Obama
also pointed to his proposal to create a two-tier system of public education in
the US, which has won widespread Republican support. By pitting states and
school districts in competition for limited funding, the plan aims to tear up
teachers’ work rules and promote charter schools. “Race to the Top,” as the
administration dubs its plan, “is one of those rare issues where both Democrats
and Republicans are enthusiastic,” Obama said.
The
Business Roundtable is among the most influential of US business organizations.
“The group’s support is seen as crucial to Obama’s agenda as he faces a rough
road heading toward November’s midterm elections,” the New York Times
wrote. “Obama has wooed the Roundtable’s leaders since the start of his
presidency.”The Wall Street Journal noted that “administration officials
say they have been inviting chief executives to the White House for months, and
prefer meeting company leaders to their lobbyists.”
(BANKSTER
J. P MORGAN AT THE WHITE HOUSE. ONE OF THE BANKSTER PRESIDENT’S BIGGEST DONORS,
AND BIGGEST BENEFICIARIES OF OBAMA’S SELLOUT TO BIG BANKSTER DONORS!)
Obama’s
wooing of the nation’s top CEOs included a private White House dinner on
Tuesday evening attended by 17 leading executives, including JPMorgan Chase CEO
Jamie Dimon.
Obama
well understands the decisive power asserted by the financial elite over the
political life of the nation. His career was taken in hand early on by powerful
financial interests in Chicago, and in the 2008 elections the finance sector
gave him far more in campaign contributions than any other candidate.
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