16 February 2011 By Jerry White President Obama spoke at the US Chamber of Commerce
in Washington, DC Monday, assuring the crowd of top
executives that his administration was committed to
making "America the best place to do business." In his
remarks, he outlined a vision in which social programs
are cut to the bone in order to tailor the government
entirely to the profit interests of US corporations. The speech was billed as rapprochement with the
nation's largest business-lobbying group, which had
aggressively opposed the administration's health care
plan and financial regulatory policies. Whatever small
differences there had been, the president told his
well-heeled audience, his administration was fully
committed to boosting the "competitiveness" of
corporate America by eliminating regulations and taxes
and providing one incentive after the other. The speech was remarkable only in so far as it
underscored the nakedness of the Obama
administration's servitude to the corporate elite. It
was the president's latest in a series of moves even
further to the right since the Democratic debacle in
last year's midterm elections. Recent measures
included the agreement on extending Bush-era tax cuts
for the rich, the appointment of JP Morgan Chase
executive William Daley as Obama's chief of staff, and
the president's executive order to review all
regulations that could adversely affect big business. With more than 25 million Americans without a job
or being forced to work part-time, and levels of
social distress not seen since the Great Depression,
Obama hailed the success of American "capitalism,"
which produced "ingenious entrepreneurs" like those in
the room. His remarks came as US corporations are engaged in
a virtual hiring strike—even as they sit on a cash
hoard of $2 trillion—and are using mass unemployment
to drive down labor costs and increase productivity.
The Labor Department reported last week that US
companies created only 36,000 jobs in January—a
figure, Obama said afterwards, showed, "We continue to
head in the right direction." In an article entitled, "No Rush to Hire Even as
Profits Soar," the Wall Street Journal noted
Monday, "The lack of significant job gains 18 months
after the recession was declared over isn't such a
mystery when considering how companies were able to
return to strong profit growth in a relatively short
period. They mainly relied on aggressive job cuts, and
with companies now pleased with their revitalized
earnings and demand still choppy, they seem to be in
no hurry to add to their payrolls." The president acknowledged that technological
developments and globalization had made it more
profitable to send production to lower-wage countries,
like India and China. He said, "I understand the
challenges you face. I understand that you're under
incredible pressure to cut costs and keep your margins
up. I understand the significance of your obligations
to your shareholders. I get it." He warned, however, that the years of corporate
downsizing and falling living standards, combined with
"a brutal and devastating recession" have "shaken the
faith of the American people—in the institutions of
business and government. They see a widening chasm of
wealth and opportunity in this country, and they
wonder if the American Dream is slipping away." He implored the executives not to "ignore these
concerns," suggesting that they could lead to a social
explosion. Calling on the businesses to retain more
jobs in the US, he made clear that this would entail a
further lowering of working-class living standards.
"We need an economy that's based not on what we
consume and borrow from other nations, but what we
make and sell around the world. We need to make
America the best place on earth to do business." With a wink and a nod to the millionaire executives
in the audience, the president said these policies
"can't just translate into greater profits and bonuses
for those at the top" but 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." In fact, the plan to transform America into an
export platform is predicated on closing the wage gap
between US workers and their brutally exploited
counterparts in Asia and Latin America. The government would be refashioned in accordance
with the needs of big business, the president added.
This included promoting research and development that
companies find too costly to do themselves; upgrading
"transportation and communications networks so you can
move goods and information more quickly and cheaply;"
and "knocking down barriers that make it harder for
you to compete, from the tax code to the regulatory
system." To pay for this transformation, Obama said,
unnecessary spending, i.e., resources for social
programs that do not directly benefit business, would
have to be slashed. "To make room for these
investments," he said, "government also has a
responsibility to cut the spending that we just can't
afford." This from a president who has handed out
trillions for Wall Street bailouts, tax cuts for the
rich and two criminal wars. Obama pledged to "freeze annual domestic spending
for the next five years, which would reduce the
deficit by more than $400 billion over the next
decade, and bring this spending down to the lowest
share of our economy since Eisenhower was president." After spelling out this pro-corporate agenda, Obama
appealed to the business lobby group to stop its
opposition to his health care plan, saying that
experts commissioned by the Business Roundtable
"suggest that health insurance reform could ultimately
save large employers anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000
per family." Budget director Jacob Lew wrote an opinion piece in
the New York Times Sunday signaling the
brutal cuts that are coming when Obama releases his
budget next week. In addition to other cuts, the
administration plans to slash hundreds of millions in
funding to already bankrupt cities and towns that
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