MORE MISPLACED WHINING…. I don’t generally consider White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley as a go-to guy for pushback against unfair criticism, which made this all the more encouraging.
A top aide to President Barack Obama pushed back hard on Tuesday against an accusation that the president was “anti-business,” bluntly calling out Obama’s critic by name.
“I was amazed to see the critical comments George Buckley, chief executive and chairman of 3M, made in the Financial Times this week, when he dubbed the president as ‘anti-business’,” Obama chief of staff William Daley wrote on the London-based newspaper’s website.
Daley, the former JP Morgan Chase executive brought into the White House in January to make it more business-friendly, said the president was committed to boosting the U.S. economy and making the country more competitive.
3M’s Buckley apparently went on quite a little tirade, condemning President Obama for having “Robin-Hood-esque” instincts, and arguing — in all seriousness — that the administration’s policies are so misguided, manufacturing may start moving to Canada or Mexico.
(Buckley might have missed the latest data, showing U.S. manufacturing activity reaching its highest levels in seven years.)
Honestly, I’m amazed sometimes at the whining we see from some in the corporate world. After two years of these “Robin-Hood-esque” efforts, corporate profits have soared, the private sector is where nearly all of the new jobs are being created, and all of the major investment indexes are way up. The president is reaching out to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, he’s pushing trade deals that the business community wants to see, and he’s even raised the prospect of reforming the corporate tax code. Hell, Daley himself was brought in from the corprorate world.
If the White House is driving an “anti-business” agenda, officials aren’t executing this nefarious scheme very well.
“We are seeing positive signs as a result of these efforts. Two years ago our economy was in freefall. Today, it is growing,” Daley said yesterday. “There is plenty of work to do. But the stakes are too high to give credence to the kind of comments Mr. Buckley made this week, or to believe those who would question Mr. Obama’s commitment to our economic recovery.”
Good for Daley. Here’s hoping Buckley and his buddies noticed.
