In his July 20 "Poor Little CEO's" story, Newsweek's Daniel Gross, known for his "tea bagging" comments and staunch defense of Obama, derided a July 12 "Jobs for America" summit held by the U.S Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and the National Federation of Independent Business.
Gross mocked the jobs summit saying it was "a little like BP holding a deepwater-drilling safety summit." He also blamed corporate America for a "lost decade" that ended with "the deepest recession since the Great Depression."
"Between 2001 and 2009, corporate America designed the playing field to its specifications - easy money from the Federal Reserve; lower taxes on capital gains, dividends, and income; an administration that let industry essentially write its own regulations," Gross claimed.
On the contrary, the Bush administration passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which policed mark-to-market accounting with criminal penalties, hardly a regulation "designed" to corporate America's "specifications." As for the "lost decade," the Bush Administration oversaw 52 months of job creation in a decade despite constant media assault.
Gross criticized both the Bush and Obama administrations for being "remarkably solicitous" to big business and for their regulatory policies not going far enough: "What's more, many of the policies recently put in place are quite friendly to big business."
As an example he cited one company, General Electric, ignoring the many other businesses threatened by Obama's policies.
Friendly? A financial reform bill that includes a consumer financial protection bureau and the Volcker Rule is not "friendly." Additionally, President Obama has hardly been "friendly" to businesses, from forcing the ouster of General Motors' CEO to his constant anti-business rhetoric.
