Obama agenda fails to promote business

In an attempt to display a shared concern with the business community on high unemployment rates and a slow economic recovery, President Obama assembled the usual cast of compliant and sympathetic characters.

Among them were Penny Pritzker, a Chicago business executive and finance chair of Obama's presidential campaign; Robert Wolf of UBS, a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, an Obama golfing partner and a Democratic fundraiser; American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault; Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers; Google CEO Eric Schmidt; and Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric and would-be beneficiary of the president's green agenda.

It was not about substantive changes to promote our free market economy; it was about a show of good intentions. With a ballooning national debt and budget deficit, job-destroying government regulations, high personal and corporate taxes, a policy of class warfare and ongoing attempts to vilify and condemn successful individuals and businesses, his words have spoken much louder than his actions.

Despite numerous commissions called by the president to generate a plan to revitalize our economy, we remain another Europe waiting to happen.

There are four reasons an unfavorable business climate persists: high corporate tax rates, high regulatory cost, high labor costs and high litigation costs. Unless President Obama and his administration are ready to address the root causes of a hostile business environment, it will continue to be business as usual.

Ray Cziczo

Antioch