US President Biden leaves the White House in Washington, USA, on May 9, 2024, heading to California to attend a campaign fundraiser.
Craig Hudson | Reuters
President Joe Biden Already used up For much of his tenure, corporate America was focused on corporate America.
For the past three years, he has been working to overturn Big business Instead, his economic agenda is rooted in union support, aggressive antitrust regulation, crackdowns on so-called “junk fees,” advocating for taxes on the wealthy, and blaming corporate greed for inflation squeezing consumer wallets.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates wrote in a memo: “Many large companies are making record profits and charging the American people exorbitant prices — in some cases, despite declining inflation. Staying high — President Biden is taking unprecedented action to provide relief to middle-class families.
The letter accuses Big Pharma, grocery chains, credit card companies, airlines and student debt creditors of “price gouging,” one of the government’s go-to tactics to crack down on businesses.
Such comments rankle some in the business community.
“I think the rhetoric being directed at industries and companies right now is a little over the top,” Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told CNBC in early May. “It doesn’t look good.”
In response, the business community has repeatedly sued the Biden administration over its regulatory actions.
The Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission in April, asking it to ban workplace non-compete agreements. In a separate legal challenge, the banking industry won a victory when a judge ruled to halt enforcement of the White House’s new limits on credit card late fees.
“Wealthy special interests are fighting back to protect their abuses and garbage fees,” Bates added in Monday’s memo, acknowledging the lawsuits.
behind closed doors
Despite the public hostility, relations between the White House and the business community have been warmer in private.
“The people in the Biden administration are overwhelmingly very professional,” Bradley said. “They’re holding meetings, returning phone calls, interacting with a variety of stakeholders who have different perspectives.”
Earlier this month, Biden and members of his Cabinet hosted eight senior executives at the White House They participated in a private roundtable to discuss infrastructure investment, geopolitical issues and the performance of the U.S. economy relative to the rest of the world, according to people who attended.
Among the attendees were United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, Citibank CEO Jane Fraser and Marriott International Hotel Chief Executive Anthony Capuano — an industry leader who has been the target of a White House regulatory crackdown over the past few years.
The next day, Biden visited the battleground state of Wisconsin and promoted that Microsoft would invest $3.3 billion to build an artificial intelligence data center. .
“Microsoft President Brad Smith, thank you for your partnership and for showing us how we can get things done — and get things done — in America,” Biden said during a speech during a visit to Wisconsin. “Thank you for your friendship. .I was serious.”
The warm words were less in keeping with Biden’s usual corporate antagonism and were instead an example of a balancing act between the president and corporate America.
For Biden, who has built a pro-labor, pro-consumer economic brand, he will need help from industry leaders to make private infrastructure investments and promote his economic effectiveness as the November election approaches.
The White House has a broader plan to promote cooperation with the business community while maintaining its tough regulatory approach.
Dinner deal
Senior White House officials developed the plan at a dinner in early February, according to a senior administration official.
Minister of Finance and other cabinet members Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard decided to hold conference calls or meetings with 10 CEOs each. Discuss how the private sector can help implement Biden’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act.
Since that February dinner, the team has held meetings with more than 100 CEOs on topics including AIworkforce training and pricing practices.
In March, Mark Cuban and other business leaders attended a White House roundtable on lowering drug and health care costs.
These issues are among the many economic issues that concern voters most because November rematch The relationship between Biden and former President Donald Trump is getting closer.
In the coming months, Biden will continue to hammer home his message that he has achieved a healthy economic recovery from the pandemic.
To prove this point, the president plans to work with businesses rather than simply attack them. The senior administration official said Biden’s cooperation with the business community will only “continue to intensify in the coming months,” particularly on topics such as China trade and taxation.
Biden and the business community know they need each other to achieve goals such as modernizing U.S. infrastructure and keeping pace with the global economy.
“Two things are probably true,” Bradley said. “Both can develop policies where there are significant fundamental differences and can be open to dialogue and willing to collaborate.”
— CNBC’s Megan Cassella contributed to this report.
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