Obama Adds to Emphasis on Business With Adviser Choice
Drew Angerer/The New York Times
President Obama with Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chairman and chief executive of General Electric, on Friday at G.E. headquarters in Schenectady, N.Y.
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Published: January 21, 2011
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — President Obama, sending another strong signal that he intends to make his White House more business-friendly, traveled to this industrial city on Friday to appoint a prominent corporate executive as his chief outside economic adviser, and to spotlight his efforts on job creation, in advance of next week’sState of the Union address.
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Drew Angerer/The New York Times
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York greeted President Obama as he arrived in Albany on Friday.
Charles Dharapak/Associated Press
General Electric’s Jeffrey Immelt with President Obama at a roundtable discussion with business leaders in Mumbai, India in November.
Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg News
Paul Volcker stepped down as the chairman of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Here in the birthplace of General Electric, where the company’s historic brick edifice and iconic neon-script logo loom over downtown, Mr. Obama turned to Jeffrey R. Immelt, the company’s chairman and chief executive, to run his outside panel of economic advisers. Mr. Immelt succeeds Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, who is stepping down.
The selection of Mr. Immelt, who was by Mr. Obama’s side during his trip to India last year and again this week during the visit of President Hu Jintao of China, is the latest in a string of pro-business steps the president has taken. He has installed William Daley, a former JPMorgan Chaseexecutive, as his chief of staff; has scheduled a major speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce next month; and ordered federal agencies this week to review regulations with an eye toward eliminating some.
Taken together, the moves amount to a carefully choreographed shift in strategy for the White House, both substantively and on the public relations front, as Mr. Obama makes the case to the nation that the United States has moved past economic crisis mode and is entering ‘’a new phase of our recovery” that demands an emphasis on job creation.
As he moves into the second half of his term and lays the foundation for his 2012 re-election campaign, Mr. Obama will try to frame the national conversation on the economy around this crisis-to-job-creation narrative. Republicans, who have spent the first weeks of the new Congress talking about repealing Mr. Obama’s health care law, have given the president an opening to do so. Here in Schenectady, Mr. Obama seized the opportunity.
“The past two years were about pulling our economy back from the brink,” Mr. Obama said, standing before the backdrop of a huge generator in a well-lighted plant, with a giant American flag hanging from the ceiling. “The next two years, our job now, is putting our economy into overdrive.”
The president went on: “Our job is to do everything we can to ensure that business can take root and folks can find good jobs and America is leading out global competition that will define our success in the 21st century.”
The appointment of Mr. Immelt is not without complications for the president. G.E. has countless regulatory matters now before federal agencies, on subjects ranging from television mergers to environmental cleanup. Having the chief executive of such a company advising the White House on job creation at a time when Mr. Obama is assuming a more deregulatory posture could generate criticism for the president, who came to Washington vowing to reduce the influence of lobbyists and special interests.
Mr. Immelt will be chairman of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness that Mr. Obama intends to create by executive order. In a statement issued shortly after midnight, Mr. Obama said he wanted the council to “focus its work on finding new ways to encourage the private sector to hire and invest in American competitiveness.”
The council will be a reconfigured version of the board Mr. Volcker led, the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. That body, created by Mr. Obama when he took office in the thick of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, is set to expire on Feb. 6.
Asked about his new role during a conference call about G.E.’s latest earnings report on Friday morning, Mr. Immelt said that the advisory position would give him a chance to contribute to issues in the broader economy, with a focus on competitiveness and jobs. “I am honored to serve,” he said.
Mr. Immelt said that his commitment to G.E. would not change. “This is my passion,” he said of the company. “I am committed. I am a hard worker. I am focused on the company.”
Though G.E. moved its headquarters away from Schenectady long ago, the city remains home to G.E.’s largest energy division, and the company’s plants here will build the steam turbines ordered by Reliance Power of India in a $750 million deal announced when Mr. Obama and Mr. Immelt were in India last November. G.E. reported early on Friday that it had earned $4.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010 and $11.6 billion for the full year, exceeding Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
Mr. Immelt mentioned his impending appointment in an opinion article published in The Washington Post on Friday. “The president and I are committed to a candid and full dialogue among business, labor and government to help ensure that the United States has the most competitive and innovative economy in the world,” he said in the article. “My hope is that the council will be a sounding board for ideas and a catalyst for action on jobs and competitiveness. It will include small and large businesses, labor, economists and government.”
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