Obama Choking Recovery

[eno]

Home Depot Co-Founder: Obama Is Choking Recovery - By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY [7/20/2011]

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/578920/201107201835/Marcus-Home-Truths-On-Jobs.aspx?src=HPLNews

Bernie Marcus co-founded Home Depot (HD) in 1978 and brought it public in 1981 as the U.S. was suffering from the worst recession and unemployment in 40 years. The company thrived, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and redefining home improvement retailing.

But Marcus says Home Depot "would never have succeeded" if it launched today due to onerous regulation. He recently helped launch the Job Creators Alliance, a Dallas-based nonprofit of CEOs and entrepreneurs dedicated to preserving the free enterprise system. IBD recently spoke to him about jobs and the economy.

IBD: What's the single biggest impediment to job growth today?

Marcus: The U.S. government. Having built a small business into a big one, I can tell you that today the impediments that the government imposes are impossible to deal with. Home Depot would never have succeeded if we'd tried to start it today. Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business. And I mean every day. It's become stifling.

If you're a small businessman, the only way to deal with it is to work harder, put in more hours, and let people go. When you consider that something like 70% of the American people work for small businesses, you are talking about a big economic impact.

IBD: President Obama has promised to streamline and eliminate regulations. What's your take?

Marcus: His speeches are wonderful. His output is absolutely, incredibly bad. As he speaks about cutting out regulations, they are now producing thousands of pages of new ones. With just ObamaCare by itself, you have a 2,000 page bill that's probably going to end up being 150,000 pages of regulations.

IBD: Washington has been consumed with debt talks. Is this the right focus now?

Marcus: They are all tied together. If we don't lower spending and if we don't deal with paying down the debt, we are going to have to raise taxes. Even brain-dead economists understand that when you raise taxes, you cost jobs.

IBD: If you could sit down with Obama and talk to him about job creation, what would you say?

Marcus: I'm not sure Obama would understand anything that I'd say, because he's never really worked a day outside the political or legal area. He doesn't know how to make a payroll, he doesn't understand the problems businesses face. I would try to explain that the plight of the businessman is very reactive to Washington. As Washington piles on regulations and mandates, the impact is tremendous. I don't think he's a bad guy. I just think he has no knowledge of this.

IBD: Why don't more businesses speak out?

Marcus: They are frightened to death — frightened that they will have the IRS or SEC on them. In my 50 years in business, I have never seen executives of major companies who were more intimidated by an administration.

IBD: What's your message to the business community?

Marcus: It's time to stand up and fight. These people in Washington are out there making your life difficult, and many of you won't survive. Why aren't you doing something about it? The free enterprise system made this country what it is today, and we've got to keep it alive. We are on the edge of the abyss.

At the Job Creators Alliance, we're trying to recruit people who are willing to step up and say: " I've had it. There's no one representing me. I want to be out there and fight."

[markberwyn]

The CEO of a large corporation wants fewer regulations and lower taxes. I'm shocked!

[J'sMom]

His tone certainly diminishes his credibility. Sounds like a highly emotional whiner to me. Not unlike like my toddler.

[Boris]

I wonder what Bernie Marcus would have to say about Border's closing...

[rbain]

Awfully tired of hearing BILLIONAIRES bitch about how rough they have it.

[honkytonkstar]

Corporate greed at its best. Funny how those billionaires always put themselves on the same level with small business owners. Home Depot is not the same as owning a local hardware store. Totally different worlds. Despite the so called "regulations", I see these big box stores doing well. So shut the f**k up, go back on your private boat or jet and leave us alone. These big box CEOs don't have to worry how to pay their next mortgage or bills, yet they keep complaining how bad they have it. BS!!!   

[Mr. Daniel Lumis]

You have to hand it to Obama though, for being able to cook up such onerous regulations that they affected the economy prior to his taking office. That's a magical, time traveling choke-hold...

[HKay]

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/07/19/casino-magnate-steve-wynn-slams-obama/

Better text formatting at link than below...

July 19, 2011, 10:06 AM ET

Casino Magnate Steve Wynn Slams Obama

Bloomberg News

Casino magnate Steve Wynn yesterday blamed President Obama for weak business spending and hiring in the U.S., and said "the business community in this country is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States."

The counter argument, of course, is that consumers aren't spending like they used to and instead using their money to try to recover from a years-long spending and borrowing binge. That hurts businesses dependent on consumer spending, and holds down hiring.

But in a conference call with investors Monday, Wynn says he would be very, very happy to hire more people for Wynn Resorts' operations in Las Vegas. But Wynn said the government is standing in his way.

Here is what Wynn said about the "current political environment" in the country, according to Thomson Street Events:

    I believe in Las Vegas. I think its best days are ahead of it, but I'm afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States. You watch television and see what is going on on this debt ceiling issue and what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President, and nothing is going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress.

    But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year, that the discussion in Washington is nauseating. And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I could prove it and I could spend the next three hours giving you examples of all of us in this marketplace that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right, a President that seems — that keeps using that word redistribution.

    Well, my customers, and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industries in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration. And it makes you slow down and not invest your money.

    Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America. You bet. And until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it is not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President.

    And a lot of people don't want to say that. They say, oh God, don't be attacking Obama.

    Well, this is Obama's deal. And it is Obama that is responsible for this fear in America. The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, they are holding too much money.

    You know, we haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody is afraid of the government and there is no need soft-pedaling it. It is the truth. It is the truth.

    And that is true of Democratic businessmen, and Republican businessmen, and I am a Democratic businessman, and a repu — I support Harry Reid, I support Democrats and Republicans, and I am telling you that the business community in this country is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he is gone, everybody is going to be sitting on their thumbs.

The White House's policies don't seem to be denting Wynn's personal fortunes. Forbes estimates Wynn has a net worth of $2.3 billion. His spending is legendary, including plowing a reported $10 million into his wedding bash this spring. Wynn also forked over a tidy sum to repair a Picasso painting he accidentally tore when he poked his elbow through the canvas.

[Boris]

Thanks for the laugh! 

[berwynson]

Ahhhh, shit! Seeing the thread's title, I immediately set out to learn if this was hogwash, or real.

Come to learn, he did not recover from choking, after all!

berwynson

[billyjean]

Ahhhh, shit! Seeing the thread's title, I immediately set out to learn if this was hogwash, or real.

Come to learn, he did not recover from choking, after all!

berwynson

LOL, GOOD ONE, berwynson !!!!