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White House lists two dozen leaders to meet with Obama on deficit

U.S. President Barack Obama walks to Air Force One at JFK Airport October 18, 2012, after attending the 67th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner. REUTERS/Jason Reed

U.S. President Barack Obama walks to Air Force One at JFK Airport October 18, 2012, after attending the 67th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:25pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two dozen business, labor and civic leaders, including the chief executives of major U.S. corporations such as Ford, IBM and Wal-Mart, will meet President Barack Obama to discuss how to control the federal deficit, said the White House on Monday.

Obama was scheduled to meet labor and civic leaders on Tuesday, followed by a meeting with business executives on Wednesday. A White House official said the leaders would discuss "the best ways to move our economy forward and find a balanced approach to reduce the deficit."

Unless the president and lawmakers agree, a combination of tax increases and government spending cuts will take effect in early 2013, the so-called fiscal cliff that would reduce the deficit but harm the U.S. economy.

Expected at the meeting on Tuesday were four labor leaders - Mary Kay Henry of the Service Employees International Union, Lee Saunders of the public employees union AFSCME, Dennis Van Roekel of the National Education Association and Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization for U.S. labor.

Also at the session on Tuesday would be leaders of civic and politically progressive groups. They were John Podesta and Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress, Robert Greenstein of the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Laura Burton Capps of Common Purpose Project, Max Richtman of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security, Justin Ruben of MoveOn and Deepak Bhargava of Center for Community Change.

Business executives invited to meet the president on Wednesday were Mark Bertolini of Aetna Inc, Ursula Burns of Xerox Corp, Kenneth Chenault of American Express Co, David Cote of Honeywell International Inc, Michael Duke of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric Co, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical Co, Robert McDonald of Procter & Gamble Co, Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Co, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo Inc, Ginni Rometty of IBM, and John Watson of Chevron Corp.

(Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Politics
Barack Obama
Election 2012
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Comments (16)
EddieBrown wrote:
Sounds like a who’s who of liberal dolts. Would love to be a fly on the wall during this sure to be productive meeting.

Nov 12, 2012 10:23pm EST  --  Report as abuse
sittingduck wrote:
In leading the meetings to resolve America’s economic problems, I hope President Obama heeds Abraham Lincoln’s warning in his 1861 State of the Union address. With the presence of union representatives at the meeting, the President will no doubt be reminded that “capital is the fruit of labor.” However, those words do not encompass Lincoln’s entire view. It is not just labor that America great or in Lincoln’s words what “is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and improvement of condition to all.” What drives America are the people who first labor someone else and after that save enough capital to labor on their own behalf. It is creation of an environment where people have the opportunity to shine and show the best of themselves that makes America great.

In his meetings this week with unions (labor) and Fortune 500 CEOs (capital), I hope President Obama realizes there is some else out there that is not just capital and that is not just labor that drives America.

Nov 12, 2012 10:38pm EST  --  Report as abuse
Texas_BlueBlood wrote:
Affirmative Action Jackson strikes again! I can’t wait to hear another Al Green song. Oh, such a magnificent tragedy he is. Learn Chinese, losers. Do you think he’ll be available to organize my community? We produce 80% of the tax revenue in this country and we think he is the king of the dregs. Discuss.

Nov 13, 2012 12:39am EST  --  Report as abuse
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