On Wednesday, according to the official White House schedule, President Biden met "with private sector CEOs to discuss the ways his Build Back Better [(BBB)] agenda will grow the economy and make the U.S. more competitive, increase worker productivity and workforce participation, lower inflation over the long-term, and support business growth."
Every GM worker from manufacturing to managerial should demand a town hall to ask Ms Barra exactly how BBB hurts them and their families. Don't stop asking questions until she's spelled it out and taken questions that counter the position. The same should go for every company who's leadership participates in the BR and companies are supporting the propaganda. Oh and the btw, didn't taxpayers dollars bail out GM just a decade ago?
So, Mary Barra says that raising corporate taxes would stifle innovation and investment in their workers? Horse-hockey! When the top tax rate (in the 50's) was 90% there was a kind of forced investment in their businesses and their workers and the only way to lessen that number WAS TO ACTUALLY INVEST IN YOUR BUSINESS AND INCREASE PAY AND BENEFITS FOR YOUR LABOR FORCE.
I say we need to return to a semblance of the tax rate and it doesn't even have to be close to 90% but could be effective at a much lower rate (I'm not an economist so I'll leave the amount up to them).
Are we ever going to get to a time and place where publicly elected officials do the job they were elected to do without being owned by dark money and corporations? Everyone has a hidden agenda and nobody is honest anymore. Now the right wing is actively supporting Russia? This never ends...
Remember, written into law now, is execs' LEGAL REQUIREMENT to maximise shareholder return on investment, which means they are LEGALLY bound to increase profits any way they can. This is the design of the super-rich, who don't give two shits about America or Democracy.
Very little criticism from the CEOs on the substance of the BBB programs. Most of it are objections to paying higher taxes. So what else is new? Do they ever object to the 760B slotted for the waste riddled defense budget? Guns or butter, folks. It is our choice.
i don't think that the meeting/photo op are problematic in view of there being a free press that vigorously covers inconsistent statements by corporate CEOs - beginning but not ending with PopInfo. Biden wasn’t just lending a bully pulpit to BusRoundtable but was interrogating ms Barra and others, doing the press’s work for them, in public. A far cry from TFG’s pandering and even (to quote Leonard Cohen, may he rest in power) creating a crack through which “the light gets in.”
I have questions, where is the math? Where is the proof? Is the Roundtable just making shit up and saying it is bad for workers? How is it bad for workers? Are the workers believing the ads?
I did a very quick Google search and it doesn’t appear this meeting generated national media coverage, though a lot of locals seem to have covered due to a Nexstar release (that I didn’t read). The meeting doesn’t seem wrong to me. I think he’s meeting with this group because he knows they are influencers and roadblocks. Now that BBB likely will break into three pieces, he needed to hear what each would support based on where they stand today. The picture is a photo op that can be used to remind everyone who was there and hopefully journalists will have success in following up and getting Barra and others on record with more info about their stances. Like it or loathe it, politics is tricky business and from where I sit, Biden has to turn over every stone in his quest to move the legislation forward.
What if the SEC required public companies to report on their funding to groups who support or oppose the business risks they report? Would that help remove the two-faced game these companies play where they publicly praise legislation while privately funding attack dogs?
As I've learned about the world, I've learned that the wealth gap is quite intentional. Keeping oligarchs rich (and eligible for the Forbes top wealthiest list each year) and powerful is the goal. It depends on cheap labor. It depends on keeping people so poor and tired and undereducated that they have no way to "rise up" and demand and expect more. Oligarchs like the ones who joined the White House meeting last week know full well that child tax credits come out of the pockets of the radically overpaid upper managers of it all. There has never been any need to have prices go up if workers are paid better, and the systems work better and everyone flourishes when everyone shares in the results of a comfortable middle class. But, that wealth space between being rich and being an oligarch will take a hit. That really is the essence of all of this. So Biden is barking up the wrong tree when he hopes to appeal to the humanity and kindness of these CEOs. People who become CEOs of major corporations would not have risen to the top if they showed any signs of wanting to give it away to their workers or anyone else.
Judd I’ve subscribed to popular info for several years & I love it. I’m here to ask if you’ve ever considered other platforms. It’s been brought up that Substack has been hosting several anti-vaxx people & I feel they are destructive, dangerous & have indirectly or directly caused the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people. Please consider moving Popular Info to an alternate platform. Thank you
Ask Mary Barra if GM is on the leading front on EV production. I don't think they are - we are lagging Europe and especially Asia in both production and automobile technology. Where are GM's investments going? Why support BBB when GM is not driving investment into the US? Why ask the US taxpayer to foot a bill that will not benefit the US GM employee base? Biden knows the story - he is trying to get corporate support for the USA, not just increasing corporate profits. A tax credit for EV vehicles will help GM sell products made in another country. It would not be my first choice to really help America.
My thoughts: No, it is not a smart strategy. When November comes around and voters realize Democrats haven't delivered despite controlling the presidency and Congress, all of this concern for optics won't mean much.
Every GM worker from manufacturing to managerial should demand a town hall to ask Ms Barra exactly how BBB hurts them and their families. Don't stop asking questions until she's spelled it out and taken questions that counter the position. The same should go for every company who's leadership participates in the BR and companies are supporting the propaganda. Oh and the btw, didn't taxpayers dollars bail out GM just a decade ago?
That…that is a photo op…it is disheartening, to put it mildly, and I’m glad you covered it the way you did.
So, Mary Barra says that raising corporate taxes would stifle innovation and investment in their workers? Horse-hockey! When the top tax rate (in the 50's) was 90% there was a kind of forced investment in their businesses and their workers and the only way to lessen that number WAS TO ACTUALLY INVEST IN YOUR BUSINESS AND INCREASE PAY AND BENEFITS FOR YOUR LABOR FORCE.
I say we need to return to a semblance of the tax rate and it doesn't even have to be close to 90% but could be effective at a much lower rate (I'm not an economist so I'll leave the amount up to them).
Are we ever going to get to a time and place where publicly elected officials do the job they were elected to do without being owned by dark money and corporations? Everyone has a hidden agenda and nobody is honest anymore. Now the right wing is actively supporting Russia? This never ends...
Remember, written into law now, is execs' LEGAL REQUIREMENT to maximise shareholder return on investment, which means they are LEGALLY bound to increase profits any way they can. This is the design of the super-rich, who don't give two shits about America or Democracy.
Very little criticism from the CEOs on the substance of the BBB programs. Most of it are objections to paying higher taxes. So what else is new? Do they ever object to the 760B slotted for the waste riddled defense budget? Guns or butter, folks. It is our choice.
i don't think that the meeting/photo op are problematic in view of there being a free press that vigorously covers inconsistent statements by corporate CEOs - beginning but not ending with PopInfo. Biden wasn’t just lending a bully pulpit to BusRoundtable but was interrogating ms Barra and others, doing the press’s work for them, in public. A far cry from TFG’s pandering and even (to quote Leonard Cohen, may he rest in power) creating a crack through which “the light gets in.”
I have questions, where is the math? Where is the proof? Is the Roundtable just making shit up and saying it is bad for workers? How is it bad for workers? Are the workers believing the ads?
I did a very quick Google search and it doesn’t appear this meeting generated national media coverage, though a lot of locals seem to have covered due to a Nexstar release (that I didn’t read). The meeting doesn’t seem wrong to me. I think he’s meeting with this group because he knows they are influencers and roadblocks. Now that BBB likely will break into three pieces, he needed to hear what each would support based on where they stand today. The picture is a photo op that can be used to remind everyone who was there and hopefully journalists will have success in following up and getting Barra and others on record with more info about their stances. Like it or loathe it, politics is tricky business and from where I sit, Biden has to turn over every stone in his quest to move the legislation forward.
Excellent coverage of the hypocrisy.
What if the SEC required public companies to report on their funding to groups who support or oppose the business risks they report? Would that help remove the two-faced game these companies play where they publicly praise legislation while privately funding attack dogs?
Popular Info needs a White House correspondent. Great hit on Stand up with Pete btw Judd!
Thank you! Excellent piece!
As I've learned about the world, I've learned that the wealth gap is quite intentional. Keeping oligarchs rich (and eligible for the Forbes top wealthiest list each year) and powerful is the goal. It depends on cheap labor. It depends on keeping people so poor and tired and undereducated that they have no way to "rise up" and demand and expect more. Oligarchs like the ones who joined the White House meeting last week know full well that child tax credits come out of the pockets of the radically overpaid upper managers of it all. There has never been any need to have prices go up if workers are paid better, and the systems work better and everyone flourishes when everyone shares in the results of a comfortable middle class. But, that wealth space between being rich and being an oligarch will take a hit. That really is the essence of all of this. So Biden is barking up the wrong tree when he hopes to appeal to the humanity and kindness of these CEOs. People who become CEOs of major corporations would not have risen to the top if they showed any signs of wanting to give it away to their workers or anyone else.
Judd I’ve subscribed to popular info for several years & I love it. I’m here to ask if you’ve ever considered other platforms. It’s been brought up that Substack has been hosting several anti-vaxx people & I feel they are destructive, dangerous & have indirectly or directly caused the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people. Please consider moving Popular Info to an alternate platform. Thank you
Ask Mary Barra if GM is on the leading front on EV production. I don't think they are - we are lagging Europe and especially Asia in both production and automobile technology. Where are GM's investments going? Why support BBB when GM is not driving investment into the US? Why ask the US taxpayer to foot a bill that will not benefit the US GM employee base? Biden knows the story - he is trying to get corporate support for the USA, not just increasing corporate profits. A tax credit for EV vehicles will help GM sell products made in another country. It would not be my first choice to really help America.
My thoughts: No, it is not a smart strategy. When November comes around and voters realize Democrats haven't delivered despite controlling the presidency and Congress, all of this concern for optics won't mean much.