UPDATE:Obama:Confident Congress Will Pass Econ Recovery Bill
January 28 2009 - 11:51AM
Dow Jones News
President Barack Obama took the case for his economic recovery
package to corporate America on Wednesday, telling a group of 13
corporate chieftains that he's confident the $825 billion
legislation will make it through Congress.
"I'm confident we're going to get it passed," Obama told
reporters at the start of his meeting with chief executives in the
Roosevelt Room.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill
later Wednesday. The bill is expected to pass. At issue, however,
is the amount of support it will win from House Republicans, who
have balked at the bill's size and complained it doesn't focus
enough on tax relief.
Wednesday's meeting was part of Obama's effort to appeal to GOP
critics and big business.
Attendees included Steve Appleton, CEO of Micron Technology Inc.
(MU); David Barger, CEO of JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU); Greg
Brown, co-CEO of Motorola Inc. (MOT); John Bryson, CEO of Edison
International (EIX); David M. Cote, CEO of Honeywell International
Inc. (HON); Debra Lee, CEO of BET Holdings Inc.; Anne Mulcahy, CEO
of Xerox Corp. (XRX); Sam Palmisano, CEO of International Business
Machines Corp. (IBM); Antonio Perez, CEO of Eastman Kodak Co. (EK);
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google Inc. (GOOG); Michael Splinter, CEO of
Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT); Wendell Weeks, CEO of Corning Inc.
(GLW); and Ron Williams, CEO of Aetna Inc. (AET).
"These are people who make things, who hire people. They are on
the front lines in seeing the enormous problems in our economy
right now," Obama said. "Their ideas and their concerns have helped
to shape our recovery package, and I'm grateful that they're here
today to talk about why it's so important that we act, and act
swiftly, in order to get this economy back on track."
The president will reinforce his views on the economy in a
speech Wednesday.
Ahead of Obama's meeting with CEOs, Applied Materials' Splinter
said action on solar energy could create jobs and boost economic
growth. Specifically, Splinter called for short-term refundability
of the federal solar investment tax credit, the adoption of
renewable and solar energy sources for federal properties, and
enhancement of the renewable technology loan guarantee program,
according to a company release.
-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256;
henry.pulizzi@dowjones.com
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