After Stimulus—5 Steps Back to Prosperity

by Tita Freeman

Earlier today U.S. Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue spoke at the Detroit Economic Club on how we can move our economy forward again. Addressing headline issues like the stimulus package, TARP II, the U.S. auto industry, and a growing isolationist movement, Donohue laid out a five step plan to lead the U.S. out of crisis and back onto the path to prosperity. And he highlighted a key factor for any successful recovery: staying positive. From the speech:

We can get though this, and we can be even stronger than before. How?

First, by enacting the best possible stimulus package. The alternative of doing nothing is unacceptable.

Second, by implementing effective plans to revitalize great industries like autos and housing--and not by not shooting ourselves in the foot by making it some kind of sin to travel to a meeting, conference, or convention.

Third, by fixing the financial system and the regulations that govern that system so that credit and confidence start flowing to every corner of the nation. And not letting ourselves get distracted by diversionary political issues.

Fourth, by rejecting isolationism and extending our trading and investment relationship across the globe. Doing so will create American jobs.

And fifth, by remembering who we are. We are Americans--a can-do people. If we cower in fear, if we retreat inside a bunker, if we sit on our hands and keep sitting on our cash, then recovery and prosperity will be a long, long time coming.

We have to start doing again and face the future with confidence. Nobody every got rich betting against the United States of America.

Read the full speech online.

Comments

[Ron Coleman]

If you want a true perspective of Obama and the stimulus package, listen to Alan Keys, the real
MAGIC NEGRO !

[down with corporate welfare]

Did anyone read Donohue's entire tirade loaded with delusion and whiny propaganda for more corporate theft from the masses?

If not, here's what he bellowed in a nutshell: "We don't know what the f*** is going on or have the slightest clue of what we're doing, but we must do something. So just do what WE say, hand over your money, and no one gets hurt!"

Let's see, where did we hear that before? Oh, right, the sales pitch for the bogus "War on Terror" which is bankrupting the country, creating more terrorists, and destroying your rights in the name of preserving your freedom! HAAAAAAA!

Send the corporate war criminals to the Hague!

[down with corporate welfare]

"We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," Tom Donohue, Pres. US Chamber of Commerce.

When did the US Chamber of Commerce become a propaganda organ for neo-fascism? Why is it that tough guy free marketeers always come crawling to the public trough when their big bets go bust?

Why do we continue to allow these organized criminals to privatize the profits, externalize the costs, and socialize the risks?

People have woken from their slumber. Casino capitalists are going down!

[arnold roberts]

no way the way they use this they should use china or mexico chamber of comerce.take the us away from them.

[Virginia Gudermuth]

We are not going to get value for our money if we have to buy American Steel and hire only union workers to rebuild the infrastructure. Our steel costs significantly more and our workers cost a lot more.

In the recession of the 90s my husband lost his first-level management job. It was 10 years before he was able to recoup the salary he lost. He did that by retraining and restarting his career over again. We survived. We downsized and made other economies.

America and Americans need to do that too. The unions need to wake up to reality.

[Anthony Baxter]

Sirs. I think your organization is a disgrace to the Unitrd States. It appears that your loyalty is strongest toward BIG BUSINESS, the moneyed class and not the working class. The people that shower after they work are by themselves! Indeed, you should remove the U.S. from your name and insert " FAT CAT " Chamber of Comerce. It seems that MONEY can make ANY conduct acceptable!

[Rebecca Williams]

America needs our E-Verify bill. Our American people need to work. Our great country will soon become any other "third" world country; moving towards Socialism. This is a disservice to our country that I hold dear to my heart.

[Karen Stertz]

We need E-Verify to be used for verification of all workers in the United States of America. This would create millions of jobs.

BUY AMERICA is my motto. Even if it costs more to build a bridge or buy a product; the extra cost creates additional American jobs. Who cares if other countries get offended. We need fair trade, not free trade.

I will not stop writing to public officials until the U.S.Chamber of Commerce actually supports Americans.

[larry harrell]

HOW ABOUT US CHAMBER OF RODENTS

[Tom Jorgens]

By any measure, America is in the ditch and up to its neck in water. We fell victim to bad leaders, were seduced by simple answers and outright lies, the allure of the "free lunch" of cutting taxes, overspending and pretending we could borrow our way to prosperity! If ever we needed proof that is nonsense, isn't the evidence overwhelming?

Now we need to buckle down and pull our weight, pay off our debts, support leaders who will tell us the truth, and ask us to do the hard things. We need politicians who do not promise tax cuts in times of booming debt, but rather insist that we demand accountability in government and that we spend not one dime more, nor one dime less than is necessary for the public good.

We need hard nosed reform and regulation. No tolerance for banking bandits, no tolerance for multi-million dollar CEOs as outside of reality as Marie Antoinette. Cut them loose, cap them and make sure the shareholders vote on their salaries and bonuses!

The path to the future is with the producers, the workers and the innovators. Its time that gets rewarded, and the money changers get driven out of the American temple!

[James Callen]

Isn't it about time that the "U.S." Chamber of Commerce start thinking about the American people instead of the illegals and the other countries.. Charity begins at home. We need to start making products here in America and hire Americans for jobs instead of importing workers thru the 10 Visa programs and letting what business is left Hire illegals for less money. This the United States of America, not of Mexico, India or any other country. I am a 3 tour VietNam veteran and am sick and tired of "we the people of the U.S." getting the shaft. I guarantee that when you go to other countries, you don't get welfare or jobs before their own citizens do. If you want to live in their countries, then learn to speak their language. If, you, the Chamber of Commerce do not want the U.S. to succeed, then, take your chamber to India, China, or some other country.

[J]

I have heard so many people say the alternative to not doing a stimulus package is unacceptable, but no-one is really explaining the real impact on America.
Ford is cutting jobs because of the stimulus. Have you read what they are trying to do to health care? You are selling America out.
I have also read some of the predicted consequences for doing the stimulus and find them to be worse then the solution.
On Housing... it was easy credit that got us here in the first place. The easy credit caused a bubble that was being predicted long before it hit.

If government spending really made the economy better, we would not be in this mess in the first place. Spending has gone up exponentially over the last 15 years.

Shame on you...you are selling our country out again.