On Sunday's Good Morning America on ABC, during a discussion of President Obama's upcoming State of the Union Address, as guest Mike Paul of MGP and Associates PR argued that Obama needs to talk about forming a "partnership" with businesses and cutting taxes, co-anchor Dan Harris fretted that there would be "political risk" in Obama getting too close to business.
Harris: "Isn't there some political risk here, though, for the President getting too cozy with the business community, given the fact that there are a lot of people in this country who are still very, very, angry at the CEOs and at Wall Street for helping create this mess in the first place?"
After Paul alluded to Obama utilizing business leaders as "experts," Harris continued: "Yeah, but there are a lot of people who say these are the experts who got us in trouble in the first place."
After Paul reminded Harris that Wall Street is only a part of the private sector, the ABC host backed down: "Right, right, fair enough."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the segment from the Sunday, January 23, Good Morning America on ABC:
MIKE PAUL, MGP AND ASSOCIATES PR: But here's the problem with that. The problem is government doesn't create jobs. Big business creates jobs. Small business creates jobs. Quite frankly, I think he's making a big mistake by not talking about where the greatest amount of jobs are coming from - small businesses. I'm a small business owner. And one of the things that the Republicans are certainly going to hit hard is that you can talk it, but you have to walk it. And if you're not going to be in partnership with us, truly in partnership, what is the biggest thing that any business wants to cut? They want to cut taxes.
DAN HARRIS: Isn't there some political risk here, though, for the President getting too cozy with the business community, given the fact that there are a lot of people in this country who are still very, very, angry at the CEOs and at Wall Street for helping create this mess in the first place?
PAUL: Absolutely, absolutely, and one of the things that he has to make sure he hits hard is that they're the experts, not him. If he's walking a walk that says that he is the minister of job creation-
HARRIS: Yeah, but there are a lot of people who say these are the experts who got us in trouble in the first place.
PAUL: Yeah, but they've got different markets on Wall Street, you know, not everything is a financial community. There are small businesses all over this country-
HARRIS: Right, right, fair enough.
PAUL: -that really need to have relief, and we need to be creating the jobs, small business owners.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA: We have seen him, to be fair, turn more to the right, to the center. Talk about taxes.
PAUL: Lots of talk.
GOLODRYGA: Is there any incentive for Republicans to meet him halfway now?
- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center