Pro-business means pro-trade, which means pro-exports and pro-jobs — and that means emphatically supporting an expanding partnership between business government to grow our economy.
That was the conclusion of today’s address by Fred Hochberg, President of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, a government agency that subsidizes U.S. exports through taxpayer backed loans and loan-guarantees.
I will write more about the event later this week, but one of my observations was this:
The event was at the liberal Center for American Progress. Obamanomics — or “expanded partnership between business and government to grow our economy” — represents a pretty stark shift in the Left’s justification of big government. Diminished is the claim that we must balance the pursuit of profit with the pursuit of social goods. Elevated is the argument that American prosperity is aided by government.
In other words, the Left has largely adopted the Right’s argument since Reagan, that economic growth is the most important thing for politicians to pursue. But they no longer implicitly cede that the free market maximizes business growth. That’s why it’s silly for conservatives to rail about an “anti-business” Obama.
You can watch Hochberg’s speech on C-Span‘s website.
