White House (CNSNews) - President Barack Obama announced on Friday a new economic advisory board, filled with business executives – many of whom contributed heavily to Democratic campaigns in 2008 – and the two most politically active organized labor groups.
The president also insisted that Congress deliver an economic stimulus bill to his desk as quickly as possible, referring to the rising unemployment numbers announced Friday that 3.6 million jobs were lost since the recession began.
“That’s 3.6 million Americans who wake up every day wondering how they are going to pay their bills, stay in their homes, and provide for their children,” the president said during an East Room announcement.
Obama said the economic crisis prompted him to assemble the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which is comprised mostly of non-government employees and is chaired by presidential advisor and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
“I’m not interested in group-think, which is why the board reflects a broad cross-section of experience, expertise, and ideology,” said Obama. “We’ve recruited Republicans and Democrats; veterans of government and the private sector; advocates for business and labor. Not everyone is going to agree with each other, and not all of them are going to agree with me – and that’s precisely the point.
“To put it simply, I created this board to enlist voices that come from beyond the echo chamber of Washington, D.C., and to ensure that no stone is unturned as we work to put people back to work and to get our economy moving,” he said.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson is one federal official who serves on the council.
Among the two big labor groups that backed Obama’s presidential campaign, Anna Burger of the Service Employees International Union and chairwoman of Change to Win, serves along with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard L. Trumka on the Board.
“As daily headlines scream ‘layoffs, layoffs, layoffs,’ I am honored to stand today in a new partnership with a president who was elected because he does not turn a deaf ear to the hurts and hopes of working people,” Burger, who contributed $1,250 to Democratic candidates during the 2008 election cycle, including $750 to Obama, said in a statement. “He is a president who sees members of labor unions as part of the solution too.”
Change to Win spent more than $5 million in the last election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).
Several other members on the board contributed to Obama and other Democratic campaigns as well, CRP data show. However, a few members of the council contributed to Republicans.
From the business side, company presidents and CEOs on the panel are:
· Roger W. Ferguson Jr. of TIAA-CREF gave $2,300 to Obama’s campaign and $2,700 to the Democratic National Committee.
· Robert Wolf of UBS Group Americas contributed a total of $4,500 to Obama during 2007 and 2008 and gave thousands more to other Democratic campaigns, including a $15,000 donation to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $5,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
· Mark T. Gallogly of Centerbridge Partners L.P., gave $2,300 to Obama’s campaign in 2008 and $28,500 to the DSCC and $21,000 to the DNC Service Corps as part of a total of $94,600 given to various Democratic candidates and causes.
· Penny Pritzker of the Pritzker Realty Group contributed a total of $4,600 to Obama’s presidential campaign from 2007 through 2008, as well as $5,000 to the DCCC along with donations to various state Democratic parties and Democratic candidates.
· Jeffrey R. Immelt of General Electric, who gave to Republicans and Democrats, contributing $10,000 to the Democratic Party of Delaware but also $2,000 to the re-election campaign of Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and $2,300 each to Republican presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.
· Jim Owens of Caterpillar Inc. gave only $2,300 to Aaron Schock, a Republican candidate for Congress in Illinois.
· Monica C. Lozano, publisher of La Opinion, gave just $1,000 to the reelection campaign of then-Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, now the secretary of Interior.
· Charles E. Phillips Jr. of Oracle Corporation contributed $50,900 to various Democratic campaigns, including $2,300 to Obama.
· The panel also includes John Doerr – a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers – who contributed $14,250 to the DSCC, as well as several other Democratic campaigns during the 2008 cycle.
From universities, Yale Chief Information Officer David Swensen is serving along with Laura D’Andrea, dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, and Harvard economics professor Martin Feldstein.
Feldstein contributed $2,000 to the campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, Obama’s opponent last November.