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Will pledge to withhold campaign donations work?
Maggie Wilderotter.
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Bob Moon: He's not the only one who's been complaining about lack of cooperation and irresponsibility among elected officials, but the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, can put his money where his mouth is. He recently wrote an email to employees, entitled "Leading Through Uncertain Times." The email got traction throughout the company, and also with business leaders and Fortune 500 CEOs. Schultz has called for getting the attention of elected officials with a cut-off of political donations by corporations and unions. Maybe, he says, that will make them work harder on the problems facing the country, rather than on their reelection.
One of the CEOs who has now signed Schultz's petition is Maggie Wilderotter. She's CEO of the telecom company Frontier Communications, and is on the line with us now. Thanks for speaking to us.
Maggie Wilderotter: You're very welcome, it's nice to be here.
Moon: What made you decide to sign on to this Schultz petition?
Wilderotter: Well I believe that America has been very challenged over the last 12 months and I think all of us are concerned and worried about the country. I know as the CEO of a U.S.-based workforce company, I've been trying to do my part to create jobs, to create opportunities on our markets, to continue to invest. But what's happened in Washington in terms of the uncertainty for business, the anti-business environment, and the fact that Washington is not taking care of the issues that are important to secure our country for the long-run, it's important for CEOs to make a statement. I want Washington to not campaign. I want them to do their job on a day-to-day basis.
Moon: Now this sort of boycott has gained traction in the business world, obviously, but do you think it's going to work on Capitol Hill?
Wilderotter: Well I think it sends a message. I think it's the message that says: Take care of business today, don't worry about getting elected 12 months from now. Let's do the job and if you do the job well, you'll get reelected.
Moon: That doesn't sound to me, though, that it addresses the political realities of what's going on in Washington.
Wilderotter: Well I think we can only address what we can control. I can't control the political realities of what they deal with on a day-to-day basis, but I can control whether I contribute or not to them being distracted.
Moon: There are 100 of you on the list and probably more to come. Is this independent of party lines?
Wilderotter: Yes, it's totally bipartisan. It has nothing to do with party lines. It has to do with everybody collectively working together because we're Americans first and that's what's important.
Moon: Can I ask which direction that you tend to contribute?
Wilderotter: I actually contribute across the board. It depends on the candidate and it depends on what the candidate stands for.
Moon: What would you like to hear? What do you think would make a difference here?
Wilderotter: I think it starts first and foremost with the financial discipline to come up with a budget that works for this country, where we don't overspend for dollars we don't have. We can't just keep putting that off and kicking that can down the road. We have to get a balanced budget in this country.
Moon: Trying to get a response out of Congress lately has seemed like an impossible task. Do you think money will talk here?
Wilderotter: I think it can help, yes. I think if you're not able to raise the money for campaigning like you were able to do in the past, then maybe the way you really get reelected is by focusing on your results.
Moon: Maggie Wilderotter is chairman and CEO of Frontier Communications. We appreciate you joining us.
Wilderotter: Thank you so much, have a great day.
This interview was rich, considering how much lobbying corporate America has done over the past 3 decades to help get us where we are. Is Howard Shultz and company going to stop their contributions to their lobbyists, that so deftly destroy any chance of meaningful legislation on behalf of average citizens coming through Congress? No. Is the Schultz group going to stop contributing to the Swift Boat Super-Duper PACS made legal by the Supreme Court in Citizens United? No.
How about we finally realize that corporate executives do not hold the answers for our democracy, that they only have answers that line their pockets.
Perhaps an amendment to the Constitution setting a term of 4 years for a Representative, 5 years for President or Vice President, and 6 years for a Senator with one and only one term in Congress and only one as President or Vice President would solve the reelection "problem". There would simply be NO reelection. Serve your elected term and return home........... no worry about reelection. Elect 25% of Representarives every year, 33% of Senators every 2 years and President and Vice President every 5 years. Get new ideas into Congress which will solve our problems!
Ms Wilderotter's comment "come up with a budget that works for this country, where we don't overspend for dollars we don't have.", betrays an ignorance of Macro Economics for a Sovereign Nation.
Her opinion may fit a small corporation, but not even a large corporation - otherwise, the wave of conglomeration that has swept over this Country like a series of tsunamis would never have occurred.
It certainly is not the case with a Sovereign Nation whose responsibility is to manage an Economy.
Our Budget is temporarily out of whack because the previous Administration unwisely cut Revenue, did not keep its eye on the ball, initiated un-funded MediCare Part D Prescription coverage and 2 un-funded wars, then allowed $Ts to be disbursed as Bail-outs without imposing "strings" which cascaded into a Great Deepression putting 20-25% of the Workforce out of work.
With only 58.1% of adults working, it isn't the fault of the Budget. It is the failure of the GOP and Blue Dogs to come to the aid of the Nation to bring this to a halt.
Fiscal hawkism is the absolute wrong tack in a Depression. You have to tack into the wind.
The National Debt will be repaid ONLY IF we get back to 7% Un-Employment quickly. Otherwise, we're soup.
I applaud the message these CEO's are sending to the President and Congress and I hope many more join them. Both political parties are responsible for America's fiscal fiasco. Why is the federal government always running a deficit? We have one party that won't cut spending and another that won't raise taxes and they both think they're right. Campaigning is non-stop while responsible governance isn't happening. The message that we need both parties to fix the mess we're in won't get through until campaigning becomes secondary to living within our means and accountable governance.
Another business person claiming there is an "anti-business" environment in DC. Of course, once again with no explanation. Does this mean losing at the NLRB? Or a failure of the federal government to give tax breaks to businesses and CEOs on the basis of vague promises of jobs?
And as for Schultz calling for unions to cut off donations, I don't think his record with unions (or that of Whole Foods' Co-CEO, another signatory) will inspire labor to sign this petition. Labor makes its own decisions without having to be "invited" by a number of anti-labor CEOs.
While Mr. Schultz and Ms. Wilderotter share the frustrations of many Americans, their approach seems willfully naive. The bad behavior of politicians doesn't exist in a vacuum; it is driven by other big donors (perhaps not in coffee beans, but including Big Coal) for whom gaming our system is essential to their business model. Rather than pouting at politicians, we need leaders like Ms. Wilderotter and Mr. Schultz to actually hold their peers in business to a higher standard -- in a way politicians cannot.
"I actually contribute across the board. It depends on the candidate and it depends on what the candidate stands for."
This statement is false according to Federal Elections Commission data. The FEC database lists, since 1999, contributions to Susan Smith Bitter, Pete Wilson, Charles Robb, Elizabeth Dole and NCTA PAC. Since 1999 she has never given to a Democrat and in fact has been quite parsimonious relative to her income bracket.
By the way it took me less than 5 minutes to access their database and see who she had contributed to. You should not let interviewees get away with making unsupported statements. Especially when she claims the government is anti business. Marketplace should be journalism not PR.
While I am generally not a fan of corporate contributions to political campaigns, I fear this particular effort to curtail such contributions may potentially lead to counter productive unintended consequences. First, I suspect the business community as a whole tends to contribute more toward the middle than either fringe. Eliminating those contributions would then put both fringes on relatively better footing, potentially exacerbating the partisanship fueling the problem in Washington. Second, to the extent contributors in the business community are less moderate than surmised above, I suspect those contributors are the least likely to respond to this boycott call, magnifying the effect of creating a relative advantage for the fringes. If Schultz and his brethren are truly serious about a fix, I think they should be identifying, and committing to fund generously but only, those candidates who can and will work in a responsible bipartisan fashion (even if that means sometimes disagreeing with those business community funders).
