Jobs Summit invites some but not all to the White House

President Obama is hosting a jobs summit at the White House tomorrow, inviting groups and business leaders to participate in a forum that will discuss how to create new jobs, but some major organizations have been left of the list of invitees.

Both the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Small Business were not invited to the White House Thursday to share their ideas, prompting the President of the US Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Donohue, to write an open letter to the Obama administration, lending support for the forum, and requesting the President focus on seven goals and initiatives. The National Federation of Small Business (NFIB) says they're aware of the summit but were not invited as an organization, and say none of their members will be in attendance.

Regardless of the list of invitees, many economists feel the President's political capital might be better spent focusing on generating jobs for the 15.6% of workers in the 20-24 age range and the 10.8% in the 25-34 range.

"The administration cannot continue to stand by and assume that the expansion of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet will heal the economy. The Fed will not raise interest rates before the unemployment rate peaks, but fostering job creation should be job one, even if that means tax breaks for business, until the recovery is sustainable," said Joseph Brusuelas, the Director for Moody's economy.

Other economists are urging the White House and Congress to slow down on any further movements, like a second stimulus or jobs bill.

"Although it is slower than we would like, an economic recovery is now underway. It would be a mistake for Congress to adopt any further large-scale stimulus at this time. If Congress adopts any further stimulus, it should not be financed by further borrowing, but by redirecting the infrastructure and other discretionary funds not yet spent from the February stimulus," says Alan Viard, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

The White House has not released a full list of attendees at the summit, but some organizations have acknowledged they will attend, including the CEO of Google, and representatives from the AFL-CIO and other labor organizations.

This is another in a series of "summits" hosted at the White House this year. President Obama convened an economic forum in February, a health care summit in March and an immigration summit over the summer. The immigration summit was met with criticism when Representative Steve King (R) of Iowa was left off the invitee list, despite his position as ranking member on the House immigration sub-committee.

The President will take the jobs summit on the road on Friday with an event in Allentown, PA.