White House Skips Chamber of Commerce, Business Federation Invites to Jobs Forum

WASHINGTON -- President Obama is hosting a jobs summit at the White House on Thursday, inviting corporate CEOs and union chiefs to participate in a forum on accelerating job creation, but two major business groups have been left of the guest list.

Both the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business were not invited to share their ideas at the event featuring 133 guests.

Both groups oppose the cap and trade climate change legislation on Capitol Hill as well as the Democrats' health care reform proposals, which led to a public dispute between the USCC and the administration earlier this fall.

A spokesman for the National Federation of Independent Business said the group was not invited as an organization and none of its members will be in attendance.

"While we would have liked to have been invited, we hope that those attending will stress what small businesses need at this point," Susan Eckerly, a senior vice president at NFIB, told FoxNews.com

The shut-out led U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue to write an open letter to the administration, lending support for the forum and requesting the president focus on seven goals and initiatives that would benefit businesses like the 3 million the chamber says it represents.

"We approach this jobs challenge with our sleeves rolled up, not our hands held out," said Donohue. "We are suggesting what American business can and must do to meet its responsibilities to the American people -- to create good jobs and responsibly grow our economy."

Click here to read a copy of the letter.

The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Regardless of the list of invitees, many economists say the president's political capital might be better spent focusing on generating jobs for the 15.6 percent of workers in the 20-24 age range and the 10.8 percent in the 25-34 range. Those groups represent almost 6 million of the 15.7 million unemployed workers in the United States in October 2009.
 
"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," Joseph Brusuelas, director for Moody's economy, told Fox News.

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," said 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 who were big contributors to Obama's presidential campaign.

This is the latest in a series of "summits" hosted at the White House this year. 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 Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was left off the invitee list, despite his position as ranking member on the House immigration subcommittee.