Obama to meet business lobby critics Thursday

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(Reuters)

By Ross Colvin

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will hold talks on Thursday with officials of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobby that has sparred with him on issues from taxes and climate change to healthcare.

The White House has billed the event as an opportunity for Obama to meet small business owners to discuss his healthcare overhaul and his proposals to improve small business access to credit to boost job creation.

A White House official said members of the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business had been invited to the meeting.

The talks are significant given the rising tensions between the White House and the Chamber on many of Obama's signature domestic issues. Sensitive to the recent history, the chamber declined any comment ahead of Wednesday's talks and referred queries to the White House.

"While we have had disagreements on some issues like regulatory reform and energy. We look forward to continuing to work with the Chamber on the many issues we agree on, including the importance of creating jobs and opportunities for small businesses," said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

The meeting was expected to cover Obama's plan to help small business and his drive for healthcare reform.

Earlier this month, Obama pulled no punches when he attacked the Chamber for opposing his plans for a new consumer protection agency, saying it was spending millions of dollars on false advertising "to kill it."

He said the Chamber had spent nearly half a billion dollars on lobbying over the last 10 years.

The Chamber, which says it represents 3 million large and small businesses, opposes the administration's push for climate legislation and has not supported Obama's efforts to revamp financial regulation.

CHANGING TACK

The Chamber has also launched television ads on national cable stations to fight the so-called "public option" -- a government-run healthcare program that some of the largest companies say will drive up costs for employers and workers.

Obama has made healthcare reform his top domestic priority and has vowed to get it through the U.S. Congress before the end of the year.

On climate change, the Chamber says it favors "mainstream, common sense views" but opposes a bill passed by the House of Representatives in June to cap carbon dioxide emissions.

Some prominent members of the lobby, including Nike and Johnson & Johnson, have publicly distanced themselves from the group's stance on global warming legislation

A senior adviser to Obama, Valerie Jarrett, told Reuters last week the White House wanted to work with the Chamber but that it had a broader view of who spoke for the business community. Obama has spoken directly to many business leaders.

Under his plan to improve small business access to credit, the government will provide low-cost capital to community banks and increase the maximum Small Business Administration loan to $5 million from $2 million.

"The administration supports swift and aggressive action to ensure the nation's small businesses have the capital they need to seize opportunities and create jobs," the Obama administration said in a statement on Wednesday.

But bankers in Chicago this week for the American Bankers Association's annual meeting said Obama's plan involved unattractive government capital infusions and mountains of paperwork.

The association's senior vice president for regulatory policy, Mark Tenhundfeld, said the real issue was not the willingness of community banks to lend, but the lack of demand from small businesses.

(Reporting by Ross Colvin; editing by Todd Eastham)