Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz said Washington is to blame for the current economic pinch being felt by many Americans, and business should take the lead in a more robust recovery.
"Washington has let the country down," Schultz said Sunday on
"Meet the Press."
The new Republican-led Congress and Democratic President Barack Obama now have the ability to stop the "polarization dysfunction" through "civility and conversation and cooperation," he said.
"If we don't get that in the next 30 days, the business community is going to do what they've done for the last 10 years: dismiss Washington," Schultz said. "But we can't have that. This is a unique opportunity."
The fracturing of trust has been a decade in the making, he said, but he wants the finger-pointing from business leaders to stop so they can lead an effort to restore the economy by bringing manufacturing back to America.
Starbucks has done that at an East Liverpool, Ohio, pottery factory that had seen no orders for more than 10 years, he said.
"Starbucks gave them an order. We started employing people, and Starbucks restored that factory," Schultz said.
Though it would be better for a company's bottom line to outsource the work overseas, Schultz said the rules of engagement for public companies have changed. There now has to be a balance between profitability and getting the country moving again, he said.
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