Obama Reaching out to Big Business with Chamber of Commerce Speech, but the Battle Will Continue

Lafayette Square in Washington is a park mostly known for its stunning views of the North Lawn of the White House, but today it will become the demilitarized zone between warring factions.

On one side, the White House, and on the other, the business community's most influential Washington power broker, the United States Chamber of Commerce. This morning, President Obama will cross the divide, both literally and figuratively, as he heads across the square to speak in the inner chamber of the Chamber itself.

He's most likely looking for a reset of their testy relations over the past years. The Chamber proved to be a formidable foe - strongly opposing most of the administration's key regulatory reform achievements, health care and financial reform. It also spent tens of millions of dollars to help Republican candidates win seats in November's mid-term elections.

But, the Chamber has supported the stimulus and has endorsed some other pro-business investment proposals.

Recently the Jekyll and Hyde bipolar feel of the White House-Chamber relationship came to prominence as the Chamber supported the congressional Republicans' attempt to repeal the health care bill, but also put out a statement of support (with their other arch-rival, organized labor, no less) supporting Mr. Obama's push for new investments in infrastructure. That spending is something that most Republicans in Congress actually oppose.

"Whether it is building roads, bridges, high-speed broadband, energy systems and schools, these projects not only create jobs and demand for businesses, they are an investment in building the modern infrastructure our country needs to compete in a global economy," said the Chamber's statement with the AFL-CIO.

It is that investment in the future that the president is hoping to spur in his speech today. He has been recently traveling the country pushing clean energy innovation and development, hoping to spur unique American innovation that will create jobs and the president firmly believes it is the role of government to support that development.

"But businesses have a responsibility, too," he said in his recent radio address.

"If we make America the best place to do business, businesses should make their mark in America. They should set up shop here, and hire our workers, and pay decent wages, and invest in the future of this nation. That's their obligation," he said.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Chamber of Commerce boss Tom Donohue said the reason for the outreach is simple -- "the election has changed."

The battle between the White House and big business will continue -- the White House will continue to push the business community to spend some of its record profits to expand, to hire, to build and to kick-start the economy. But, business will continue to fight regulations that they say hurt that effort, be it health care, financial reform or environmental regulation. You name it.

In fact, business interests already did. Today's Washington Post highlights responses sent to the new House Chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) who has pledged to investigate regulations that could hurt business.

According to the Post, "The rules under scrutiny include familiar issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, health-care reform and the landmark Wall Street overhaul. But the committee also will examine more obscure regulations. For instance, makers of some cleaning products that remove mold and mildew have asked the committee to reconsider rules that require their products to be registered as pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act."

So this is the fine line that the White House must walk in its negotiations with business - how to get Americans hired, but how at the same time, to retain consumer protections that the White House believes makes the country safer and stronger.

So far, the business community for the most part has shown more willingness to battle the regulations that they say hurt job creation. It could be a showdown that leaves Americans looking for work still jobless as Washington refights the battles of the past two years.

That's exactly what the president hopes doesn't happen as a result of his speech today.

Robert Hendin is a CBS News White House producer. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here.