President Barack Obama thinks chief executive officers' complaints about economic regulations should be taken lightly.

In an interview conducted with The Economist magazine last week and published on Saturday, according to CNBC, Obama discussed the disparity between what corporate CEOs say they want and want their lobbyists campaign for in Washington, D.C.

"When they come and they have lunch with me ... they'll say, 'You know what, we really care about the environment, and we really care about education, and we really care about getting immigration reform done.' Then my challenge to them consistently is, is your lobbyist working as hard on those issues as he or she is on preserving that tax break that you've got? And if the answer is no, then you don't care about it as much as you say," the president said.

For example, many businesses have lobbied against the Obama administration's new plan to limit carbon emissions from power plants, Reuters reported.

Obama told The Economist that corporations' complaints should be taken "with a grain of salt," as policies have been fair toward businesses.

"If you look at what our policies have been, they have generally been friendly towards business, while at the same time recognizing there are certain core interests -- fiscal interests, environmental interests, interests in maintaining stability of the financial system -- where, yes, we're placing constraints on them," Obama said. "It probably cuts into certain profit centers in their businesses. ... But the flip side of it is that they'd be even more unhappy if the global financial system unravels."

According to Reuters, Republicans often depict the president as being "anti-business." Businesses have also complained about the costs of the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank financial reforms.

"If you look at what's happened over the last four or five years, the folks who don't have a right to complain are the folks at the top," Obama said. "My obsession since I came into office and will continue to be my obsession until I leave office and afterwards is the broader trend of an increasingly bifurcated economy where those at the top are getting a larger and larger share of GDP, increased productivity, corporate profits, and middle-class and working-class families are stuck."

Still, the president insisted that he is not trying to take away CEOs' plentiful luxuries.

"Oftentimes, you'll hear some hedge-fund manager say, 'Oh, he's just trying to stir class resentment.' No. Feel free to keep your house in the Hamptons and your corporate jet, etc.," Obama said. "I'm not concerned about how you're living. I am concerned about making sure that we have a system in which the ordinary person ... can get ahead and are seeing modest improvements in their life prospects."

Listen to the interview below:
Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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