President Obama made the short trek across Lafayette Park from the White House last week to address the U.S. Chamber. Referring to what’s often described in the press as a contentious relationship between the administration and the Chamber, the president quipped, “… maybe if we had brought over a fruitcake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off to a better start.”

We’ve never put much stock in the sensationalized—and often inaccurate—media portrayal of a huge rift between the White House and the Chamber. There are times when we agree. For instance, we vigorously support the administration’s Race to the Top education initiative. There are also times when we disagree. We believe that the U.S. health care system needs an overhaul, but we couldn’t support the flawed health care law. But even when we do disagree, it’s never personal. We’re just doing our job.

Our most fundamental responsibility is to represent the interests of our members. Sometimes that puts us in sync with the White House—other times it doesn’t. Regardless of who sits in the Oval Office, our mission is the same: to advance policies that will grow the economy, create jobs, and expand opportunity.

We were honored that the president came to speak to our members, and we welcome his renewed commitment to working with the business community. The agenda that he outlined—encouraging innovation, strengthening our education system, and rebuilding our infrastructure—is one that we can support in principle.

Our concern, however, is that the administration’s actions have not always matched its rhetoric. From the outset, for example, the administration has talked a good game about free trade, but it wasn’t until a few months ago that it got behind the U.S.-Korea trade agreement. Equally vital deals with Colombia and Panama remain in limbo, and there has been no movement on negotiating new ones.

Or take infrastructure, where the president has consistently underscored the need for major improvements. He’s on the right track, but the administration must outline a comprehensive, multiyear plan for highways and transit and how to pay for it. The president has also missed the boat by not addressing the navigation needs of our ports and waterways, which are critical to increasing exports.

In my introduction of the president, I reaffirmed our absolute commitment to work with his administration to advance our shared objectives. And no objective is more compelling than the need to strengthen our free enterprise economy, create jobs, and put America back to work. We’ll even bring the fruitcake.