“IT'S NOISE. I'm not going to comment,” harrumphs Howard Schultz, the boss of Starbucks, when asked to respond to criticism of him by Carly Fiorina, a former boss of Hewlett-Packard. Mr Schultz is urging his fellow bosses to stop donating money to politicians until Congress starts sorting out America's economic problems, especially its alarming deficit. Ms Fiorina says this is a rotten idea. “Sorry, Howard,” she wrote on a conservative blog. “We need more, not fewer, businesspeople involved in the political process. Job creators must speak out, and yes, they should support those candidates who will support them.” (Ms Fiorina ran unsuccessfully for the Senate last year.)

Mr Schultz began his campaign in August after Congress and the president almost failed to raise the federal debt ceiling, an omission that would have caused America to default. That “created a crisis of confidence in America that spread over the world,” says Mr Schultz.

Besides hitting politicians where it hurts, Mr Schultz is also urging his fellow bosses to hire more people. Companies have become so risk-averse that they are missing lucrative opportunities to grow, he reckons. “Business leaders need to step up and not let Washington dictate a downward cycle in America,” he says, claiming that already around 150 chief executives (albeit mostly from smaller companies) have taken his no-giving pledge. Ms Fiorina's reaction suggests that his campaign has touched a nerve.

Mr Schultz is putting Starbucks' money where his mouth is, with plans to open hundreds of new stores in America and elsewhere. After record results in 2010, Starbucks has enjoyed another “very strong year” and is “firing on all cylinders” everywhere except Europe, he adds. Starbucks expects to provide more than 3,500 net new jobs in America this year. Serving frappuccinos is not the best-paid job in the world, but any job is a first step on the ladder, and the 14m jobless Americans cannot be picky.

On October 3rd Mr Schultz launched a fund-raising campaign called Create Jobs for USA, seeded with $5m of cash from Starbucks. Its coffee shops are selling red, white and blue wristbands to raise money for the Opportunity Finance Network, which provides loans to small businesses. The following day he was in Harlem to launch a profit-sharing partnership with community groups in poor neighbourhoods of big cities such as New York and Los Angeles.

Mr Schultz worries that, having made a fortune after being born poor in Brooklyn, he could soon become a “poster child for an American dream that no longer exists”. He hopes that other bosses will wake up and smell the coffee.