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Jeffrey Immelt and Conflict of Interests

By: Ben Howe (Diary)  |  January 25th, 2011 at 09:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

When the stimulus passed just two short years ago, a lot of special interests piled on to try and grab some of the dough that was being doled out. General Electric was part of that group.

From American Spectator:

On February 17th of that year, Obama had signed the stimulus bill, which included $24.9 million in grants that would flow directly to GE, with roughly $20 billion more slated for health care record modernization of the kind that GE specializes in — “with a direct request to do so from GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt.”

As Tabitha Hale from Freedomworks notes:

Jeffrey Immelt has been unapologetic about using the government to grow his corporation. The L.A. Times reminds us that last year Immelt was quoted in the Atlantic saying that he wants GE and government to work “in concert,” claiming that it didn’t make him a “traitor” or a “bad guy”… just “practical that that’s gotta happen.”

In reality, the idea of ‘working concert with government is only a pleasant if unintended byproduct of the business model GE has been following for the last decade.  Under the direction of CEO Jeffrey Immelt, GE has made plenty of moves at the cost of American taxpayer dollars.  From their backdoor bailout to their exporting of jobs and the selling of secrets to our enemies, it is safe to say that what is good for GE is not necessarily good for America.

Why then, would President Obama appoint Immelt to the job of advising the administration on how to stop killing jobs create jobs?  I put together a video for Freedomworks to help answer this question, but I’ll give you a hint: What’s green and kills jobs?

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  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    This is much less insidious than what every defense contractor is doing on a daily basis. Both are wrong, but it is in the interests of their shareholders to do exactly what they are doing (so long as they keep getting rewarded for it).

  • http://www.FranBaker.com frankieb

    No NBC (or MSNBC) programs in our household. No GE appliances, either.

    • rightwingmom52

      I won’t buy GE and MSNBC and other stations are blocked from even showing up on my video guide. Makes me feel a little better.

  • cactusjack

    has as its end purpose, completion of the peaceful transfer of our remaining defense technology to China. It will mean billions for Immelt and some shareholders/stake*holders in GE. It will be the end of the United States. Mark this well friends, that when the final sellout came, it was not the oil companies insurance companies who have elsewise been demonized for about all our ails. The Chinese only have one problem – the take down of the United States, with Obama unexpectedly so cooperativet, is happening faster than their playbook called for. THey have a dilemma – should they go ahead and make a military move on Taiwan now?
    …..yes this is all true and all that bad.

    *what they havent already stolen or spied out.

  • carolina
  • romeg

    Crony Capitalism for its success. Thomas Edison’s company got its start by establishing a government sanctioned monopoly and has relied on that business model, in one form or another, ever since.

    It stands to make very big money from Obamacare, it depends upon military contracts for the sale of its jet engines. To be fair, the quality of GE’s products is unsurpassed but at what cost to taxpayers and the economy?

  • whatevrworks

    Under Immelt’s leadership GE has continued to do business with Iran through a variety of loopholes and exceptions to the law. FoxNews has covered this several times. Just what we need in the white house another person who believes they are better than the rest of the world and above the law. There is no question that there is a conflict of interest by placing him in this position.

    DF
    www.notadriveby.blogspot.com

  • steve010

    Immelt is another James Taggart, the character in Atlas Shrugged, who was the head of a major industry who is an expert influence peddler, but who is incapable of making any operational decisions.

    • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

      Bingo!

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack
    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
      • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

        subsidize outsourcing? I’m not talking about GE doing that on their own dime. GM, GE and several other American corporations are using money from TARP and Stimulus to build or refit facilities abroad.

        • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

          The problem I have is with the idea that the pie can’t grow, and we have a fixed economy with a fixed number of “jobs” that can only be shifted around from one country to another.

          • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

            A corporation should have to make a tradeoff. They get lower labor costs and less regulatory red tape by firing Americans and hiring foreigners instead. This is what Americans get when they vote big Government.

            However, the corporation should do this in equilibrium with the transaction costs of moving the factories aboroad. This serves to equalize the effect and makes outsourcing a punishment for only the most egregious overregulation, not a status quo SOP for modern industry.

            When governent policy gives these companies money through TARP or Stimulus, that money may be technically earmarked, but cash is fungible. The corporations have their transactions costs paid for by Federal subsdy and the replacement of American work forces by lower payed workers in less regulated foreign nations becomes an industrial policy that the US Congress has de facto subsidized.

          • leonidus2010

            I dont know whow noone is discussing H1-B Visa abuse in the immigration “debate” / unemployment “debate” many “American” (un-American) multinational corporations are abusing the H1-B visas to import foreign labor right here in the U.S. at the cost of American jobs. GE is one of the most agregious offenders a family member recently worked at their jet engine facility in Cincinatti Ohio and half of the bookkeepers there were form India on H1B visas? Southeastern Ohio has a much higher unemployment rate than the rest of the country most likely at 15%+ and GE is not able to find any American bookkeepers looking for work anywhere? This is in John Boehner’s back yard and these guys are just as friendly with him as they are with Obama (both Boehner and Obama are on GE’s payroll hence why the wasteful Joint Strike Fighter spare engine program will never be cancelled…

            http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/commentary-mainmenu-43/5928-tax-group-urges-halt-to-wasteful-military-jet-engine-project

            Don’t get me wrong we do need some H1B visas int he short for legitimate labor shortages like nursing and other professions that we are short on until we can get more US citizens trained into these positions.

            I think we should demand that Congress puiblish which companies have outstanding H1B visas, how many and which positions and that they restrict abuse of these visas by traitors like GE,

          • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

            If anything we need to bring MORE smart people into America, and place FEWER restrictions on their employment options.

          • Common_Cents

            to bring their knowledge, talent, innovation, and capital to America.

            We are in a competitive global market for everything, especially people.

          • leonidus2010

            The only problem is that we are attempting to compete in an unfair global market with the deck stacked agaist us with the only beneficiaries being Wall Street, the lobbysists (treasonous criminals) enabling this to happen and the crooks in Washinton pocketing the kickbacks (I mean campaign contribututions).

            All lobbysists (liberal or conservative) should be sent to Guantanmo Bay for life without trial as the treasous traitors they are and I’m beign polite only going that far.

            Socialized countries like China and India are providing education to their citizens for little or no cost these students get advanced degrees courtesy of their governments in many cases and then American students have to borrow $50,000 to $100,000 to get the same education and companies like GE decide to hire foreign nationals at a discount enabled by the traitors in the White House, Congress and Senate giving H1B visas to their campaign contributors and “friends” selling us out. America needs to wake up before we all become slaves to the government and their Fortune 500 friends.

            The only way we can continue our system of privatized education is if our students dont have to compete with people getting free or subsidized education that are not already in debt that these H1B visa workers dont have the burden of thanks to heir socialist governments. We can either remain capilistics and wall off our economy from socialialized labor / assets or adopt the same policies which is not the American way. I’m sorry but selling out American citizens to foreign interests and mulitnational corporations that could care less about America and have no loyalty to this counrty IS NOT Patriotism. GE and the companies like them are like the human sex slave traffickers and the American workers are the sex slaves and the US Government is the pimp.

          • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

            I think the problem stems from a mass influx of immigrants who will never understand enough English to write “H-1B Visa” and have a clue what it meant. I like most of the people we get from H-1B Visas.

            I don’t like people who will never learn English, never care to respect our country’s traditions, never contribute to our society in a meaningful fashion and still expect to drop their anchor baby at one of hospitals, acquire citizenship and milk our welfare system. Those types of immigrants aren’t engaged in the cutthroat competion for H-1B Visas.

          • leonidus2010

            I agree with you that they need to fix this idiotic 14th Ammendment anchor baby problem that no other sane developed nation seems to have. At least one parent of any child born here should have to be a US Citizen for the child to be a citizen. Seems like common sense to me. That is how it works in every other sane developed nation in the world. I dont think America is “racist” for adopting sane policies like those that exist in Japan, England, Canada, Germany and France. Is anyone accusing them of racism? No.

            However, our children (Americans) who had to either pay or borrow thousands of dollars, have their parents pay or borrow thousands should not have to “step aside” or be unemployed because GE or some other un-American corporate traitor wants hire some H-1B Visa worker from some socialist “free education” country and is willing and able to do the job for $10,000 a year less because of his/her free socialist education they didnt have to pay foor. Is this really how America should work? Under this logic we should should give H1B visas to all the people currently here illegally so Ford can lay all the American workers and sell F150s for $10,000 USD? Should we really be in a race to to bottom? This mentality has worked great for China Mart helping them put almost every small store owner in small towns out of bunsiness permanently and Con Agra put the farmers out of business so they can feed at the Federal (socialist) corn subsidy troth at taxayers expense?

  • sharonmcp

    Eric Bolling from FBN was just on America Live, with Megyn Kelly.

    Eric’s theory is that Obama’s brought Immelt on board because he needs BIG bucks from GE to finance his billion dollar re-election campaign. In return, Obama will do all he can to ram through some type of cap & tax, by nook or by crook.

    Knowing Obama, you can bet it will be by crook.

  • politicalpaw

    Q about SOTU: Will Barack cease his NBC employee Immelt’s “journalistic standards”? http://tinyurl.com/4qhvctp & http://tinyurl.com/4r5fzrg?

    • sharonmcp

      /nt

    • mikeinmaine

      remove the ? at the end.

  • steve010

    Barry gives GE billions through Tarp and Stimulus. GE uses the funds for whatever they want. GE doesn’t hire any employees or cause the GE stock price to increase even though Barry gives GE billions of laundered money. Then, Barry hires his chief $ launderer to work for him full time. So, should we worry about real criminal activity?

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