Ever since Barack Hussein Obama has come onto the political scene, he has been railing against the big, bad “evil” corporations, calling them vultures, among other epithets.
But, since he has become president, it seems his rhetoric doesn’t match his actions. In fact, he has become quite chummy with the 2nd largest company in the world - that company being General Electric (a/k/a G.E.). One of his most trusted advisors and a personal friend is Jeffrey Immelt, C.E.O. of General Electric. Their relationship has caused much speculation and concern as regards to G.E.’s access to the Obama Administration and the benefits it has received as a result. Let’s examine what might cause the concern of others and whether or not that concern is truly warranted.
G.E. is a highly diversified company with its hand in many areas of business. A partial listing of the tentacles of businesses that G.E. is involved in are as follows - G.E. has interests in wind turbines; medical equipment, nuclear, water and power storage; charging stations for EV’s (electric vehicles) and a whole host of subsidized green technologies. Don’t those business interests have something in common that jibes with the agenda of the Obama Administration? It might be easy to make that connection or is it just a coincidence?
G.E. CEO, Jeffrey Immelt was a big supporter of Obama during the 2008 presidential election campaign. After Obama was elected, Immelt was appointed to a seat on the Economic Advisory Board, along with another G.E. stockholder, Warren Buffett, another Obama supporter.
Let’s see how that “chummy” relationship between Obama and Immelt might’ve impacted the business fortunes of G.E. In 2014, you won’t be able to buy incandescent light bulbs. G.E. is going to be a very big supplier of the higher priced, higher margin fluorescent light bulbs. A coincidence?
Obamacare has a provision in it that everyone will need to join a Health Information Exchange which will integrate hospital information systems. G.E. will supply the equipment. A coincidence?
The Obama Administration has pushed through trade deals with other countries - including a relaxed control on India’s purchase of “dual use” technologies that could be used for civilian and military purposes which will clearly benefit G.E., and which G.E. expects will grow its sales to India of about 30% annually. A coincidence?
G.E. has also announced it will buy 25,000 electric vehicles for its fleet through 2016 from General Motors. This will be the largest ever purchase of cars. The car to be purchased - G.M.’s Chevy Volt (a real sales dud with the general public). G.M. is a company that Obama helped bail out a couple of years ago and which the U.S. still has a financial interest, and for which it is still owed over $20 billion from the bailout. A coincidence?
G.E.’s business has increased by 172% since Obama took office. A coincidence?
By the way, guess who makes those airport screeners? One guess. You got it, G.E. A coincidence?
In addition, G.E. got $24.9 million in grants from the $787 billion “Stimulus” and as a result G.E. laid off 18,000 workers after receiving the grants. In 2010, G.E. took in $159 billion in revenue and paid zero income taxes. Could that also be a coincidence?
During the years from 2008 to 2013, G.E. owned 49% of broadcast network NBC (Comcast will buy out G.E. of the 49% , sometime this year). NBC has been considered to be the most partisan network for Obama and the Democrats. That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?
So from what you’ve read, do you think there is a sweetheart arrangement between Obama and G.E. or was it just a coincidence?
Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann
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