ON BECOMING THE UNITED SOCIALIST STATES OF GENERAL ELECTRIC

Conduct the Google search “General Electric” AND “conflict of interest” and the search will yield 71 thousand documents, most of which refer to various marriages of convenience between the behemoth durable goods manufacturer and the federal government. GE has revenues in the neighborhood of $150 billion per year, the largest portion of which comes directly or indirectly from the federal government. Its tentacles spread far and wide, including such things as major defense contracts (including nuclear), space exploration and energy infrastructure. In addition, GE sells weapons and defense systems to foreign entities, and since much of what it sells is sensitive, federal approval is often required. Given all that, one would expect General Electric to be a model of propriety and integrity; a firm so above reproach that no one would dare accuse it of shady and nefarious dealings. In times past, this was the case. But today the opposite is true. When examined, the 71 thousand Google documents point to a company that is engaged in massive corruption and political influence-buying; and a federal government that is rotted at its core.

General Electric represents a new breed of large corporations that have come to embrace the concept of an invasive federal government that erects barriers to entry against smaller competitors and guarantees profits and sustainability via long-term revenues from government. The reasoning in the board rooms of such companies goes something like this: Why go out in the marketplace, beat our heads against the wall and compete with others for revenues when we can pay off politicians, let them forcibly confiscate money from citizens and then pass it through to the corporation for various goods and services? Some corporations, such as tobacco and energy firms, have been forced into this position involuntarily by heavy taxation and regulation. Others, such as Halliburton, have fled the country. And a few, such as General Electric (and Goldman Sachs) have embraced a new paradigm in which government is the host and business is a parasite, and prefer it to the traditional free market system in which business is the host and government siphons a share for its needs.

The marketing challenge for such a firm is how to corrupt the system in the face of campaign limitations and other election laws. One way, of course, is lobbying, and General Electric is no slouch in that department, spending some $187 million in lobbying expenses over the last 10 years, 44 percent more than its next largest rival. Unfortunately, however, lobbying expenses are replicable by competitors and therefore not necessarily the most effective tool for influence peddling. What GE has that no competitor can match is its mass media capability, which provides the Washington political establishment with a 24/7 propaganda machine for big government. This machine allows General Electric to buy influence from politicians with something no other corporate special interest can match: national exposure on a major television network (NBC), a dozen or so cable outlets (including CNBC and MSNBC), 13 network affiliates in major media markets, and even a few Internet news and commentary sources (including Salon.com).

In a move viewed by media watchers as a bold departure from previous elections, General Electric appeared to bet early and heavily on the Obama candidacy for the Presidency of the United States. Through the 2008 primary and general elections, its networks became unapologetic cheerleaders for the Obama campaign in a way that had never before been witnessed in the Unites States of America. Its MSNBC network was particularly effective in discrediting Hillary Clinton and elevating Obama to messiah status during the 2008 primary. In a political commentary that became a metaphor for MSNBC’s bias, Chris Matthews proclaimed that, after hearing candidate Obama speak, he had “a thrill go up my leg.” This was, in fact, among the more restrained accolades for Obama on MSNBC during the campaign. When it was all over, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann proclaimed that Obama’s election was bigger than America putting a man on the moon. There are literally hundreds of other well-documented examples of GE’s media arm overtly propagandizing for Obama, ranging from Saturday Night Live parodies to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell suggesting that McCain may have been given a “cone of silence” before his interview with Pastor Rick Warren.

The question is, what did General electric receive, or expect to receive, for its investment in Obama? Here is a list of the payouts General Electric is likely to receive, and in most cases already receiving, from the Obama presidency.

BAILOUT/STMULUS HANDOUTS. Starting with the $140 billion it received from the first bailout in November, 2008, General Electric’s extended hands have been repeatedly filled with newly minted money from the treasury and various agencies responsible for spending the so-called “stimulus” package passed by congress in 2009. In what many regarded as one of the most egregious cases of corporate audacity combined with federal ineptitude, at the same time GE was collecting its $140 billion federal bailout, it was paying a $50 million fine to the Securities Exchange Commission for securities fraud. While it is fair to say the bailout and fines occurred under the Bush administration, there was far more support for the bailout from Democrats than from Republicans, and GE well understood that there would be far greater bailouts down the road under an Obama administration than a McCain administration, as has proven to be the case.

Whether GE intentionally promoted Obama in 2008 as a corporate strategic initiative, the company’s windfalls from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed by congress in February of 2009 makes its $187 million 10-year investment in Washington lobbying look like the greatest return on investment since the pet rock. General Electric will qualify and accept stimulus funds for everything from energy development (up to $54 billion), scientific research (up to $16 billion), infrastructure (up to $47 billion) and other projects including the newly-proposed “Cash for Refrigerators” program from the US Department of Energy (up to $48 billion).

A number of government reports on stimulus spending so far indicate that federal spending has favored large corporations, including General Electric, and that the proportion of funds going to large firms is far greater than the proportion of other federal spending going to large firms. This raises the question as to whether there is corruption in the allocation process, since large firms (especially GE) are in a far better position to grease the federal wheels. Ironically, since the firm is the beneficiary of $140 billion in bailout funds, it may well be that said wheels are being greased with taxpayer-provided funds.

CAP AND TRADE. What General Electric has received from the bailout and stimulus is chump change compared with what will be fortuitously coming its way from the “Cap and Trade” legislation that has already passed in the House of Representatives and is awaiting approval in the Senate. The bill, which taxes carbon producers such as oil refineries and coal burning electric plants, creates an estimated $646 billion (an estimated $1700 per year per US family) in “climate revenues” over its first 8 years. These revenues will be spent with General Electric and others for “alternative” energy production in things like solar and wind power.

In addition, the Cap and Trade legislation provides a mechanism whereby high carbon users may avoid the tax by trading for “carbon credits” from firms that do not have high carbon output. GE has already set up an affiliate known as GE Energy Financial Services to act as a broker for these credits, with GE itself no doubt being the major client seller. In its advertising, GE calls this scheme “ecomagination,” and imaginative it is. GE imagines nearly every power company in the country taxing its customers $1700+ per year and then sending the money to General Electric one way or the other, with the federal government being muscle behind the whole operation. It is only one more step, Senate approval, from making that dream a reality.

OTHER FAVORS BIG AND SMALL. There has been a lot of discussion about the fact that General Electric, through a French subsidiary, continues to do business with Iran in spite of United Nations-imposed sanctions. GE claims its business relationship is nothing more than the continuance of contracts that were in place prior to the sanctions being enacted. There has been no public condemnation or investigation of GE’s Iranian ties from either the State Department or the Department of Justice.

In a more recent development, at the same time the Obama administration announced it was dismantling its plans for a defense shield in Eastern Europe, they arranged a face-to-face meeting between Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and top General Electric executives. Since Putin’s Russia is expected to be Europe’s fastest growing market in the coming decade, and since Putin rules over the economy with an iron fist, the meeting was likely a discussion of the possible sale of new weapons capabilities to Russia and possible access to Russian markets through a joint venture.

The list of other possible favors GE might seek from the federal government goes on and on; enabling environmental legislation, quashing investigations, erecting new stringent regulations against possible competitors, tax interpretation and regulation not the least among them. Finally, GE CEO Jeff Immelt sits on Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, so he has a perch from which to issue his marching orders to the administration when they occur to him and his “ecomagination.”

If the relationships and sleaze that is taking place between GE and Obama were between some two-bit Caribbean land baron and a thuggish banana republic dictator, perhaps we’d better understand it. But let there be no question that the land baron and GE are in the same game. We may choose to couch the phenomenon in sophisticated, urbane terms like “public advocacy” or “corporate citizenship” or “environmental stewardship.” When all is said in done, crooked is crooked is crooked, especially when there is a “tr” in front of the “illion” instead of an “m” or a “b.”

Is it any wonder that NBC and MSNBC seem like the federal government’s Ministry of Propaganda? Olberman and Maddow are puppets of GE. Despite what they might like to believe.

Just sent this email to one of the board members and the GE board site.
It will probably earn me a visit from the Gestapo.

My Dear Dr. Swieringa,

Since yours is the only “live” address I have for a board member, you’re “it.”
I wonder if any of the other members would find this of interest — or even care.

The GE board is aiding and abetting the destruction of a nation that was once called “the last best hope for mankind.”

How proud they all must be.

If they’re lucky, their kids won’t dig them all up to spit in their faces for squandering their birthright. Of course the government schools will see to it that they know very little about what WE once had here.

“It will probably earn me a visit from the Gestapo.”

A lot of us are probably on their *list*....sigh!

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