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GE CEO: "We are all Democrats Now"
Economic Policy Journal ^ | 11/16/09 | Robert Wenzel

Posted on 11/16/2009 6:51:47 AM PST by FromLori

Thanks to some great reporting at WSJ by Elizabeth Williamson and Paul Glader, now we know why General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt has been to the White House five times since President Obama has occupied the place. He wants GE to out do Goldman Sachs and Carlyle Group combined as the biggest pig at the trough of corporate handouts. David Rubenstein looks like an amateur compared to Immelt. From WSJ's report: The financial crisis hasn't been kind to General Electric Co. Its stock has lost almost half its value, the government has stepped in to prop up its enormous financial arm, and sales have slumped in core industrial businesses.

But Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt now has his eye on a huge new pool of potential revenue: Uncle Sam's stimulus dollars. Mr. Immelt, a registered Republican, quips about the shift in thinking in the nation's corner offices: "We're all Democrats now."...

The government has taken on a giant role in the U.S. economy over the past year, penetrating further into the private sector than anytime since the 1930s. Some companies are treating the government's growing reach -- and ample purse -- as a giant opportunity, and are tailoring their strategies accordingly. For GE, once a symbol of boom-time capitalism, the changed landscape has left it trawling for government dollars on four continents.

"The government has moved in next door, and it ain't leaving," Mr. Immelt said at the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Montreal in June. "You could fight it if you want, but society wants change. And government is not going away."

GE has high hopes for the strategy. It says that over the next three years or so it could bring in as much as $192 billion from projects funded by governments around the globe, such as electric-grid modernization, renewable-energy generation and health-care technology upgrades...

Reporters who called the Obama administration for information on renewable-energy provisions in the legislation were directed to GE...

When the stimulus package was rolled out, Mr. Immelt instructed executives leading the company's major business units "to put together swat teams to get stimulus money, and [identify] who to fire if they don't get the money," says a person who heard him issue the instructions.

In February, a few days after President Obama signed the stimulus plan, GE lawyers, lobbyists and executives crowded into a conference room at GE's Washington office to figure out how to parlay billions of dollars in spending provisions into GE contracts... You have to wonder what Immelt promised Obama and Rham Emmanuel in return. Buying off those boys doesn't come cheap.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corruption; ge
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To: SMM48

Thank God they’re selling Universal Orlando, now I can attend guilt free.

‘still have to suffer at Disney World though- damn.


41 posted on 11/16/2009 7:58:25 AM PST by PfromHoGro (Free Rush)
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To: SnuffaBolshevik

Wasn’t that back when Jack Welch was the boss?


42 posted on 11/16/2009 8:07:15 AM PST by ichabod1 ( I am rolling over in my grave and I am not even dead yet.)
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To: FromLori

I think he meant to say “We are all fascists now.”


43 posted on 11/16/2009 8:07:35 AM PST by SaraJohnson
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To: FromLori

No GE products for me. Too bad, so sad! LOL!


44 posted on 11/16/2009 8:11:46 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: clintonh8r

I’m LMAO knowing that the Chinee are giving Barry the same working over he gave to I-melt.


45 posted on 11/16/2009 8:15:13 AM PST by ichabod1 ( I am rolling over in my grave and I am not even dead yet.)
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To: TLI

No more GE products for me. EVER. And this is why CNBC can’t report anything on any program without some buffoon defending the Obama administrating wee-weeing all over the program. And this is why CNBC ratings have tanked. Hey Jeff, ESAD.


46 posted on 11/16/2009 8:17:43 AM PST by WashingtonSource
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To: Fred Hayek

James Taggart was an idiot. I was thinking more of Orren Boyle.


47 posted on 11/16/2009 9:10:35 AM PST by pepsi_junkie (Who is John Galt?)
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To: Landru
"we're all Democrats Facists now...",

-there. -fixed it. --------------------------------------

"The government has moved in next door, and it ain't leaving," Mr. Immelt said at the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Montreal in June. "You could fight it if you want, but society wants change. And government is not going away."

48 posted on 11/16/2009 9:15:20 AM PST by FBD (My carbon footprint is bigger then yours)
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To: FBD
"'The government has moved in next door, and it ain't leaving,' Mr. Immelt said at the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Montreal in June."

Pretty bold words for last June.
What's ol' Jeff sayin' these days, eh? LOL

"You could fight it if you want, but society wants change. And government is not going away.'"

Wanna bet, quisling?

49 posted on 11/16/2009 9:27:41 AM PST by Landru (Forget the pebble Grasshopper, just leave.)
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To: Landru; FBD

See post # 5.


50 posted on 11/16/2009 9:50:06 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops, and vote out the RINO's!)
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To: stephenjohnbanker; FBD
"Immelt was an incompetent from the day he took over G.E. Without crooked inside dealing, he would already have been pushed out of power by the G.E. board members."

steph?
These GE BODs?
They'd better get hold of this louse.
Its "leadership" is directly responsible for the garbage at NBC & MSNBC; though, the bugger's main focus has to be GE's energy division.
Immelt wants that Green legislation, ergo, BIG $$s for GE. We all know this.

Here's the problem & where the rubber meets the road.
More & more people are linking NBC-U *with* GE Corporate; and, by association everything GE. Which, is a LOT.

Example: The bride & I are shopping to replace all our appliances. Range, refridge, dishwasher and freezer and the *one* standing order for Mrs.L?
NO General Electric anything.
GE and their entire product line is simply verboten.

Now we're making this decision for us, and us alone.
But, are there others?
That, is the $64 question, steph.

Methinks the only real indicator will be GE stock. Know anything about GE's stock, recent trending my friend? And include institutional investors (401Ks etc) in the equation since that incoming funding to GE comes every month without regard to the GE parent company's behavior, or, any of its subsidiaries or properties. So one has to read between the lines?

There's what the louse says and there's what GE's stock says. Which do we listen? ;^) LOL

51 posted on 11/16/2009 10:40:46 AM PST by Landru (Forget the pebble Grasshopper, just leave.)
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To: Landru

“Immelt wants that Green legislation, ergo, BIG $$s for GE. We all know this.”

Absolutely. Immelt’s only hope of extricating himself from his incompetent management.


52 posted on 11/16/2009 10:54:14 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops, and vote out the RINO's!)
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To: stephenjohnbanker

Is Immelt an 0bama supporter?


53 posted on 11/16/2009 11:52:33 AM PST by FBD (My carbon footprint is bigger then yours)
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To: FBD; stephenjohnbanker
"Is Immelt an 0bama supporter?"

From paragraph 2: "But Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt now has his eye on a huge new pool of potential revenue: Uncle Sam's stimulus dollars. Mr. Immelt, a registered Republican..."

From the same paragraph: "...quips about the shift in thinking in the nation's corner offices: 'We're all Democrats now."...

Who knows *what* it is? LOL

54 posted on 11/16/2009 1:35:24 PM PST by Landru (Forget the pebble Grasshopper, just leave.)
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To: Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; EricTheRed_VocalMinority; ...
Thanks for the link FromLori.

The list, ping

55 posted on 11/16/2009 7:41:48 PM PST by Nachum (The complete Obama list at www.nachumlist.com)
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To: Nachum

No thanks nec. anytime :)


56 posted on 11/16/2009 7:51:57 PM PST by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: agere_contra
General Electric owes its creditors about half a trillion dollars, and has net assets of less than 20 billion dollars. GE spends 90% of its income just servicing its debts.

Where did you get those numbers?

I'm looking at GE's 3Q2009 balance sheet and see total assets of $788bn and total liabilities of $670bn.

If I'm missing something, please let me know!

57 posted on 11/30/2009 9:51:46 PM PST by Zeppelin (Keep on FReepin' on...)
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