Posted on 09/14/2011 8:47:54 PM PDT by meadsjn
Crony Capitalism on Steroids from GE to Solyndra.
by Sarah Palin on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 9:25pm .
In my recent speech in Iowa, some eyebrows were raised when I took on our government’s enormous economic problems caused by crony capitalism. As if on cue, just days later President Obama selected someone who exemplifies a major crony capitalism problem to sit next to the First Lady when he delivered his “jobs plan” speech before Congress. He selected General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as his honored guest.
Having grown up with great respect for GE thanks to stories my grandfather shared with us about his days working for the company and even meeting GE spokesman-at-the-time Ronald Reagan during a company event, I am saddened at GE’s leadership evolution. This corporation is now the poster child of corporate welfare and crony capitalism.
This icon of American industry is a company full of good employees who make some good products (and is the parent company of a huge media outlet), but GE is also a large American corporation that pays virtually no corporate income taxes despite earning worldwide profits of $14.2 billion last year, $5.1 billion of it in the United States. In fact, they claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion, meaning they received more of our hard earned tax dollars than they contributed. How is that possible? It’s because not only do they shelter their money from taxes, but they also get many tax credits, loans, government grants, and other benefits from the federal government that our smaller businesses couldn’t even imagine being able to profit from.
Joining GE in the pantheon on crony capitalism is another Obama favorite that has been in the news of late: Solyndra. The President hailed this “green energy” company in a speech last May as “the true engine of economic growth.” When he announced the $535 million guarantee to Solyndra, Vice President Biden said that investments like this are “exactly what the Recovery Act is all about.” (Dear God…If the failed Solyndra venture has been what it’s “all about,” then that explains a lot.) As I pointed out in my speech at the Reagan Ranch Center last February: “History has proven again and again, when government picks the winners and losers, we’re stuck with the losers, and we the taxpayers subsidize failure!” And that’s what we’re seeing now, as the FBI raids the solar energy company’s headquarters to glean more information after the company was handed half a billion dollars in “green energy” Stimulus funds from the American taxpayer only to later declare bankruptcy. More than one thousand Solyndra workers lost their jobs. Now as the truth comes out, we discover that the White House was heavily involved in the Department of Energy’s rushed decision to give the Stimulus funds to Solyndra, and they tried to move the money through so quickly they seem to have ignored concerns that the company was not viable. Why would they do this? Perhaps it’s because a large investor in the company (about 35%) is Obama campaign bundler George Kaiser. And with the way the deal is structured, Kaiser will get his debts paid before we the taxpayers see any relief. That is sickening. And that’s how it works: workers lose their jobs, wealthy political cronies stand a good chance of getting their money back, and the U.S. taxpayer gets the shaft. Again.
President Obama has his sights set on raising $1 billion for his reelection campaign. Raising that money won’t be easy. But if you can hand out other people’s money to friends, it must get a whole lot easier. This crony capitalism and government waste is at the heart of our economic problems. It will destroy us if we don’t root it out. It’s not just a Democrat problem or a Republican problem. It’s a problem of our permanent political class. This won’t stop until “we the people” say enough is enough, and we retire the permanent political class that votes for this.
- Sarah Palin
No, she made her "case" against Perry in an a throw-away comment on FoxNews, and without any evidence. She made her case against Obama tonight clearly, though. Why didn't she follow up on her claims against Perry?
I suspect that Gov. Palin’s “throw-away” line may well have gotten her crossed off Perry’s Christmas card list.
But the article you sight says “but the words “tax benefit” are so ambiguous that it’s not clear what they mean,” If Palin is referring including federal grant money into the equation then she is correct, and she states that Federal grant money in her article. Apparently the term tax benefit is ambiguous rather than a term like net profit.
On the whole I liked the article and I think she is delivering a solid conservative message. I don’t think we should split hairs over a ambiguous term and loose sight of the salient points.
They are not "claims."
They are facts which do not require "follow ups."
Have a good night...
.
Like that. Nice way with the words.
Nice post, and it sounds like somebody is about ready to challenge the system. She almost seems to be backing Bachmann’s position without syaing so.
Palin proved that she is willing to take on crony capitalists when she went after the oil companies in Alaska. That took some real courage. It’s not a new subject for her.
Just about ready ...
“This is not crony capitalism or anything like it. This is just plain old theft. They knew this company was already in trouble, and they knew there were cheaper products out of China.”
Bullseye. Solyndra was nothing more than a vehicle for transferring taxpayer money into the pockets of Obama’s friends.
Well for one thing, the day she talked about perry, there was a debate. Did you notice? And today, there wasn’t. How simple does your logic have to be before you get it? perry does not dominate everybody’s waking hours like he seems to dominate yours...or maybe it’s really Palin that dominates your waking hours, because you seem to never get enough of throwing out those stinky red herrings.
t/rick perry can drum up publicity, good or bad, all by hisself. Why do you want Palin to do it for him? Hiding behind her skirts? Hmmmm?
Carling, darling, (Hey! that rhymes!) anyway, she made no accusation against perry. She spoke about his CoS and the appearance of impropriety, which there was...not to mention his mother-in-law. BIG difference. If we judge oblama by the company he keeps and call it fair, then why the hell shouldn’t it be fair to say the same thing about Republicans with questionable associations? (Like perry’s two big moneymen who got the sanctuary cities law dropped in he great state of Texas.)
What these Perry dopes fail to realize is, Perry needs Palin a helluva lot more than Palin needs him. And they can’t stop talking about HER instead of trying to garner support for him. How pathetically sad.
(((((PING)))))
So how many elections have you won?
Wrong about GE?
Wrong yourself.
This is mercky issue like Gardasil, but it envelops
GE with no taxes as they transport technology to China
AND defend Obama with MSNBC.
Like Perry’s Crony Capitalism, it is real. You betcha.
Thank you.
In her Indianola speech, she made clear that both parties are guilty of keeping the crony scheme going. The only question is which team and sectors or corporations are in or out of favor with a given administration. I thought the elimination of the corporate income tax was a great idea, as it will dry up a great deal of the demand for lobbying as well as placing small and mid sized corporation on a level playing field. Small and mid sized corporations are more nimble on costs and thus, capital flows would move their direction. Not to mention and immediate 20% boost to everyones 401k accounts.
Hopefully, there will be some splanin' about how the regime made sure the taxpayers take the 1/2/ billion dollar hit two weeks before they declared bankruptcy so obama bundlers don't get hurt.Talk about corrupt! This is undoubtedly the most corrupt regime ever.
GE pays taxes. They didn’t get a tax refund. Palin is wrong on this. Plus, she looks at crony capitalism from the wrong side.
“Investopedia explains Crony Capitalism
Both socialists and capitalists have been at odds with each other over assigning blame to the opposite group for the rise of crony capitalism. Socialists believe that crony capitalism is the inevitable result of pure capitalism. This belief is supported by their claims that people in power, whether business or government, look to stay in power and the only way to do this is to create networks between government and business that support each other.
On the other hand, capitalists believe that crony capitalism arises from the need of socialist governments to control the state. This requires businesses to operate closely with the government to acheive the greatest success.
Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cronycapitalism.asp#ixzz1Y1ZDQ6Hg
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