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GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 7:13:52 AM

Sanity

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Maybe this belongs in the Orwell thread?

From the Rest easy, the Fox is guarding the hen house Department:

quote:

GE responds to charges of crony capitalism

General Electric, with a larger lobbying budget than any other company in America, has long lobbied for and profited from Big Government. Since Obama tapped GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as Job Czar, this critique has spread throughout the Right.

When it came out that GE's U.S. corporate income tax bill for 2010 was $0, anti-GE sentiment grew on the Left and Right. Finally, at the latest Republcian debate Newt Gingrich attacked GE for profiting from Obama-style green-energy loopholes.

So today, GE responds: "There has been a lot of talk lately about GE and what some call crony capitalism. Unfortunately, those same people don’t want the facts to get in the way of their political rhetoric."

...

"We are not receiving special treatment"

This is a hard one to believe. GE, again, spends more on lobbying than any other company. Its lobbyists include Linda Daschle, whose husband Tom was the Senate Majority Leader and today is a confidant of Obama. Former senior Ways & Means Committee member Jim McCrery is a lobbyist for GE as is former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt. Former Senators Trent Lott and John Breaux are GE lobbyists. Immelt has been an official advisor to Obama through his whole presidency.
...

"Last year, only 4 percent of our revenue came from sales to the U.S. government."

This is really off target. The dig at GE is not that it makes all its money selling to the U.S. government. It's that it finds all sorts of ways to profit off of big government, including subsidies and regulations.

Off the top of my head, here are a few ways:
GE is a top beneficiary of Export-Import Bank subsidies.
GE bought up an embryonic stem-cell business just after President Obama announced the government would start subsidizing them.
GE owns half of Greenhouse Gas Services, a business that generates and trades in greenhouse-gas credits -- something that only has value if government constrains GHG emissions.
GE is a leading manufacturer of wind turbines, which receive all sorts of federal and state subsidies.
GE lobbied for and benefits from the light-bulb efficiency regulations that drive consumers to more expensive light bulbs.
On the state level, GE gets generous "incentives" (subsidies) from governments. Consider this Virginia case.
GE got $140 billion bailout from the FDIC in 2008.
I would like GE to explain why this isn't corporatism or crony capitalism.

Right. Theres nothing to see here folks, so just keep moving along...

< Message edited by Sanity -- 9/16/2011 7:14:43 AM >

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 7:37:09 AM

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 9:27:42 AM

mnottertail

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They aint doing nothing that no other large multinational corporation aint doing here.

Kick all them motherfuckers outta the US they are a deadly drain on our economy.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 9:51:58 AM

SternSkipper

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quote:

General Electric, with a larger lobbying budget than any other company in America, has long lobbied for and profited from Big Government. Since Obama tapped GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as Job Czar, this critique has spread throughout the Right.

WTF will make you happy anyway... always running the cake hole about how government should take a page from government, and when they do, that's wrong.
I'll confide one thing. I am disappointing that this administration has gone with industrialist to satisfy the whims of malcontents like yourself who bring NOTHING to the table except bitching and moaning. He should have hired up Bob Reich who would smile as he told you how wrong the 'spend nothing recover the economy' nonsense really is.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 10:48:16 AM

Sanity

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This really the kind of change you hoped for, skippy?

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 11:34:21 AM

Lucylastic

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FR
Just in case people are not aware of this..... GE have their financial numbers up on their site, for anyone who cares about actually looking into what and how long they havent paid "taxes" and for those blaming everything on this pres...here are the provision for income going back to 2006

GE provision for income taxes yr 2010(2,024) yr 2009 (2,739) yr 2008 (3,427) yr 2007 (2,794) year 2006(2,553)

GE CONSOLIDATED REVENUES yr 2010($[u]150,211)yr 2009 ($155,278)yr 2008( $181,581)yr 2007 ($171,556) yr 2006($150,845)
This isnt new, where was the whinning from you righties three years ago,
maybe you can try to revise history on this as well, or at least try.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 11:42:14 AM

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Wait I dont get what GE is doing wrong? Its no different than Dick Chaney did with Halliburton, Oil Companies with government subsidies, or Michele Bachmann Clinic? America is Capitalist and I dont under stand why its such a big deal that the government is buying GE products when it apparently needs GE products because the guy at the top says so. After all forcing the government spend tax payer money isnt Socialist, it just good business.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 11:50:22 AM

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oh gawd you are cute, I must have you for my cage....cmere lil one, Ima gonna hug you and squeeze you and tie your sad little sac up tighter than a tight thing

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 11:53:59 AM

willbeurdaddy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Masta808

Wait I dont get what GE is doing wrong? Its no different than Dick Chaney did with Halliburton, Oil Companies with government subsidies, or Michele Bachmann Clinic? America is Capitalist and I dont under stand why its such a big deal that the government is buying GE products when it apparently needs GE products because the guy at the top says so. After all forcing the government spend tax payer money isnt Socialist, it just good business.

I think you missed Sanity's point (or I did). There isnt anything illegal or unethical about what GE is doing UNLESS the benefits they get are the result of special deals between the Administration and their financial supporters.

Of course there is also the broader issue of social engineering and whether the tax code should be used to select winners and losers in the first place, but that isnt the issue here.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 12:49:50 PM

SternSkipper

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quote:

I think you missed Sanity's point (or I did). There isnt anything illegal or unethical about what GE is doing UNLESS the benefits they get are the result of special deals between the Administration and their financial supporters.

Like in the case of Halliburton

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 1:31:02 PM

Masta808

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quote:

ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Masta808

Wait I dont get what GE is doing wrong? Its no different than Dick Chaney did with Halliburton, Oil Companies with government subsidies, or Michele Bachmann Clinic? America is Capitalist and I dont under stand why its such a big deal that the government is buying GE products when it apparently needs GE products because the guy at the top says so. After all forcing the government spend tax payer money isnt Socialist, it just good business.

I think you missed Sanity's point (or I did). There isnt anything illegal or unethical about what GE is doing UNLESS the benefits they get are the result of special deals between the Administration and their financial supporters.

Of course there is also the broader issue of social engineering and whether the tax code should be used to select winners and losers in the first place, but that isnt the issue here.

Like what Rick Perry is doing? I didnt know that was wrong. It just proves America is a Capitalist Country, anything can be bought or sold.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 5:18:52 PM

willbeurdaddy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: SternSkipper

quote:

I think you missed Sanity's point (or I did). There isnt anything illegal or unethical about what GE is doing UNLESS the benefits they get are the result of special deals between the Administration and their financial supporters.

Like in the case of Halliburton

Yeah, Clinton did have a lot of special deals with Halliburton.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 5:23:01 PM

willbeurdaddy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Masta808

Like what Rick Perry is doing? I didnt know that was wrong. It just proves America is a Capitalist Country, anything can be bought or sold.

Too bad Perry didnt do anything. Anyone can offer whatever support they want, show me where it was reciprocated and youve got something to talk about. And btw, you should try to do better than "thinkprogress" as a source. There is little they write that cant be easily discredited, as is this attempt to smear someone over nothing.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 5:26:37 PM

Politesub53

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Same ole republicans spouting the same ole crap.... move along nothing to see indeed.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 5:33:56 PM

willbeurdaddy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Politesub53

Same ole republicans spouting the same ole crap.... move along nothing to see indeed.

Nothing to see other than Immelt's dick up Obama's a$$. At lea$t he lubed it well fir$t.

< Message edited by willbeurdaddy -- 9/16/2011 5:34:47 PM >

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 5:40:43 PM

Lucylastic

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While other solar company executives worry about staying afloat, Solyndra Inc. CEO Chris Gronet is pressing ahead with plans for five solar-panel factories.
The Fremont-based company has raised $600 million in venture capital. It also has an unusual fallback: loans guaranteed by the Department of Energy to fund its expansion.
“We’re borrowing money directly from the federal (government) at very attractive rates at a time when I think it would be impossible to raise regular financing anywhere else,” Gronet said.
Solyndra is one of 16 companies that qualified for $2 billion in Department of Energy loan guarantees as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The loans can finance up to 80 percent of the cost of a project. Solyndra is the only photovoltaic solar maker in line for the money of 156 applicants in several industry categories. San Carlos-based electric carmaker Tesla Motors and solar thermal power plant company BrightSource Energy, based in Oakland, are also on the DOE’s list.
Date: Sunday, December 7, 2008, 9:00pm PST - Last Modified: Friday, December 5, 2008, 5:02am PST

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/12/08/story1.html?page=all

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 5:49:19 PM

Politesub53

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Lucy.......How many more times. It is unfair to use facts on Wilbur.

Any more of this and it`s the naughty step for you my girl.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 5:58:44 PM

willbeurdaddy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Politesub53

Lucy.......How many more times. It is unfair to use facts on Wilbur.

Any more of this and it`s the naughty step for you my girl.

If she had the slightest clue what a "fact" is, she might not be on ignore. Those who call her a troll are insulting the vile little creatures.

< Message edited by willbeurdaddy -- 9/16/2011 6:01:35 PM >

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 6:02:18 PM

Politesub53

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quote:

ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Politesub53

Lucy.......How many more times. It is unfair to use facts on Wilbur.

Any more of this and it`s the naughty step for you my girl.

If she had the slightest clue what a "fact" is, she might not be on ignore.

Thats ironic coming from someone who fails to back anything up when asked, and on a regular basis at that.

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RE: GE Assures Us: Theyre Not Crony Capitalists - 9/16/2011 6:04:28 PM

willbeurdaddy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Politesub53

quote:

ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Politesub53

Lucy.......How many more times. It is unfair to use facts on Wilbur.

Any more of this and it`s the naughty step for you my girl.

If she had the slightest clue what a "fact" is, she might not be on ignore.

Thats ironic coming from someone who fails to back anything up when asked, and on a regular basis at that.

1. Bullshit, youre parroting those who dont like my back up.
2. You apparently dont know what a troll is, since your response has nothing to do with my comment.

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