Sarahcuda is backIn 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.)