mitt romney

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt Sours on President Obama

by Brian McGraw on March 20, 2012

in Blog

Post image for General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt Sours on President Obama

Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, has gone sour on President Obama:

Back when he agreed to advise the Obama administration on economics, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt told friends that he thought it would be good for GE and good for the country. A life-long Republican, Immelt said he believed he could at the very least moderate the president’s distinctly anti-business instincts.

That was three years ago; these days Immelt is telling friends something quite different.

Sure, GE has managed to feast on federal subsidies, particularly the “green-energy” giveaways that are Obamanomics’ hallmark.

But Immelt doesn’t think he’s had anywhere near as much luck moderating the president’s fat-cat-bashing, left-leaning economic agenda of taxing businesses and entrepreneurs to pay for government bloat.

Friends describe Immelt as privately dismayed that, even after three years on the job, President Obama hasn’t moved to the center, but instead further left. The GE CEO, I’m told, is appalled by everything from the president’s class-warfare rhetoric to his continued belief that big government is the key to economic salvation.

This is rich. While I happen to agree with Immelt that increasing the size and scope of government is not in our nations best interests, GE/Immelt are an infamous symbol of crony capitalism, where big government and big business get together and rig the game to enrich themselves while the American taxpayers get the shaft. In General Electric’s case this consists of support for all sorts of tax credits and subsidies for wind energy production, support for the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill, spending almost $40 million lobbying in 2010, and the list goes on. [click to continue…]