Say Anything Blog

Remember when Obama campaigned as the “new politics” candidate?  Remember when he promised hope and change?  Well, since coming to office it seems to be corrupt politics as usual.

It turns out that General Electric is profiting mightily from one of the Obama administration’s various bank rescue schemes:

General Electric, the world’s largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government’s key rescue programs for banks.

At the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from the government.

The company did not initially qualify for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE.

As a result, GE has joined major banks collectively saving billions of dollars by raising money for their operations at lower interest rates. Public records show that GE Capital, the company’s massive financing arm, has issued nearly a quarter of the $340 billion in debt backed by the program, which is known as the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, or TLGP. The government’s actions have been “powerful and helpful” to the company, GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt acknowledged in December

By the way, this is the same General Electric that stands to harvest massive profits from government health care contracts stemming from language put into Obama’s economic “stimulus” spending spree allowing for the creation of a government health records system.  The same General Electric that got $140 billion in bailouts last year.  The same General Electric which is positioned to rake in big profits from any cap and trade system the government may made up.

GE is no doubt paying back all that “powerful help” by lavishing praise upon the government with its media arm at NBC and MSNBC.  Ever wonder why Obama can’t do anything wrong in the eyes of the reporters and pundits for those networks?  It’s not just because they’re liberals.

I don’t have a problem with businesses turning big profits.  I think any given individual or business should be free to be as big and successful as they want to be.  I just don’t think it’s right when businesses profit not because they offer products and services people want at reasonable prices but rather because they’ve successfully lobbied the government into creating business for them.