Obama should form a "Council For Corporate Tax Evasion and Job Destruction" to fulfill his agenda

[Better Believe It]

President Obama should appoint his corporate pal Jeffrey Immelt to head up a new "President's Council on Corporate Tax Evasion and Job Destruction" to help implement the corporate/Wall Street economic agenda. Jeffrey Immelt has demonstrated enormous talent and leadership in that regard. That would be the honest and transparent thing for President Obama to do. BBI




Obama's Fatal Corporate Addiction
by Robert Scheer
March 30, 2011

If it had been revealed that Jeffrey Immelt once hired an undocumented nanny, or defaulted on his mortgage, he would be forced to resign as head of President Barack Obama’s “Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.” But the fact that General Electric, where Immelt is CEO, didn’t pay taxes on its $14.5 billion profit last year—and indeed is asking for a $3.2 billion tax rebate—has not produced a word of criticism from the president, who in January praised Immelt as a business leader who “understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy.”

What it takes, evidently, is shifting profit and jobs abroad: Only one out of three GE workers is now based in the U.S., and almost two-thirds of the company’s profit is sheltered in its foreign operations. Thanks to changes in the tax law engineered when another avowedly pro-business Democrat, Bill Clinton, was president, U.S. multinational financial companies can avoid taxes on their international scams. And financial scams are what GE excelled in for decades, when GE Capital, its financial unit, which specialized in credit card, consumer loan and housing mortgage debt, accounted for most of GE’s profits.

As Immelt stated blatantly: “The global economy, and capitalism, will be `reset’ in several important ways. The interaction between government and business will change forever. In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner.”

That’s the essential blueprint for Obama’s restructuring of the economy, as the president put it in selecting Immelt to replace Paul Volcker as head of his outside team of economic advisers. Volcker had become increasingly critical of the corporate high rollers. Obama, although noting the suffering of ordinary Americans, clearly believes that such populism is now beside the point. As the president put it in announcing Immelt’s appointment on Jan. 20, 2011: “The past two years was about moving our economy back from the brink. Our job now is putting our economy into overdrive.”


President Barack Obama applauds GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt before speaking to workers at GE’s plant in Schenectady, N.Y., on Jan. 21.

Read the full article at:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/obamas_fatal_addiction_20110329/


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Obama's new economic advisory board head, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, shipped manufacturing jobs overseas

In 'reboot,' Obama names GE's Immelt to head new jobs panel
Board replaces one that had been chaired by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker
NBC, msnbc.com and news services
January 21, 2011

President Barack Obama is restructuring his economic advisory board to place an emphasis on job creation, and he is naming General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as its new head.

The new board, called the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, will replace the former Economic Recovery Advisory Board that had been chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Volcker has said he was ending his tenure on the panel when its mandate expires on Feb. 6.

Immelt, a member of the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, has been a frequent visitor to the White House and attended a CEOs meeting with Obama and visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday.

So his appointment adds another corporate insider to the White House orbit, underscoring the White House's efforts to build stronger ties to the business community. Earlier this month, Obama named former commerce secretary and JP Morgan Chase executive William Daley as chief of staff.

Read the full article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41186668/ns/business


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GE Promotes Manufacturing Jobs in US, Then Ships 'em Overseas
By Mike Elk
Campaign for America's Future
July 21, 2009

Jeffery Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, has led the outsourcing charge in the past. So commentators were shocked last month when, speaking at the Detroit Economic Club, Immelt said that the United States needs to invest in American manufacturing in order to get out of our current economic crisis.

While Immelt was calling for manufacturing to stay in the U.S., his company was at the same time shipping manufacturing jobs overseas by canceling an order with an American-based wind turbine maker, ATI Casting Service in LaPorte, Ind., so that GE could instead buy the parts from a factory in China.

Recently, ATI made $30 million worth of investments to buy, convert, and modernize a shuttered factory in economically ravaged Michigan so the company could provide more parts to GE as the green economy expands with federal stimulus funding. But a Chinese firm underbid ATI, and the factory faced having to lay off 302 union workers and shutter the plant.

In an aggressive bid to keep the factory open, ATI offered to match the price of the Chinese producers. GE once again said they would prefer to buy from China. The ATI plant is now closed, the jobs gone.

Read the full article at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-elk/ge-promotes-manufacturing_b_241944.html

[leftstreet]

1. I hope Immelt recommends outsourcing Congress

I'd rather things like healthcare bills get drawn up in Canada

K&R

[polichick]

2. Sickening stuff - nothing like a fox or two in the hen house, k&r

[Better Believe It]

3. Are there any hens left?