It’s not GE.
GE is the parent company of NBC and MSNBC. You know, the commentary…errrr…news network that continues to broadcast like it’s 2008 and they’re a founding member of ACORN? The network that aired an interview with Hollywood’s newest self-proclaimed political analyst, Janeane Garofalo, who told the handful of viewers on April 16th that the people who attended the Tea Parties were racists and “nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks.”
Ever wonder what could possibly cause them to forsake reporting and journalism?
Bill O’Reilly connected the dots quite nicely on “The Factor” today. It’s no secret that the financial arm of GE has received a bailout so would want to curry favor with the Feds, but that’s just smoke & mirrors. And small change. The real carrot that has created little more than an Obama pimp network is the money GE stands to make from cap & trade.
The Washington Examiner explained the game plan last month:
GE — a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which advocates cap and trade — leads the push for greenhouse gas restrictions.
In the fourth quarter of 2008 as the company’s stock fell 30 percent, GE spent $4.26 million on lobbying — that’s $46,304 each day, including weekends, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 2008, the company spent a grand total of $18.66 million on lobbying.
Reviewing their lobbying filings, you might think you were looking at Al Gore’s agenda. GE’s specific lobbying issues included the “Climate Stewardship Act,” “Electric Utility Cap and Trade Act,” “Global Warming Reduction Act,” “Federal Government Greenhouse Gas Registry Act,” “Low Carbon Economy Act,” and “Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.”
This isn’t altruism or public relations. GE has started a joint venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which invests in — and hopes to manage the trade in — greenhouse gas credits. But these investments and this trading floor are of basically no use and nearly no value without government restrictions on greenhouse gases.
Hence the lobbying, buttressed by generous campaign contributions: Employees and executives gave $1.35 million to politicians in the past election while GE’s political action committee shelled out $1.55 million. About 64 percent of this $2.9 million went to Democrats, with Obama easily the top recipient of GE money.
Obama’s budget includes the payoff, promising to start a multibillion-dollar greenhouse gas industry by 2012. In a letter this week, GE’s (CEO) Immelt told shareholders that current events present an “opportunity of a lifetime,” because “capitalism will be ‘reset.’ ”
Immelt wrote: “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.”
In short, GE plans to get rich by being one of the government’s closest partners — which it has always been, thanks to its unmatched lobbying efforts.
GE is also partnering up in Florida with Cisco and FPL Group Inc.’s Florida Power and Light Co., planning to create a “smart grid” system. Which will, of course, be sticking its hand out for a piece of the stimulus pie. Because, according to Jeffrey Immelt, “There’s a lot of money out there. We’ve got the chance to get more action in 2009.”
Of course, when GE fails as its products aren’t being bought by all the people who have no jobs and their media numbers plummet as people become more and more disenchanted with the continuing missteps by those in Washington, the government will move in as it did with Wall Street and the banks, and Pater Obama will finally begin to feel like an equal with his buddy, Hugo Chavez.
Enlightening, isn’t it?