Charades, Cynics, and Corporate Cronies

By William L. Garvin

When it comes to politics and politicians, a couple of adages come to mind. First, “if it sounds too good to be true, it is”; and second, “follow the money.” On the eve of the State of the Union address, it would be good to keep both of these thoughts in mind. We were told in SOTU 2010 that “jobs would be the top priority.” We all know how well that has worked out. The only reason that unemployment numbers are below 10% is because massive numbers of people have given up looking for work. Given the failure of the Stimulus package (even with the newly contrived “created or saved” category), don’t expect to hear about “stimulus” or “spend.” Instead, in SOTU 2011, we’ll be told how important “targeted investments” are for our economic engine to roar back to life. It’s the same old tax and spend philosophy cloaked in new language.

Also keep in mind that the “neutral” Congressional Budget Office must make its projections based upon the data provided to them by the administration. Everyone is well aware of GIGO—“Garbage In, Garbage Out.” If you collect revenues for 10 years and only provide benefits for 6, if you farm out many of your responsibilities to the states as unfunded mandates, if you pass many of your fiscal obligations (such as the Medicare “doctor fix”) through entirely separate spending bills, even the health care monstrosity can be “revenue neutral” or actually reduce the deficit. Unfortunately, it’s a charade, a shell game, a smoke and mirrors numbers game that relies on deception.

Given this as background, the President has adopted a new “business friendly” persona by appointing Bill Daley as his new Chief of Staff and Jeffrey Immelt to the President’s Council on Jobs and Prosperity. Pundits hailed this as a positive change since the previous Council had virtually no business experience, much like the President’s inner circle. A closer look may not be quite as comforting.


Jeffrey Immelt is the CEO of General Electric and has been a frequent guest at the White House. It’s no wonder that he was a guest at the State dinner for Chinese Premier Hu Jintao. (Curiously, not a single article referred to “Communist” China.) In any event, GE landed five deals with China worth $5 billion in sales. They have already contracted to provide 895 wind turbines to China and are involved in another $2.1 billion joint venture to provide engines and services to Air China. That’s just good business, right?

Maybe there is more to it than meets the eye. GE has never been a bank, but TARP definitions were stretched to provide funds to GE and in fact, they were a major beneficiary. They also received tremendous amounts of stimulus money. Coincidentally, GE also owns 80% of NBC Universal. Is there a quid pro quo? According to Charlie Gasparino, Immelt called all the CNBC reporters together and “scolded” them for their negative comments about the President. CNN’s Howard Kurtz referred to MSNBC as “the Obama network.” MSNBC anchors Chris Mathews, Keith Olberman (R.I.P.), Rachel Maddow, Laurence O’Donnell, and Ed Schultz are all unapologetic Obama cheerleaders.

In addition, there is no question about anthropogenic (manmade) global warming on these channels. Of course, GE stands to make huge profits from cap and trade and has garnered huge government subsidies and invested huge amounts in alternative energy sources. At a Brookings Institution meeting, Immelt emphasized the importance of a government policy that would “raise energy prices to spur renewable energy…there has to be a price on carbon.” GE also has a virtual monopoly on “smart grid” technology. Also on the Council is John Doerr, a green technology venture capitalist who spent $2,100,000 to defeat Proposition 23 which would have delayed the implementation of the California Cap and Trade law. Doerr is Al Gore’s business partner. Do we have a pattern?

Daley came into the Administrations via JP Morgan Chase where he headed up the “Corporate Social Responsibility Department.” Not too surprisingly, he created a climate change policy that was hostile to coal, oil, and natural gas. They were banking on making money from trading carbon credits and investments in renewable energy. He also has ties to Exelon, a Chicago based utility that received $200 million in Stimulus money, and is frequently the lead dog attacking coal based energy generation. It’s becoming clear that the President will keep one campaign promise: “energy prices will skyrocket.”