In my recent speech in Iowa,
some eyebrows were raised when I took on our government’s enormous
economic problems caused by crony capitalism. As if on cue, just days
later President Obama selected someone who exemplifies a major crony
capitalism problem to sit next to the First Lady when he delivered his
“jobs plan” speech before Congress. He selected General Electric CEO
Jeffrey Immelt as his honored guest.
Having grown up with great
respect for GE thanks to stories my grandfather shared with us about his
days working for the company and even meeting GE spokesman-at-the-time
Ronald Reagan during a company event, I am saddened at GE’s leadership
evolution. This corporation is now the poster child of corporate welfare
and crony capitalism.
This icon of American industry is a company
full of good employees that make some good products (and is the parent
company of a huge media outlet), but GE is also a large American
corporation that pays virtually no corporate income taxes despite
earning worldwide profits of $14.2 billion last year, $5.1 billion of it
in the United States. In fact, they claimed a tax benefit
of $3.2 billion, meaning they received more of our hard earned tax
dollars than they contributed. How is that possible? It’s because not
only do they shelter their money from taxes, but they also get many tax
credits, loans, government grants, and other benefits from the federal
government that our smaller businesses couldn’t even imagine being able
to profit from.
Joining GE in the pantheon on crony capitalism is
another Obama favorite that has been in the news of late: Solyndra. The
President hailed this “green energy” company in a speech last May as
“the true engine of economic growth.” When he announced the $535 million
guarantee to Solyndra, Vice President Biden said that investments like
this are “exactly what the Recovery Act is all about.” (Dear God…If the
failed Solyndra venture has been what it’s “all about,” then that
explains a lot.) As I pointed out in my speech at the Reagan Ranch
Center last February: “History has proven again and again, when
government picks the winners and losers, we’re stuck with the losers,
and we the taxpayers subsidize failure!” And that’s what we’re seeing
now, as the FBI raids
the solar energy company’s headquarters to glean more information after
the company was handed half a billion dollars in “green energy”
Stimulus funds from the American taxpayer only to later declare
bankruptcy. More than one thousand
Solyndra workers lost their jobs. Now as the truth comes out, we
discover that the White House was heavily involved in the Department of
Energy’s rushed decision to give the Stimulus funds to Solyndra, and
they tried to move the money through so quickly
they seem to have ignored concerns that the company was not viable. Why
would they do this? Perhaps it’s because a large investor in the
company (about 35%) is Obama campaign bundler George Kaiser. And with
the way the deal is structured, Kaiser will get his debts paid
before we the taxpayers see any relief. That is sickening. And that’s
how it works: workers lose their jobs, wealthy political cronies stand a
good chance of getting their money back, and the U.S. taxpayer gets the
shaft. Again.
President Obama has his sights set on raising $1
billion for his reelection campaign. Raising that money won’t be
easy. But if you can hand out other people’s money to friends, it must
get a whole lot easier. This crony capitalism and government waste is at
the heart of our economic problems. It will destroy us if we don’t root
it out. It’s not just a Democrat problem or a Republican problem. It’s a
problem of our permanent political class. This won’t stop until “we the
people” say enough is enough, and we retire the permanent political
class that votes for this.
- Sarah Palin