General Electric Whores Its Way to Fortune 500 Top 10

Fortune 500 Magazine listed its annual top rankings for American businesses.  General Electric came in at #6.  If you take a look at the top 10, you will see that 4 of those companies have something in common.

General Electric, probably one of the most shameless whores in the modern era, has made an art out of scamming the American taxpayer out of their hard earned money; when the federal government implemented TARP, G.E. was right there cashing in:

General Electric said Wednesday that the federal government had agreed to insure as much as $139 billion in debt for its lending subsidiary, GE Capital. This is the second time in a month that G.E. has turned to a federal program aimed at helping companies during the global credit crisis.

GE Capital is not a bank, but granting it access to a new program from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation may reassure investors and help the lender compete with banks that already have government-protected debt, a G.E. spokesman, Russell Wilkerson, told Bloomberg News

And when the Stimulus Program was announced, they were right there slobbering all over themselves:

GE was the primary recipient of 14 stimulus grants, a spokeswoman for Recovery.gov confirmed to CNSNews.com. These 14 grants provided GE with $24.9 million in tax dollars. On four additional stimulus grants, the primary recipient of the federal money hired GE as a contractor. Recovery.gov is the administration’s website that tracks stimulus expenditures.

And it was just recently revealed that with their army of tax accountants and lawyers, they didn’t pay a dime in taxes:

General Electric paid no tax at all in America last year and even managed to get a $3.2billion ‘rebate’ from the government.

The utilities giant allocated just 7.4 per cent of its $5.1billion U.S. profits in tax - around a third of what others companies its size are paying.

But through a complex series of measures GE, which is America's largest company, will not even have to hand that over.

It makes you want to go out and buy a General Electric product doesn’t it.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370001/General-Electric-avoids-paying-tax-entirely-dodges-incentives.html#ixzz1LuId6VBC

Source:  http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2011/full_list/index.html

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/fdic-to-back-139-billion-in-ge-capital-debt/

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-administration-gave-general-electr

Rep. Patrick McHenry: Era of Bailouts is Over

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on TARP and bailouts. The first order of business is to investigate the effectiveness of this program and whether to help out states with their budget shortfalls. Liberal states are the most egregious as reported by the News and Observer:


California, New York and Illinois are among states struggling most with debt. So far, 44 states and the District of Columbia have a projected shortfall of $125 billion, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities

That shouldn’t surprise anyone. McHenry stated that these irresponsible beggars will not receive a taxpayer bailout:

McHenry criticized states for not preparing better for the end of the 2009 stimulus funding that the federal government poured into state budgets in the past two years. He and the panel's top Democrat, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois agreed that the states shouldn't come to Washington for a bailout.


"The era of the bailout is over," McHenry said.

I remember when Bill Clinton said that the era of big government was over. I hope McHenry’s words don’t ring as hollow.

McHenry, who earned a reputation in the past few years as one of the House's partisan bulldogs in the press, was gracious and accommodating in Wednesday's hearing. He offered the first GOP questioning opportunity - a perk traditionally reserved for the chairman - to a fellow Republican. And he offered the first Democratic opportunity to U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who is the ranking member of the full Oversight Committee.


Quigley thanked McHenry publicly for being "accommodating and cordial to me and my staff," and the two conferred often during testimony.

I hope McHenry doesn’t bring a knife to a gunfight.



Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/10/979251/tarp-panel-meets-sets-grumpy-tone.html#ixzz1DcEWWsUb

The Big TARP Dark Carnival

Step right on up!  See the Amazing dollar as it disappears before your very eyes.  Is TARP your friend or is it your foe?.  It is the Dark Carnival!  HAAAHAAAAAAA!!  SUCKER!!!!!

Governor Beverly Perdue Sponsors Incestuous Fund Raiser

North Carolina’s Governor Beverly Perdue sponsored a fund raiser for the Democratic Governors Association. The event raised $1.2 million dollars, the largest amount collected by this so-called non-profit group.

The Charlotte Observer reports:

The gathering at Cary’s Umstead Hotel and Spa on April 6 and 7, was both a fund-raiser and a “regional policy conference” held by the Democratic Governors Association.


The Washington based association, whose purpose is to elect Democratic state chief executives, raises money around the country by holding fundraisers that also double as policy conferences. The group is helping raise money in 37 races for governor this year.

Governor Perdue called regional corporations, many who have their hands in state and federal taxpayer coffers. The following companies attended:

Duke Energy: Donated $100,000
AT&T: Donated $100,000
CSX: Donated $35,000
Bank of America: Donated $10,000
Wells Fargo: Donated $25,000
Time Warner Cable: Donated $10,000
:
All of the above companies have received TARP or Stimulus money; or have designs on targeted state sponsored programs.



Here are some other state sponsored companies who also contributed; again reported by the Charlotte Observer:

Policy Studies Inc. of Denver, Colo., which has won a total of $1.6 million in state contracts for child enforcement dating back to 2004, gave $25,000.


At a time when Perdue has been pushing for more tax paid incentives to make more movies in North Carolina, the Motion Picture Association of America, based in Encino, California contributed $15,000.

Also contributing were law firms that do lobbying, such as McGuire Woods PAC of Richmond, VA., which gave $10,000.

I thought there was a law against incest; apparently not in politics.

Source: Charlotte Observer
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10683427/national-gateway-receives-federal-stimulus-funds-through-tiger-program.html
http://www.ncdot.org/recovery/
http://www.cedmagazine.com/article.aspx?id=170829&terms=
http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-06-10/business/17207930_1_richard-kovacevich-rbc-capital-markets-tarp