GE: Government Electric

Well, not exactly Government Electric. They’re only taking government money without all of that pesky regulatory hassle.

There’s something very wrong about the relationship between General Electric and our government. For one, they own MSNBC and NBC which are nothing more than mouthpieces for the Obama Administration. But it isn’t just the tired liberal ideology. Not at all. There doesn’t seem to be one part of President Obama or the democrats’ agenda that doesn’t directly help GE.

The Washington Post reports that a loophole in the federal bank rescue program has turned GE into one of the biggest benificiaries of that program. If that’s not bad enough, somehow they’re able to escape the regulations that other financial institutions are saddled with. We certainly aren’t hearing the president railing against the salaries and benefits of GE executives.

The energy bill the democrats are trying so hard to ram through without public scrutiny will surely benefit GE. Jeffrey Immelt and Jennifer Granholm just announced a $100 Million deal in Michigan for a new technology plant. Where are they getting the money for this deal when GE’s stock is in the toilet?

In addition to the bank bailout and energy bill, a health care bill will also funnel taxpayer dollars to the conglomerate.

General Electric is marshalling its considerable resources as it tries to win lucrative contracts to digitize medical records.

The company, whose $17 billion-a-year healthcare division offers information technology services for hospitals and medical practices, this week said the conglomerate’s financing arm is setting aside $100 million to provide 0% interest financing to customers who use GE’s solution for electronic health records.

GE (GE, Fortune 500) says the bills will come due in 2011. That’s when the federal government, which has made digitizing medical records a key part of its stimulus and health-care reform plans, will begin reimbursing providers who have gone digital. The company also says it will offer customers a guarantee that the solution it deploys — a product called GE Centricity EMR — will qualify for reimbursement by meeting government standards and guidelines that agencies are just now formalizing.

 Ok, so their stock is in the toilet.  Yet they have millions to invest in a new production facility in Michigan. And they have millions to lend out at 0% interest for digitized records that comply with any future government standards. (Even though the drag on GE’s stock is its financial arm.) Do they really expect us to believe that they aren’t completely in bed with the government? The only difference is, they are one of the few companies receiving government assistance that the government isn’t trying to run. Gee, I wonder why?

Update: It looks like GE will also profit from Obama’s easing of restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.