GE Took Gov Aid Money, but Immelt Won’t Cut the Fat

As GE Stocks continue to hover at historic lows, GE announced that it is launching a new medical development program called ‘Healthymagination’ at a cost of about 6 billion dollars.   One of the main objectives of the program is to assist the Obama Administration’s goal of digitizing everyone’s medical records for instant access.

In their announcement, GE said it will draw upon its divisions to include GE Capitol and NBC Universal, both of which are losing entities in the GE brand name.

Now in order to counteract these losses GE has received money and guarantees from the government :

GE Chairman and CEO of General Electric, Jeffry Immelt, not only secured FDIC debt coverage on up to $139.0 billion in bonds outstanding as of Sept. 30, that mature by June 30, GE also tapped the Federal Reserves commercial paper funding facility for almost $5.0 billion in late October. GE became a bank holding company in order to qualify for TARP funds. Shares of GE Stock fell about 4.5% for the week ending 8 May 09.

Tom Daschel, the Health and Human Services nominee who withdrew because of tax trouble, is serving on the GE Healthymagination advisory board. As you may recall, this was Barack Obama’s first choice for the HHS post. So where is the conflict of interest alarms? Why was Vice President Cheney run up and down flag poles for being on the board of Halliburton prior to becoming VP?  Where are the alarmists who screamed bloody murder about President Bush and Exxon? Tom Daschle has Mr Obama’s ear, and this venture represents a huge steak in his health care initiative. It once again proves beyond a reasonable doubt that transparency among administration officials is as clear as Mississippi River water.

GE Capitol in 2008 experienced 7.2 billion in credit losses alone. Combine that with the unprofitable entities of NBC (MSNBC, and CNBC) and you begin to get the picture that GE is not very healthy under Mr. Immelt. In what was once a healthy company with share prices hovering around $50.00, the company now stands to lose its credit rating of AAA and Investment rating from stable to risky.

NBC Studios, MSNBC, CNBC, are currently all rating losers. So why does GE not shed the fat?  Because they stood in line behind the Obama Campaign, and thus are not being treated like Chrysler and GM?  No change at the top for GE (which in Chrysler’s Case, was for pure political expediency) and no forfeiture of unprofitable divisions? As it stands, NBC Studios will develop, produce and air, segments related to this initiative and MSNBC will air a new health related program for Healthymagination. Why are there no salary cap instructions for NBC talking heads like Brockaw, Matthews, or Olbermann? Oh, yeah, they were the only ones who got tingly feelings up and down their legs at the mere mention of Mr Obama.

But again the question is, where does all this money come from, and can GE, who has lost share value and siphoning money to GE Capital, afford 6 Billion dollars?   We have to wonder about the potential huge ethical questions here as Barack Obama owes NBC for all of their unwaivering support, and GE’s push into Mr Obamas healthcare initiatives.  How much of the bill is the taxpayer going to be responsible for?

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