"Leaked e-mail shows how GE puts the government to work for GE"--that's the headline atop Timothy P. Carney's important piece in The Washington Examiner:
"The intersection between GE's interests and government action is clearer than ever," General Electric Vice Chairman John G. Rice wrote in an Aug. 19 e-mail to colleagues.
Rice was calling on his co-workers to join the General Electric Political Action Committee. "GEPAC is an important tool that enables GE employees to collectively help support candidates who share the values and goals of GE."
The full letter suggests that "share the values and goals of GE" really means "support policies that profit the company."
Steve Milloy, a pro-free market investor at the Free Enterprise Action Fund, obtained this e-mail and says it reveals General Electric for what it really is. "GE is lobbying to become the biggest rent seeker this country has ever seen," Milloy told this column. Rent seeking is using government legislation or regulation to generate private profits the free market wouldn't provide.
"On climate change," Rice wrote, "we were able to work closely with key authors of the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, recently passed by the House of Representatives. If this bill is enacted into law it would benefit many GE businesses."
Most of all, Waxman-Markey would profit a GE joint venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which deals in greenhouse gas credits, products that have value only if a cap-and-trade bill like Waxman-Markey passes.
The leaked e-mail shows how tightly GE connects PAC contributions and lobbying efforts. "Our Company is heavily impacted by a number of issues pending in Washington this fall," Rice wrote.
GE spent more on lobbying in the second quarter of this year than did any other company, according to federal lobbying files. Since 1998, GE has been the king of lobbying expenditures, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, outpacing its runner-up by 40 percent.
Last election, GEPAC spent $2.4 million, with a slim majority going to Democrats. So far this year, two-thirds of GEPAC money has gone to Democrats.
Rice's description of how PAC contributions help the company ("we must also make sure that candidates who share GE's values and goals get elected to office") belies the true dynamic in political giving, as the rest of the e-mail suggests.
Imagine! G.E. has a PAC that gives 2/3 of its money to Democrats. And even better, it has MSNBC, which gives about 90% of its favorability to Democrats. Looks like both sides are getting their money's worth: the US Government is giving G.E. someone else's money, and G.E. is kicking back a little of it in campaign contributions, and a lot in "earned media," a.k.a. "news coverage" to the Democrats.
