August 06, 2014
Yes, that is what he said according to the Washington Post. The context was a business summit involving U.S. and African business people and African heads of state. Immelt was complaining that the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank is being seriously debated Washington.
The Bank makes or guarantees around $35 billion in loans, with the vast majority of the money going to large companies like GE, which Immelt heads. The Bank effectively is allowing these companies to get loans at below market interest rates, adding billions of dollars to their profits each year.
According to the piece Immelt complained:
“There’s a lot of things to be critical about big businesses, and there’s a lot of things that don’t work in government, but exporting is not one of them and the Ex-Im Bank is not one of them, … And the fact that we have to sit here and argue for it I think is just wrong.”
It is also worth noting that article misled readers by saying:
“some Republicans and conservative groups say the bank should be allowed to die, claiming that it doles out corporate welfare and engages in crony capitalism.”
There are also many people who are neither Republicans nor conservatives who do not think it is an important role of government to make people like Jeffrey Immelt even richer.
Comments