Political Quotes

“``General Electric, the Nation's largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010.'' These were the opening words of a March 24 New York Times article. The article continued to explain that GE paid zero taxes in the U.S. in 2010. Meanwhile, the Congressional Research Service found that the October 2008 issue of China Taxation magazine published top corporate taxpayers in the commercial services sector. The Beijing subsidiary of GE was No. 32. While we don't yet have the data regarding GE's tax payments in China for 2010, it is noteworthy that GE, an American company, paid no Federal taxes in its home country last year while being honored for being a significant source of tax revenue to China--China with its horrific human rights abuses, persecution of people of faith, censorship of the press, cyberespionage, support of rogue regimes--like President Bashir of Sudan, where there is genocide taking place--and its increasingly aggressive military posture. This should give the Congress pause. It is particularly alarming in the midst of economic troubles at home, but my concern does not end there. U.S. companies like GE are increasingly sending American jobs to China. General Electric's health care unit recently announced it was moving the headquarters of its 115-year-old x-ray business from Wisconsin to Beijing. Ironically, the head of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness is GE chairman Jeffrey Immelt. Meanwhile, half of GE's workforce is overseas.…”