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General Electric is once again the lobbying champion
By: Timothy P. Carney
Examiner Columnist
07/21/09 4:22 PM EDT
General Electric spent more on lobbying in this year's first quarter than any other company, newly filed federal lobbying reports show. The company shelled out $7.2 million for lobbyists in April, May, and June--that's $160,000 each day Congress was in session.
The only other company to spend more than $6 million was Chevron, and GE almost equalled the Chamber of Commerce's lobbying budget.
GE is perenially atop this list, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The company has spent $187 million on lobbying over the past decade, 44% more than runner-up Northrup Grumman.
Why? Because no other company is so intimately tied up with government -- a dynamic that has only intensified in the Obama administration.
GE is a defense contractor, sure, but it has increasingly positioned itself as a public-policy profiteer.
GE is the leading member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, and, together with power company AES, owns a company called Greenhouse Gas Services, which invests in greenhouse gas offsets and plans to manage the trade in GHG credits -- a business with no value until Congress enacts something like Waxman-Markey.
GE's "EcoMagination" project is largely dependent on government for profitability.
President Obama called for more high-speed rail, and GE said, "we've got high-speed rail!" The company hired Linda Daschle, wife of Tom Daschle and former FAA administrator, June 11 to lobby for high-speed rail funding.
Of course, now GE is launching HealthyMagination and is the leader in SmartGrid technology, both of which dovetail nicely with Obama's plans.
Of course, there's the whole thing about GE owning NBC and MSNBC.
Just as GM has earned the moniker Government Motors, maybe GE now means Government Electric.
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