Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., observed on the House floor today that General Electric appears to be one of China’s top sources of corporate tax revenue while paying no taxes in the United States in a speech critiicing GE and President Obama, who tapped GE’s CEO as his jobs czar.
After alluding to a New York Times report that GE paid no U.S. taxes in 2010, Wolf said that “the Congressional Research Service found that the October 2008 issue of China Taxation magazine published top corporate tax payers in the commercial services sector. The Beijing subsidiary of GE was number 32.”
“While we don’t yet have data regarding GE’s tax payments in China for 2010, it is noteworthy that GE, an American company,” Wolf continued, “paid no federal taxes in its home country last year, while being honored for being a significant source of tax revenue to China.”
Wolf took the opportunity to attack Obama. “Ironically, the head of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness is GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt,” he said. “Meanwhile half of GE’s workforce is overseas.”
Wolf suggested that a planned joint venture between GE and a Chinese firm “to develop avionics systems for jets” will damage national security. “The sensitive technology involved will be completely compromised by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” he argued.
In conclusion, Wolf touted a minibus appropriations bill he has been pushing that he believes “can help state and local governments better compete for these jobs” that might otherwise go overseas.
