Today’s Chutzpah Award goes to GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, rentseeking champ and lobbyist for Big Government–benefiting–Big Business regulation.
As I report over at The Michigan View (the Midwest’s newest, brashest, must-read commentary website — shameless self-promotion), Immelt’s firm lobbied for the 2012 light-bulb ban and now is shutting down traditional bulb factories across the U.S. and shipping the jobs to China to make more expensive fluorescent bulbs.
Yet the same GE CEO went on a bender Thursday against the regulator-in-chief:
Mr. Immelt had harsh words for Barack Obama, lamenting what he called a “terrible” national mood and expressing concern that over-regulation in response to the global financial crisis might threaten a “tepid” U.S. economic recovery.
And then had this to say about China:
“I really worry about China,” Mr. Immelt said, accusing the Chinese government of becoming increasingly protectionist. “I am not sure that in the end they want any of us to win, or any of us to be successful.”
Overregulation! China playing politics! What’s poor GE to do?
