I got an email from Russ -- who in his capacity as the head of his new organization, Progressives United -- is calling on President Obama to ditch General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. As you probably know, Immelt is chair of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. As you also probably know, GE paid ZERO taxes last year.
This GE scandal, as they say, has legs.
Russ makes the case:
General Electric, America's largest corporation, made $14,200,000,000 in profits last year and paid $0 in taxes -- that's right, zero dollars in taxes. At the same time, C.E.O. Jeffrey Immelt saw his compensation double. Now I hear that GE is expected to ask 15,000 of their unionized workers to make major concessions in wages and benefits...
Someone like Immelt, who has helped his company evade taxes on its huge profits -- and is now looking to workers to take major pay cuts after his compensation was doubled -- should not lead the administration's effort to create jobs.
We cannot stand by and watch while we are led down this road. Mr. Immelt must step down from the president's jobs panel -- and if he won't, President Obama needs to ask for his resignation.
Well, said. In addition. Immelt had already earned the opposition of labor leaders with his record of outsourcing.
I don't expect President Obama to heed this common sense call, not when he's been working so diligently to build bridges to the "business community." And even if he did heed the call, an Immelt departure wouldn't, in and or itself, change things. But his presence as head of the council on jobs and competitive is simply too disgusting to abide. We can, and should, turn him into a symbol. As Russ says, Immelt represents:
Everything that's wrong with corporate power today.
UPDATE: In case it wasn't clear, there's a petition you can sign.
The focus on corporations paying their fair share (or any share) is a good one. It dovetails with the message of a lot of grassroots organizations, including US Uncut, which targets corporate tax evaders and unjust cuts to social programs. It's starting to make some noise.