In an effort to promote job creation and improve upon his rather pedestrian rapport with big business, President Obama on Friday named General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as the chairman of his new economic advisory panel, known as the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
As the head of Obama's outside panel of advisors, Immelt will be charged with the task of turning around an unemployment rate that has been north of 9 percent for nearly two years now. Immelt and the rest of the council will replace the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which is expected to dissolve in February.
Immelt, a White House regular and an avid supporter of green technologies, said that he will look to promote job creation by encouraging the U.S. to invest in the manufacturing and exporting of goods in all sectors. GE's top man suggested that changes to tax policies and regulations could help inspire innovation and domestic hiring.
"We've got to invest and we've got to drive exports," he told CNN. "Ninety-five percent of the world's population is outside the U.S. Ultimately, to create manufacturing jobs we've got to be innovating and we've got to be exporting."
As one would expect, the appointment has received mixed reviews. One the one hand, Obama has been hailed for reaching out to corporate America for help – something that he has been rather hesitant to do during the first two years of his presidency.
"It's a significant piece of outreach to the business community," Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the Huffington Post (News - Alert). With Immelt as a close advisor, the business world may now have a "genuine liaison" in the administration, he added.
However, the move has also been heavily scrutinized by a number of conservative groups (many of which are associated with the Tea Party) that question whether a potential conflict of interest has been created. As one of the largest manufacturers in the nation, GE could benefit greatly from having a voice in Washington. Immelt will continue to run the Connecticut-based corporation while serving as the head of the president's most influential outside committee.
"For too long, corporate elites have lobbied to profit from the size and growth of government at the expense of hard-working Americans," Matt Kibbe, president of the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks, told the LA Times. "We’re here to let President Obama and Jeffery Immelt know that the days of easy money through backroom deals are over."
Meanwhile, others point to the fact that GE has a long history of shipping jobs overseas. Since Immelt took over as chairman in 2001, GE has eliminated 34,000 domestic jobs. During that same time period, the company added approximately 25,000 foreign positions. GE now employs more people overseas than it does domestically, according to the Huffington Post.
Furthermore, the cash-rich corporation benefited greatly from various economic recovery initiatives, including the infamous $787 billion stimulus package.
"There are two problematical issues for folks who are not sympathetic to the president," Gary Burtless, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the news source. "GE was intimately connected to the financial crisis" and it "may have shifted a bigger proportion of its output outside the U.S."
General Electric also has its hands in a number of industries where the government has influence, including the fields of healthcare, defense and energy.
"The president and I are committed to a candid and full dialogue among business, labor and government to help ensure that the United States has the most competitive and innovative economy in the world," Immelt wrote in a recent op-ed piece for the Washington Post.
"There is always a healthy tension between the public and private sectors. However, we all share a responsibility to drive national competitiveness, particularly during economic unrest. This is one of those times," he concluded.
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Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Janice McDuffee
