After General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt told a
private dinner of Italian business executives that he didn’t
believe China was willing to be a fair business partner, and that
the Obama Administration’s heavy regulatory approach was not
conducive to helping the U.S. economy, senior White House
officials, upon hearing about the comments, went into bully mode.
Immelt made his comments at dinner in Rome earlier this
week and they were later reported by the Financial
Times. The remarks about the Obama Administration did not
include any disparagement of the president himself.
Yet, according to a contracting lobbyist for GE in
Washington, senior White House officials and senior members of
the Commerce and Energy Departments called Washington GE
officials and corporate officers in New York.
“They [the Obama Administration] weren’t happy, and wanted
to know why a GE official would be making those comments,” said
the lobbyist. “The underlying message was that GE has dealings
with the federal government. It wasn’t a threat, but these folks
are from Chicago.”
Within hours GE released an official statement saying
Immelt’s comments didn’t reflect the company’s views. The
lobbyist says he does not know if the White House demanded the
statement.
The lobbyist would not identify who in the administration
made the calls, but in the past senior officials like
Valerie Jarrett, Rahm Emanuel
and deputy Jim Messina have been known to make
such calls to business executives.
“It’s fairly common with this crowd,” says another
lobbyist, who is employed by a Fortune 50 company in Washington.
“The second my boss says something that could be interpreted as
anti-Obama administration, we get phone calls. They are very thin
skinned. Add to that the fact that they just hate the business
community, and you have a tense relationship.”
The White House is particularly sensitive to the criticism
because the Obama economic program has failed to deliver and
business executives who early on in the administration were
willing to give it the benefit of the doubt have begun to voice
doubts.
“We try to help them, and how are we awarded? New
regulations and badmouthing by the president when they want to
play the populist card,” says the corporate lobbyist.
The Immelt comments, according to a White House press
source, stung, coming on the heels of comments made by companies
that belong to the Business Roundtable in a letter to the Office
of Management and Budget.
“There is some concern that we are losing the support of
business,” says the White House source. “We can’t take them for
granted, but the business community wasn’t our base. It’s an
evolving relationship, but it’s not evolving the right way right
now.”
