Posted by scapozzola on 03/28/2011

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As we've previously reported, President Obama's appointment of General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt to chair a council on jobs and competitiveness has not met with unanimous approval.  In a statement, Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Executive Director Scott Paul called Immelt a "poor choice" because of his track record as an "outsourcing CEO."

Now comes the news that in 2010, General Electric made more than $14 billion in profit, with $5 billion of that in the U.S.  Surprisingly, GE paid no corporate taxes last year. 

ABC's Jake Tapper grilled White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on GE's tax status.  Here's a portion of the exchange, courtesy of ABC News:

TAPPER: Given  that the CEO of GE is the head of the president's competitiveness and  jobs council, I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on their paying no taxes last year, as opposed to probably every single person in this room...if in the name of competitiveness and job creation the president feels we have to address our corporate tax structure, why appoint to the head of the competitiveness and jobs council a person who is now the poster child for using the system to get out of paying taxes?

CARNEY:  The job council and competitiveness council is designed for just that.  And he has brought together a lot of voices on that, and he wants to hear the opinions of every member of that council.  And we have said, with regard to questions about other members who've been appointed, that the president obviously doesn't want a council of people who agree with him on every issue, he wants to hear diversity of opinion.  In the end, the decisions that are made about which policy to pursue on corporate tax reform will be the president's decision and his policy.  So I don't -- I think that addresses the question.

Read the full transcript. 

And click here to read more about Immelt's poor record on outsourcing.