Thoughts on Reactions to the Sandy Hook Tragedy

Larry Sand President California Teachers Empowerment Network

Teacher union leaders offer heat but no light after the mass murder in Newtown.

In the aftermath of the December 14^th mass murder of 26 children and school staffers in Newtown, Connecticut, there has been the understandable finger pointing and a full range of suggestions for ensuring that such a horror doesn’t happen again.

On the lunatic end of the spectrum we have teacher union apologist Diane Ravitch, the formerly venerable education historian, who took up residence in the land of Bizarro several years ago.

Every one of the teachers was a career educator. Every one was doing exactly what she wanted to do. They’ve worked in a school that was not obsessed with testing but with the needs of children. This we know: the staff at Sandy Hook loved their students. They put their students first, even before their own lives.

Oh, and one other thing, all these dedicated teachers belonged to a union. The senior teachers had tenure, despite the fact that “reformers” (led by ConnCAN, StudentsFirst, and hedge fund managers) did their best last spring to diminish their tenure and to tie their evaluations to test scores….

Ravitch’s loopy rant is Rahm Emanuel’s “Never let a good crisis go to waste” philosophy taken to an obscene level. And when in response, Teach For America V.P. and self-described “lefty Dem” David Rosenberg took Ravitch to task, Chicago Teacher Union president Karen Lewis (perhaps shocked that someone could outdo her in the outrageous comment category) weighed in with,

There might have been a time where “politicizing” tragic events, especially mass shootings was thought to be in poor taste. That has changed with the 24/7 news cycle that continues to focus far too much time and energy on the perpetrator of the massacre than that of our precious victims. Rosenberg’s “false outrage” needs to be checked. That same false outrage should show itself when policies his [TEACH FOR AMERICA*] colleagues support kill and disenfranchise children from schools across this nation. (Emphasis added.) We in Chicago have been the victims of their experiments on our children since the current secretary of Education “ran” CPS.

Yes, you read that correctly. Lewis is saying that TFA, an organization that places exceptional, idealistic young teacher-leaders in the most challenging schools in the country is responsible for killing kids. After uttering those shameful words, Lewis should resign in disgrace.

Then we have a rare joint statement issued by the leaders of the two national teachers unions – the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. NEA’s Dennis Van Roekel and AFT’s Randi Weingarten came out with a press release with a sub-head which reads: “Focus Needs to Be on Investments in Mental Health Services, Reasonable Gun Safety Legislation.”

In the body of the brief statement they say,

Long-term and sustainable school safety also requires a commitment to preventive measures. We must continue to do more to prevent bullying in our schools. And we must dramatically expand our investment in mental health services. Proper diagnosis can and often starts in our schools, yet we continue to cut funding for school counselors, school social workers, and school psychologists. States have cut at least $4.35 billion in public mental health spending from 2009 to 2012, according to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. It is well past time to reverse this trend and ensure that these services are available and accessible to those who need our support.

While this may sound good, it has nothing to do with what happened in Connecticut. The shooter had been identified as having a type of autism, perhaps Asperger’s; he had been assigned to a high-school psychologist and there have been no reports that he was bullied. So this statement is really nothing more than a pitch to advance the teachers union agenda of spending ever more money on education.

The other part of the press release deals with guns:

Our duty to every child is to provide safe and secure public schools. That is the vow we take as educators. It is both astounding and disturbing that following this tragedy, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, Bill Bennett, and other politicians and pundits have taken to the airwaves to call for arming our teachers. As the rest of the country debates how to keep guns out of schools, some are actually proposing bringing more guns in, turning our educators into objects of fear and increasing the danger in our schools.

Guns have no place in our schools. Period. We must do everything we can to reduce the possibility of any gunfire in schools, and concentrate on ways to keep all guns off school property and ensure the safety of children and school employees.

Not surprisingly the union leaders are out of touch with reality, at least the current reality in California. When I was a classroom teacher in Los Angeles, my middle school had a gun carrying school cop on campus every day. And my school is hardly unique. In fact, the state education code allows for an armed presence on any campus on an “as needed” basis. Given the current mood, I’m guessing that more parents will start demanding that their kid’s campus have armed cops for security. In fact, in a recent Gallup poll, when asked if increasing the police presence at schools would be an effective way to stop mass shootings at schools, 87 percent said that it would be very or somewhat effective.

And I think we need to go one step further. I would like to see a few armed teachers at every school. These volunteers would go through a rigorous background check and proper police-type training and then should be allowed to anonymously carry a concealed weapon on campus.

Despite the union leaders’ comments, there is no way to effectively keep schools as “gun free zones.” As David Kopel writes, these are nothing more than “pretend gun free zones.”

Real gun-free zones are a wonderful idea, but they are only real if they are created by metal detectors backed up by armed guards. Pretend gun-free zones, where law-abiding adults (who pass a fingerprint-based background check and a safety training class) are still disarmed, are magnets for evildoers who know they will be able to murder at will with little threat of being fired upon.

Kopel’s point was demonstrated in the Aurora, CO movie theater shooting. As John Lott explains,

So why did the killer pick the Cinemark theater? You might think that it was the one closest to the killer’s apartment. Or, that it was the one with the largest audience.

Yet, neither explanation is right. Instead, out of all the movie theaters within 20 minutes of his apartment showing the new Batman movie that night, it was the only one where guns were banned. (Emphasis added.) In Colorado, individuals with permits can carry concealed handgun in most malls, stores, movie theaters, and restaurants. But private businesses can determine whether permit holders can carry guns on their private property.

The perspective that has been lost in the aftermath of this tragedy is that guns are used to keep our most important things safe – our cities, banks, courthouses, etc. In fact, armed marshals are placed anonymously on many airplane flights to safeguard us and our children. So why do many insist that our most important and precious assets – our children – be completely defenseless?  President Obama’s kids have armed protection at school. Don’t all our kids deserve the same?

Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues.

Jon Voight in Negotiations to Play Soviet Spy in Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood Biopic

EDITORS NOTE: The best political documentary of all time, in my opinion, is “In The Face of Evil, Reagan’s War in Words and Deeds” (see trailer) This film, written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon, is a treatment on Reagan’s rise to power and how he, along with Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul the II, won the cold war against the Soviet Union and forever banished Communist Russia to the ash heap of history.  Unfortunately, the Communist had their own parellel game plan that involved the control of the American Mainstream Media, our Public Education and Hollywood Movie making. So do not expect to see truth but do expect to see a rewite of history to support the abosolute hate of the tradional values that made this Nation the greatest on earth.

Jon Voight in Negotiations to Play KGB Agent in Ronald Reagan Biopic

by Paul Bond

The indie, “Reagan,” is one of at least three upcoming films about the 40th U.S. president.

Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight is negotiating to play a pivotal role in Reagan, an upcoming movie about President Ronald Reagan, people associated with the project said Tuesday.

Voight, perhaps the most prominent and outspoken conservative in Hollywood, would play a Soviet KGB agent whose job it was to track Reagan, the 40th U.S. president who is largely considered a hero of the Republican party.

The movie is based on The Crusader and God & Ronald Reagan, two books by Paul Kengor. The story unfolds as a young Russian leader visits a retired agent named Viktor – the character Voight is negotiating to play – so that he may learn of the demise of the Soviet Union.

“Viktor is actually a character based on a number of KGB agents and Soviet analysts who we now know were tasked with keeping tabs on Ronald Reagan for many years,” Kengor said. “This is a feature film and not a documentary and I thought it was a smart way for the producers to keep the integrity of the story and yet make it entertaining.”

The $35 million independent movie is being written by Jonas McCord (The Young Riders, The Body) and Howie Klausner (Space Cowboys). It is produced by Ralph Winter, who was behind the 2000-06 X-Men films, along with Mark Joseph, who produced the indie film Doonby in 2010 and was a marketing executive on such films as The Passion of the Christ, Holes and Ray.

The former U.S. president is a fairly hot commodity in Hollywood nowadays, with multiple projects in the works that will feature Reagan. The Butler, for example, has already generated controversy for casting liberal activist Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan while Alan Rickman plays Ronald Reagan. The Weinstein Co. film is expected to open in 2013.

Reykjavic from Participant Media will feature Michael Douglas, also a liberal activist, as Reagan. Participant has backed several politically-charged movies, including Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and former Vice President Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

Perhaps the best-known treatment of Reagan was in 2003 when James Brolin portrayed him in the Showtime miniseries, The Reagans, largely perceived to be a negative take on his presidency.

via Jon Voight in Negotiations to Join Reagan Biopic – The Hollywood Reporter.

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Unraveling What Happened in Michigan

 

Larry Sand President California Teachers Empowerment Network

Unraveling What Happened in MichigaNow that the dust has settled, there are still some loose ends that need to be addressed in the Wolverine State’s right-to-work battle.

Last Tuesday, Michigan became the nation’s 24^th right-to-work state. Much has been written about this and yet there still is much misinformation in circulation – mostly being spread by the unions, of course. And President Obama, an outspoken union supporter, has uttered some mistruths (if unintentional) or lies (if they are not.)

What does “right-to-work (RTW)” mean? It simply means that workers don’t have to pay dues to a union as a condition of employment. Many have publicly lamented that collective bargaining in Michigan is going to be imperiled. President Obama jumped on that bandwagon saying,

What we shouldn’t be doing is try to take away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions. We don’t want a race to the bottom. Right-to-work laws have nothing to do with economics and they have everything to do with politics. They mean you have the right to work for less money.

No, Mr. Obama, Michigan’s new law – for better or worse – will not affect any union’s right to collectively bargain.

Another erroneous assertion – a long time mantra for organized labor – is that workers who choose not to join unions in RTW states are “freeloaders” or “free riders.” As Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk points out,

Unions object that right-to-work is actually “right-to-freeload.” The AFL-CIO argues “unions are forced by law to protect all workers, even those who don’t contribute financially toward the expenses incurred by providing those protections.” They contend they should not have to represent workers who do not pay their “fair share.”

It is a compelling argument, but untrue. The National Labor Relations Act does not mandate unions exclusively represent all employees, but permits them to electively do so. (Emphasis added.) Under the Act, unions can also negotiate “members-only” contracts that only cover dues-paying members. They do not have to represent other employees.

The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly on this point. As Justice William Brennan wrote in Retail Clerks v. Lion Dry Goods, the Act’s coverage “is not limited to labor organizations which are entitled to recognition as exclusive bargaining agents of employees … ‘Members only’ contracts have long been recognized.”

Even though, as Sherk says, unions don’t have to represent all employees, they do so voluntarily to eliminate any competition. So instead of “free rider,” a better term would be “forced rider.” Teacher union watchdog Mike Antonucci explains,

The very first thing any new union wants is exclusivity. No other unions are allowed to negotiate on behalf of people in the bargaining unit. Unit members cannot hire their own agent, nor can they represent themselves. Making people pay for services they neither asked for nor want is a “privilege” we reserve for government, not for private organizations. Unions are freeloading on those additional dues.

…The “freeload” crack is especially ironic coming from MEA (Michigan Education Association), which ran an $11 million budget deficit in 2010-11 and is a cumulative $113 million in the red. In other words, the union has spent millions of dollars in dues it hasn’t collected yet, some of which will be paid by people who might not even be members yet. Who is freeloading?

In any event, it is undeniable that unions are taking it on the chin these days. In 2011, Wisconsin banned collective bargaining for some employees, and earlier this year Indiana became the 23^rd RTW state. Michigan union leaders, well aware of the zeitgeist, tried to enshrine collective bargaining into the state constitution in November via Prop. 2. The amendment, however, was solidly defeated – 57 to 43 percent – even though the unions outspent the opposition by a 22:1 factor. (H/T John Seiler.)

What’s next for the unions in Michigan? Undoubtedly more thuggery and distortions, and then there is 2014. Last Tuesday, at a rally outside the building which houses Governor Rick Snyder’s office,

The main battle cry of the anti-right-to-work protesters…had a common theme: wait for 2014. Many of the GOP seats, including Snyder’s, will be up for grabs during the midterm elections. Rather than attempt to recall Republicans, as Wisconsin Democrats tried and failed to do to Gov. Scott Walker, the Michigan unions are set to mobilize behind Democrats and pro-union Republicans in two years.

But will the people of Michigan be taken in by the unions’ demagoguery? Organized labor is blaming their loss on everyone but themselves – the Koch Brothers, right wing legislators, the Tea Party et al. But as Kim Strassel in the Wall Street Journal points out,

The unions lost in Michigan—as they’ve lost elsewhere—because they and their White House compatriots have forced the issue, and in the process forced Americans to take a side. And what we’ve discovered is that when the choice is between more freedom for workers, more choice for parents and more tax dollars for vital services or, on the other side, more coercive powers for a special interest—well, that isn’t such a hard choice after all.

When all is said and done, it is instructive to examine why RTW is a good thing. First, despite Mr. Obama’s insistence to the contrary, RTW laws do indeed have a great deal to do with economics: they are beneficial.

According to the West Michigan Policy Forum, of the 10 states with the highest rate of personal income growth, eight have right-to-work laws. Those numbers are driving a net migration from forced union states: Between 2000 and 2010, five million people moved to right-to-work states from compulsory union states.

Other policies (such as no income tax) play a role in such migration, so economist Richard Vedder tried to sort out the variables. In the 2010 Cato Journal, he wrote that “without exception” he found “a statistically significant positive relationship” between right to work and net migration.

Mr. Vedder also found a 23% higher rate of per capita income growth in right-to-work states. An analysis by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance finds that Michigan is now the 35th state in overall prosperity measured by per capita income. Had Michigan adopted a right-to-work law in 1977, the group estimates, per capita income for a family of four would have been $13,556 higher by 2008. (Emphasis added.)

And secondly, RTW is a fairness issue for the worker.

… the best case for right to work is moral: the right of an individual to choose. Union chiefs want to coerce workers to join and pay dues that they then funnel to politicians who protect union power. Right to work breaks this cycle of government-aided monopoly union power for the larger economic good.

The question that unionistas can’t seem to come to grips with is this: if the unions are so beneficial, why must they force workers to sign on? The reality is that, given a choice, many workers will just say “no” and the unions will lose money and influence, their real raison d’être. And for the refuseniks, it is an uncoerced step on the road to freedom.

Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues.

Airmodal is growing….

Airmodal is proud to announce it has posted its 334th post and has received over 15,000 views. What a great year.

Media blackout: Oregon mall shooter was stopped by an armed citizen.

While reports of Tuesday’s shooting at the Clackamas Town Center Mall in Oregon, dominated the national media, until Friday’s horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, one very important detail has been repeatedly (and intentionally) left out of the MSM’s coverage.

The shooter, Jacob Tyler Roberts, was confronted with an armed citizen, at which time he ran away and shot himself. By the time police arrived on the scene, Roberts was already dead.

That armed man was 22-year-old Nick Meli, who was at the mall shopping with a young woman who was babysitting her friend’s baby.

On Friday, KGW News Channel 8, the only media outlet to cover this part of the story, posted the following report on their website:

Clackamas Mall Shooter was confronted by armed citizen

“I heard three shots and turned and looked at Casey and said, ‘are you serious?,'” he said.

The friend and baby hit the floor. Meli, who has a concealed carry permit, positioned himself behind a pillar.

“He was working on his rifle,” said Meli. “He kept pulling the charging handle and hitting the side.”

The break in gunfire allowed Meli to pull out his own gun, but he never took his eyes off the shooter.

“As I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them,” he said.

Meli took cover inside a nearby store. He never pulled the trigger. He stands by that decision.

“I’m not beating myself up cause I didn’t shoot him,” said Meli. “I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself.”

The gunman was dead, but not before taking two innocent lives with him and taking the innocence of everyone else.

We now know that the assailant’s gun had jammed, and when he cleared it, he quickly retreated and shot himself, as Meli continued to keep him in his sights.

Not only has the national media refused to acknowledge this aspect of the deadly event, but law enforcement has as well.

On Tuesday night, Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts held a press conference in which he credited local police officers and deputies with ending the rampage, never mentioning Meli’s actions.

Sheriff Roberts said: “I’m really proud of all the different agencies that came together to really step up and put their lives on the line,” to “basically hunt down this guy in the mall.”

Now, remember, the shooter was already dead when police arrived on the scene.

Killed in the attack were Steven Mathew Forsyth, 45, and Cindy Ann Yuille, 54, A 15-year-old girl, identified as Kristina Shevchenko, was seriously wounded but was expected to survive.

Of course, the Obamamedia is in full support of even harsher gun control laws and it should come as no surprise that they would suppress any story which provides proof that lawfully armed citizens do prevent crimes and save lives.

Here are a few facts about armed Americans:

–In 1982, the town of Kennesaw, Georgia, passed an ordinance which required all heads of household to have at least one gun in the house. The burglary rate immediately dropped an astounding 89 percent. Ten years after the law was passed, the burglary rate was still 72 percent less than it was in 1981.

–Armed citizens shoot and kill at least twice as many criminals as the police do every year in this country (1,527 to 606).

–A 1996 University of Chicago study concluded that states which passed concealed carry laws reduced their murder rates by 8.5 percent, rapes by 5 percent, aggravated assaults by 7 percent, and robbery by 3 percent.

-According to the National Safety Council, with guns being used 2.5 million times a year in self defense against criminals, firearms are actually used more than 80 times more often to protect lives, rather than to take lives.

-A 1979 Justice Department study entitled Rape Victimization in American Cities, concluded that of more than 32,000 attempted rapes, 32 percent were actually committed. But when a woman was armed with a gun or knife, only 3 percent of the attempted rapes were actually committed.

-Another Justice Department study found that 57 percent of felons agreed that “criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running the police.”

Read more on the subject of gun ownership:

12-year-old girl shoots intruder with mom’s gun

14-year-old boy shoots intruder while babysitting

Pizza Hut worker shoots, kills two armed robbers

Even Jesus opposed gun control

So-called ‘gun-free zones’ never protect the innocent

via Media blackout: Oregon mall shooter was stopped by an armed citizen – Virginia Beach Conservative | Examiner.com.

Yes We Can – Eliminate Poverty in our Lifetime

On December 1, 2010, the President’s Debt Commission issued a report recommending specific budget cuts and tax increases.   To date, these austerity measures have not been acted upon by the administration.

Written by Dick McDonald, founder of www.theusaplan.com

During the recent campaign, the Republicans promised draconian spending cuts to the national debt and tax cuts for the 2% of “job creators.” But these, it seems, were largely perceived as attacks on government welfare and entitlement programs; and the people re-elected President Obama and a majority Democrat Senate.

All that was heard from both parties was “no we can’t” – compromise our cradle-to-grave policy or sink-or-swim principles.  What the nation desperately needs is some meaningful “Yes we can,” and they need it in big doses because we are heading off the proverbial social as well as fiscal cliff.

This is why I started the Prosperity Commission to give Americans the “hope and change” no government in the history of man has ever given its poor and working class – wealth. That is a big idea; one the people will actively support.

Granted, America has the “wealthiest “poor in the world, but that “enrichment”  is supported by government entitlement and welfare programs that have run up debt  amounting to a $1.2 million liability for each and every household in America. See http://www.usdebtclock.org.

The Prosperity Commission is promoting its USA Plan.  The “USA” stands for the Universal Savings Account. At its core, the plan expands trickle-down economics to include (1) the poor, (2) the middle-class and (3) rich people who aren’t “job creators,” like movie stars and sport stars. We prefer to call it the Rise Up Theory of Economics.

Making all Americans job-creators will lead to a citizenry that can afford, out of their own pocket, to retire affluently and acquire the best healthcare on the planet.  Considering our current unfunded $121 trillion of debt attributable to the existing Social Security, Disability and Medicare programs, the government is clearly not up to the task.

It is time for the people to assert their sovereign right to change the way government works as specified in our Declaration of Independence. The USA Plan is step in that direction.

The USA Plan funds each taxpayer’s Universal Saving Account (USA) by diverting his or her Federal payroll taxes (the 15.3% of their gross income withheld or paid) into their personally owned account, which is unreachable by the government or the courts and administered by an independent trust not associated with Wall Street.

Over the 40-year working life of the average $50,000-per year taxpayer, that 15.3% withheld or paid amounts to an investment of $300,000 (40 x 15% x $50,000).  Invested weekly into the stock market (not bond or money market) will accumulate and compound into a nest egg of $ 4 million,  based on the average rate of return for 40-year investments in the S&P 500 since 1911 – the period of 1871 to 1911 being the first 40-year period. See the USA Plan website for the year-by-year calculation of the $4 million nest egg and the historical record of the S&P 500’s rate of return.

The logical response to the diversion of payroll taxes into USAs is, “Where are we going to get the money to pay existing Social Security, Disability and Medicare benefits?” The answer to that is much simpler than you think: The USA Plan upon enactment will immediately cut the $138 trillion of “funded” and “unfunded” US debt to $30 trillion. READ FULL ARTICLE  Yes We Can | New York Daily Sun – The Trusted New York Daily Broadsheet.

Knife-wielding man injures 22 children on same day as Newtown Massacre.

By Terril Yue Jones Reuters 1:48 a.m. EST, December 14, 2012

BEIJING (Reuters) – A knife-wielding man slashed 22 children and an adult at an elementary school in central China on Friday, state media reported, the latest in a series of attacks on schoolchildren in the country.

The man attacked the children at the gate of a school in Chenpeng village in Henan province, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Police arrested a 36-year-old man, identified as villager Min Yingjun, Xinhua said. It did not give further details of the extent of the injuries.

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There have been a series of attacks on schools and schoolchildren around China in recent years, some by people who have lost their jobs or felt left out of the country’s economic boom.

The rash of violence has prompted public calls for more measures to protect the young in a country where many couples only have one child.

In 2010, a man slashed 28 children, two teachers and a security guard in a kindergarten in eastern China.

via Knife-wielding man injures 22 children in China – Courant.com.

Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez employed an illegal immigrant who was a registered sex offender.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez employed as an unpaid intern in his Senate office an illegal immigrant who was a registered sex offender, now under arrest by immigration authorities, The Associated Press has learned. The Homeland Security Department instructed federal agents not to arrest him until after Election Day, a U.S. official involved in the case told the AP.

A Homeland Security spokesman, Peter Boogaard, said Wednesday that it was “categorically false” that the department delayed the arrest of Luis Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta, 18, until after the election.

via News from The Associated Press.

Unabashed Fascist Jeffery Immelt CEO of GE says China’s ‘state-run communism’ works.

The chairman of President Barack Obama’s job council has endorsed China’s style of crony capitalism, saying “state-run communism may not be your cup of tea, but their government works.”

Jeff Immelt is the dual-hatted chairman of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and of General Electric, a huge company with businesses in many domestic and international sectors, including China.

He used a Dec. 10 television interview to suggest that China’s type of state-run capitalism has been great for business while lamenting the state of the American economy.

“As an American business guy, you say Europe probably has zero percent growth for a long time, Japan has had zero percent growth for probably 20 years [and] the U.S., you’re sitting at 1 and a half, 1.7, maybe 2.0 percent GDP growth,” he told host Charlie Rose.

“If you’re not willing to get off your butt and go to every corner of the world, you’re going to get fired, so we’ve got to sell all over the place,” he told Rose.

China’s government consists of a communist-style elected dictatorship that overlaps with Chinese-style family networks and nepotism, regional power centers and many influential graduate-school bureaucrats who oversee the nation’s five-year economic development plans.

China’s government is now spending huge amounts of money to build up the country’s infrastructure. The spending is buying coal-fired and nuclear power plants, electricity transmission lines, and railroads — all of which G.E. builds for export.

Chinese politicians and bureaucrats choose which companies — such as G.E. — get contracts. The plans ”typically makes sense in the Chinese context … they’re driving environment, they’re driving company reform, they’re driving consumer reform,” he told Rose.

“They get things done,” Rose responded.

In the United States, Obama’s management of the economy has included pushing to enormously increase spending on welfare and Obamacare, while also aiding Democratic constituencies including immigrants and unmarried people.

But Obama has also spent tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars on green-tech energy programs, and his environmental regulations have also forced companies to buy new generations of energy products manufactured by General Electric and other companies. Those regulations can stop or spur sale of GE’s products, such as banking, medical equipment, locomotives and aircraft engines.

Over the next few years, the U.S. economy will be aided by the natural gas energy sector, the housing sector and exports, Immelt told Rose.

But he also criticized the state of the American economy, saying “we’re going to need more to get unemployment to the level where society believes it should be.”

He didn’t say what extra is needed, but added that “we will sell more [energy producing gas-turbines] in Algeria than the United States,” over the next three years, he said.

via Immelt: China’s ‘state-run communism’ works | The Daily Caller.