General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt Mutes FreedomWorks Shareholder Activist at the Annual Shareholder Meeting

Washington, DC- The General Electric Annual Shareholder Meeting in New Orleans began with a bold power play when General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt shut off the microphone of FreedomWorks Fellow and GE shareholder, Tom Borelli.

The altercation occurred on the heels of FreedomWorks’ announcement this morning to launch the “Market Freedom Project,” an aggressive education and activism campaign to expose the collusion between big business and big government. The first target of the Market Freedom Project is General Electric (GE), which lined its pockets with taxpayer money while CEO Jeffrey Immelt served as chair of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Dr. Borelli recalled, “My question noted the discrepancy between Jeff Immelt’s words and actions when it comes to the federal deficit. He is a member of the Fix The Debt CEO Fiscal Leadership Council – a group of CEOs that want to take action to stabilize the economy- but he lobbied for the Obama stimulus, which added to the debt and awarded his own company with almost $100 million in grants.”

“I asked Jeff Immelt if he would return the almost $100 million in stimulus money back to the American taxpayers. He refused to answer and shut my microphone off.”

Jeff Immelt thanked Dr. Borelli for his question, and refused to answer it. When Dr. Borelli insisted he get a response as a company shareholder, they shut off his microphone and moved to another question.

FreedomWorks Outreach Director and fellow GE shareholder Deneen Borelli approached the microphone for a question as well, asking if the wind business was dependent on subsidies passed in the fiscal cliff deal. She followed up with a pointed question on whether or not Jeff Immelt supports a free market or government-controlled market. Immelt did not answer her question, and said Borelli would have to ask his wind customers.

FreedomWorks has created a website called www.GEGiveItBack.com for activists to directly contact the corporate directors at General Electric to demand they return our tax dollars.

FreedomWorks is a service center to a community of over 4 million grassroots activists nationwide who believe in individual liberty and constitutionally-limited government. For more information on the Market Freedom Project, please visit www.FreedomWorks.org or contact Jackie Bodnar at JBodnar@FreedomWorks.org.