Is GE (GE) Abusing Tax System?

The irrelevant story of the alleged abuse of the tax system by General Electric by the fading New York Times misses the point altogether of the attempt to make a connection between the appointment of GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head up Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and the fact that they didn't have to pay any taxes.

Any company is doing itself and the people a great service by taking as much of a tax break as they legally can, as General Electric did.

It completely misses the issue that government must be shrunk down and limited in its scope, so any money not feeding the government monstrosity is healthy money.

The creation of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness was just an attempt by Obama to make his administration look more friendly toward business, and in that regard is useless, and a big waste of time.

But as for Immelt's sitting at its head, the problem isn't the amount of taxes General Electric pays, but the fact that General Electric engages in a large number of bids for government contracts, which is an obvious conflict of interest, at the very least.

Others named to the Council could be also looked at in that way, depending on the person and the company they represent.

I'm not a fan of General Electric because they're in fact too close to the government. But as for abusing the tax system; no they haven't. That's why the tax code needs to be simplified, the government made much smaller, and taxes lowered as a result.