535 million dollars in taxpayer money, flushed down the drain by Obama and crew to fund a company that everyone knew was going bankrupt, will be just the tip of the iceberg if what the Washington Post is reporting is true:
If the 20 companies that have won loans so far deliver all the new jobs they have promised, they will hire a total of 8,050 new workers for permanent positions. Half of those 20 companies have neither created nor saved any permanent jobs yet; several won their loans only recently. Even the BrightSource project, which employs 700 construction workers now, will employ only 86 people on a permanent basis.
The cost for those 8,000 jobs? Close to 19 billion dollars of taxpayer money:
The Energy Department has provided about $9.6 billion in loan guarantees to 18 developers and manufacturers since 2009. An additional 14 projects have received conditional commitments for $9.2 billion in guarantees, according to the Energy Department website.
Do the math.
So what has Solyndra taught us? That these “green” loans are nothing more than a giveaway of our money, without any real due diligence being done, to companies that are favored by Obama.
And the complaint we hear from Democrats?
“The majority of Republicans on this committee deny that climate change is real,” Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said. “If you are a science denier there’s no reason for government to invest in clean energy.”
They deny that the climate changes? Baloney. They deny that man is causing it. Big difference. And I highly doubt they don’t want to invest in clean energy, they just want it done wisely.
The government stepping in and guaranteeing investors that they will get their money back if a company fails does not appear to be wise in a field that is so prone to collapse, as happened with Solyndra. It’s pretty much another version of an Obama bailout…for friends, or big donors.
But my favorite complaint has to be this one.
Yup, you heard that right….we don’t deserve to keep out money anyways.
Another thing Solyndra gave us is more evidence that the media is on Obama’s side:
A quick Lexus Nexis search informs us that the story of the Solyndra collapse was being told a year prior to the company filing bankruptcy in both local and trade media. Why the mainstream media, the same clowns who had time to pore through Sarah Palin’s emails and put nearly a dozen fact-checkers on her book, didn’t find any of this interesting is a breathtaking dereliction of duty.
On March 29, 2009, President Obama’s Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a $535 million taxpayer loan to Solynda.
On September 6, 2011, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy.
Below is a quick snapshot of what was known by anyone paying attention in-between the federal loan and the bankruptcy. As you’ll see, these were not difficult dots to connect unless you were in “see no negatives about Obama” mode.
…In a sensible world, the first warning sign that would’ve caught the attention of our Media Overlords would’ve been the Obama administration rushing in where venture capitalists (and the Bush administration) feared to tread — a company that had never turned a profit.
Over a half-billion (with a “b”) dollars in taxpayer money thrown at a company partially owned by billionaire George Kaiser, who just so happens to be a major fundraiser for the President — and the media didn’t even bother to track what happened or pick up on the many, many stories that not only indicated something was going horribly wrong but also that, with our money, the White House had made a lousy bet that benefited their campaign contributors.
And still…to this day…there is nary a peep out of the MSM about that fundraising connection to Obama.
What a shock!
Agreed. The MSM’s lack of coverage of the plethora of Obama scandals is in and of itself criminal. Unreal how they just look the other way.
Well, they are in the tank for him.
Good post, Curt.
Although the lead-lined pipes in the Roman aquaduct water system has long ago been dismissed as the main cause of the fall of the Roman Empire, I wonder how similar those times were with these.
Was the lead dealer buddies with the right Senators?
Or with Caesar?
In our case and the case of Rome, we know one thing: the people had no say.
The Daily Caller had proof of lies from solyndra but only published it today.
Check out the whole thing.
Curt, as per the W.Post article, “But if the companies go bankrupt, as Solyndra did, taxpayers will be on the hook. Moreover, the Treasury Department’s Federal Financing Bank has been directly lending — at extremely low, subsidized rates — to companies that win Energy Department guarantees.Congress and the administration assumed a failure rate of 5 to 10 percent for the program.”
These are strange claims, and the media seems dumb and happy as it goes along with it. I spent many years in the venture game, investing in relatively young companies of various sizes, and there isn’t a chance that anyone with a dozen functioning synapses would “assume” or expect 5 to 10 percent failure. Most venture capitalists are happy is if 10% SUCCEED.
What idiots are running that show?
Man, when Obama can’t count on NPR all is lost!
Well, at least we know what Obama’s priorities were.
But who is NPR trying to win over?
I was thinking of starting a green energy company. Anyone know where I could get some start up cash?
The whole green energy scam is crashing in on itself not only due to bad science, but also the corruption inherent in allowing unprincipled, technically ignorant pols to channel massive funds to companies of their choosing… sorry GE, you deserve to lose out BIG ha ha
It’s just like back in Chicago, one of Blago’s stunts was taking kickbacks to award construction contracts for bike lanes and other “green” initiatives built with money jacked from Illinois taxpayers- I’m sure he could have cared less if there were bike lanes or not, all that ever perked his interest was the skim.
But the solution is simple enough: ONLY the market should be deciding what companies survive, not Barack Obama (or anybody else)- then we don’t have these kind of problems!
@anticsrocks: You are talking to the wrong crowd for fed handouts- we KNOW what to do with money, unlike Obama’s running dog lackeys.
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@Blake: My comment was completely tongue in cheek. I thought that was evident…
@anticsrocks: I am sorry if my comments gave the mistaken impression that I was scolding you- nothing of the sort. Just pointin’ out that people who want fed handouts are scarce hereabouts- we stand on our own two feet.
@Blake: No worries.