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The "Green Jobs" Scam Unmasked
Townhall.com ^ | February 12, 2010 | Howard Rich

Posted on 02/12/2010 4:56:21 AM PST by Kaslin

A year after it was passed, it has become painfully obvious to anyone with open eyes that the massive federal “stimulus” – along with several other trillion-dollar government interventions in the free market – has utterly failed to turn around America’s economy. In fact, all this massive infusion of taxpayer cash has done is deprive our consumer-driven private sector of much-needed oxygen, while sending our annual deficits and national debt soaring to previously unthinkable heights.

It’s the classic Washington approach to the economy. When times are good, politicians in both parties spend excessively. When times are bad? They spend uncontrollably.

As a result, at a time when families and small businesses were – and are still – forced to go without, government continues to grow by obscene levels, using every excuse in the book to justify its largesse.

Among those excuses?

“Green Jobs.”

I wrote on this issue just last month, making the fundamental point that investing billions in “Green Jobs” had failed to stimulate the economy (or create jobs), and that Barack Obama’s pledge to invest billions more in “Green Jobs” was the wrong answer moving forward.

This month, we’re discovering in detail why that is true.

According to a series of new reports, billions of dollars in “stimulus” money that was supposed to go toward creating “Green Jobs” here in America instead went to foreign-owned companies – who “created or saved” the vast majority of their jobs overseas. Obviously there is nothing wrong with America investing in foreign businesses, as protectionism is a recipe for disaster.

According to an ABC News report, though, almost $2 billion in “stimulus” funding has been spent so far on wind power, and yet 80% of that money has gone to foreign-owned companies.

“Most of the jobs are going overseas,” researcher Russ Choma told ABC. “According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S.”

In fact, despite receiving this windfall of “stimulus” cash, the U.S. wind manufacturing sector actually lost jobs in 2009, according to a year-end report by its professional association. Also, most of the jobs “created or saved” in America have been temporary construction positions, or “management” hires.

The real job creation (or job salvation, to use Obama’s disingenuous math) has taken place beyond our borders.

Consider these examples, courtesy of a recent report from The Watchdog Institute:

Eurus Energy America, a subsidiary of a Japanese-owned firm, received $91 million in “stimulus” funds and created only 300 to 400 temporary construction jobs. Permanent jobs created? Less than a dozen.

EnXco, a French-owned firm, received $69.5 million in “stimulus” funds and yet produced only 200 construction jobs and “about a dozen” permanent positions.

A-Power, a Chinese-owned firm, is in line to receive nearly $450 million in “stimulus” funds – for a project that will create thousands of Chinese jobs but only a few dozen American positions.

Cannon Power Group, an American-owned firm, received $19 million in “stimulus” funds but spend most of that on German-made turbines. So far they have created fewer than 300 construction jobs and “20 to 30” permanent positions. Cannon is in line to receive another $150 million in “stimulus” funds, by the way.

In case the trend isn’t clear, America’s massive investment in “Green Jobs” has been a colossal, costly failure – unless you’re looking for work overseas. For all the promises of the Obama administration, here at home these taxpayers billions have amounted to little more than a few thousand temporary construction positions and a few hundred management jobs.

In fact, there’s a good chance that the government employees hired to promote “Green Jobs” outnumber the actual permanent “Green Jobs” created. However you do the math, these positions are obviously a mere drop in the bucket compared to U.S. job losses in the wind manufacturing segment of the energy economy alone, to say nothing of the millions of lost jobs nationwide.

Worse still, the lunacy isn’t stopping. We are continuing to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into this failed framework, which uses American sweat to create permanent positions (and profit) for foreign companies.

Frankly, it’s time for Obama to come clean on the “Green Jobs” scam – and to explain why his so-called “transparent and accountable” administration didn’t catch it sooner.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 111th; bho44; bhostimulus; federalspending; greenjobs; greens

1 posted on 02/12/2010 4:56:21 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Totally ridiculous to have a stimulus plan that is not limited to American companies and jobs.


2 posted on 02/12/2010 4:58:43 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: Kaslin; Carlucci; grey_whiskers; meyer; WL-law; Para-Ord.45; Desdemona; Little Bill; ...
 


Beam me to Planet Gore !

3 posted on 02/12/2010 4:59:22 AM PST by steelyourfaith (FReepers were opposed to Obama even before it was cool to be against Obama.)
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To: Kaslin
Photobucket

What a real "Green" job will look like in Zero's USSA...
4 posted on 02/12/2010 5:02:23 AM PST by Kozak (USA 7/4/1776 to 1/20/2009 Reqiescat in Pace)
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To: Kaslin

Even with Republican wins in 2010, I don’t think 2011 and beyond are going to be pretty.


5 posted on 02/12/2010 5:02:54 AM PST by unkus
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To: Kaslin

While the United States is increasing taxes and rates, Canada is lowering them. Started a few years ago and was a big help on the Coors-Molson profit line last quarter. Canada’s unemployment rate is 8.5% and dropping.


6 posted on 02/12/2010 5:07:56 AM PST by BilLies
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To: Kaslin

Frankly, it’s time for Obama to come clean on the “Green Jobs” scam – and to explain why his so-called “transparent and accountable” administration didn’t catch it sooner.

Good luck with that!

Obama ain’t coming clean on anything, because it is all George W. Bushes fault and don’t you forget it. When I took office...blah blah blah.


7 posted on 02/12/2010 5:12:49 AM PST by wita
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To: Kaslin
RE: Obama's (former) "Green Jobs Czar", Van Jones

Van Jones became a revolutionary communist following the 1992 L.A./Rodney King Riots (58 dead)
various sources

Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 10:19:07 AM by ETL

"Jones was arrested during the L.A. riots and spent a short time in jail. "I met all these young radical people of color," he recalls, 'I mean really radical: communists and anarchists. And it was, like, "This is what I need to be a part of." I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary.'..."

By the late 1990s, Jones was a committed Marxist-Leninist-Maoist who viewed police officers as the arch-enemies of black people, and who loathed capitalism for allegedly exploiting nonwhite minorities worldwide. He became a leading member of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a now-defunct Bay Area Marxist-Maoist collective that was staffed by members of various local nonprofits, a number of whom had ties to the Ella Baker Center.

In the early 2000s, Jones and STORM were active in the anti-Iraq War demonstrations organized by International ANSWER, a front group for the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party. STORM also had ties to the South African Communist Party and it revered Amilcar Cabral, the late Marxist revolutionary leader (of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands) who lauded Lenin as "the greatest champion of the national liberation of the peoples." (In 2006 Van Jones would name his own newborn son "Cabral" -- in Amilcar Cabral's honor.)"

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2333342/posts
__________________________________________________________

"Jones was arrested during the L.A. riots and spent a short time in jail. 'I met all these young radical people of color,' he recalls, 'I mean really radical: communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.'..."

From David Horowitz's FrontpageMag.com /DiscoverTheNetworks.org:

"Throughout its history, one of RCP's [Revolutionary Communist Party] principal objectives has been to foment civil unrest in the United States. The most notable example of such efforts occurred on April 29, 1992, when RCP members looted and trashed the downtown and government districts of Los Angeles, triggering the infamous Rodney King riots. During the days immediately preceding the violence, RCP -- which maintained close ties to the L.A. gangs known as the Crips and the Bloods -- had circulated throughout South Central Los Angeles a leaflet featuring a statement by RCP National Spokesman Carl Dix, titled 'It's Right To Rebel' -- a quote popularized by Mao Zedong.

Encouraged by Dix, RCP activists helped lead the riots that would leave 58 people dead, more than 2,300 people injured, some 5,300 buildings burned, and $1 billion in property damaged or destroyed. On the ten-year anniversary of the rioting, RCP member Joseph Veale fondly recalled the violence as 'the most beautiful, the most heroic civil action in the history of the United States.'"
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6197

8 posted on 02/12/2010 5:13:46 AM PST by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Kaslin

“Green Job”
Any employment that doesn’t produce any meaningful product.


9 posted on 02/12/2010 5:14:03 AM PST by G Larry (DNC is comprised of REGRESSIVES!)
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To: Kaslin

Obama’s Cash for Clunkers massively went to foreign auto companies.


10 posted on 02/12/2010 5:24:51 AM PST by ricks_place
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To: unkus
Even with Republican wins in 2010, I don’t think 2011 and beyond are going to be pretty.

Historically, the Democrats have ruined the economy and the military and then turned the problems over to the Republicans who follow them to clean up the mess and suffer the criticism. That will be true again but it still means that the Left has moved the nation closer to their goals of total takeover and power with increased government employees and regulations.

All this Green Jobs crap is made possible by the AGW hoax. Even after it has been exposed as a hoax they proceed as if it were true. I am reminded of a kid who ignores his parents and continues in his misbehavior until forcefully stopped. Often, by then the damage is done.

11 posted on 02/12/2010 9:10:02 AM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government)
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To: Kaslin
bttt

It worked as intended, redistribute wealth away from Americans.

12 posted on 02/14/2010 9:54:18 AM PST by opentalk
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