Posted on 10/07/2011 7:04:35 PM PDT by Kaslin
Scandal: As the Energy Department's loan chief leaves a sinking ship, the president says that people thought bailing out a failing solar panel maker was a "good bet." Next time play with your money, not ours.
'Hindsight is always 20-20," President Obama told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. "It went through the regular review process. And people felt like this was a good bet."
The administration has noted that private-sector biggies like Richard Branson also thought Solyndra was a "good bet."
Joining the you-win-some, you-lose-some chorus is the CEO of General Electric, what the administration considers a "good company" but which paid no federal taxes in 2010. "Anytime you get into venture-capital investing," Jeff Immelt told CNBC, "you’re going to have some losses."
Speaking of the $535 million loan guarantee that was issued — despite the warnings of private and federal agencies — to build what Bloomberg described as a plant the size of five football fields outfitted with whistling robots and spalike showers, Immelt told CNBC that he supported "more (such) innovation even if that means some failed ventures using taxpayer money."
Sorry, gentlemen, this is not Las Vegas, and taxpayer dollars are not venture capital. If the Bransons and Immelts want to place bets on technologies of the future, let them do so with their own money. And in a country that’s $14 trillion in debt with a chronic 9.1% unemployment rate, we expect to hear more from our president than "you can’t win ’em all."
After the bad Solyndra "bet," the administration paused not a second to examine how it went bad or to reconsider a process demonstrably flawed and corrupted. Perhaps because as far as "green energy" projects go, the administration seems to have a gambling addiction
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
One can say this was definitely NOT Bush's fault.
This gas bag is covering for his buddy, who's currently sitting at the Gipper's desk. This has nothing to do with "venture capital." If the gubmint is going to back the loan, I will loan you anything you want. I, the lender, can't lose.
The problem is that we didn’t give them enough money, we pulled out too soon. Half a billion is chump change. How could they have been expected to do anything with that?
The "good bet" people had no skin in the game and had no right to "bet" taxpayer money. The "due diligence" in all these deals is easily overturned by strong armed politicians who would never be allowed to lend a single penny if they were employed in the private sector. We need a law (or amendment) to get the government out of the lending business.
Eerily reminiscent of the famous line in the movie Animal House, "hey you f**ked up."
Corruption ping
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