Posted on 10/03/2011 3:06:12 PM PDT by Libloather
Obama doesnt regret Solyndra loan
By Ben Geman - 10/03/11 04:38 PM ET
President Obama on Monday defended the administrations half-billion dollar financial support for the solar-panel company Solyndra which filed for bankruptcy in early September.
Asked by ABC News if he regretted holding up Solyndra as a model for jobs and clean energy, Obama replied "No, I don't, because if you look at the overall portfolio of loan guarantees that have been provided, overall it's doing well."
"And what we always understood was that not every single business is going to succeed in clean energy, but if we want to compete with China, which is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into this space, if we want to compete with other countries that are heavily subsidizing the industries of the future, we've got to make sure that our guys here in the United States of America at least have a shot," Obama said in the interview broadcast online bv Yahoo! News and ABC News.
Obama noted that there are going to be some failures and that Solyndra is an example.
Obama personally toured the California company's facility, which received a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee in 2009, during a May 2010 visit in which he touted administration efforts to ensure the U.S. competes in emerging green energy industries.
Federal support for the company has been the focus of probes by House Republicans who say the administration botched the loan package, and the target for criticism more broadly from many Republicans who say it shows that green jobs programs are ineffective.
Emails released Monday show that administration officials were worried in the days before Obamas visit, arguing that the visit would embarrass the White House if the company which was showing signs of financial trouble ultimately went bankrupt.
But Obama noted Monday that hindsight is always 20/20.
It went through the regular review process, and people felt like this was a good bet, Obama said. The president reiterated the need to get behind clean energy to ensure the U.S. can compete in emerging manufacturing industries.
Must've been on the prompter.
Insane. "Doing well" from the viewpoint of the taxpayer is not going bankrupt... yet. A portfolio of loan guarantees is a portfolio of unrealized losses.
Well, it was mainly just $500,000,000 from Jews and other white folk taxpayers that he lost.
And he got a lot of real campaign money.
So, like, who cares?
Well, of course he doesn’t regret it. It’s one of the smallest amounts of money the admin has wasted!
Obama replied “No, I don’t, because if you look at the overall portfolio of loan guarantees that have been provided, overall it’s doing well”
Curious about that statement... Of those that have loan guarentees, how many were known Obama supporters, and of those how many of those loans have failed?
Why the HELL would he feel any regret? HE didn’t lose any money, quite the contrary. A LOT of that money flowed back into Democ-RAT coffers including his own, I am certain of it.
And I read on another thread where that LOON Ron Paul wants him impeached because of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not because he has given guns to murderers, stomped on the judicial process with the New Black Panthers and stolen from the taxpayers.
Because Ron Paul wants to side with his old Code Pinko buddies.
Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
Whenever this guy is pressed about one of his bad policies, he always seems to double down on them. Don’t normal people learn from their mistakes?
RE: Dont normal people learn from their mistakes?
He is not normal.
This is what he meant to do from the get go and all he is trying to do now is fenagle a way for a second term if he can and continue with the "change."
“if we want to compete with China, which is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into this space, if we want to compete with other countries that are heavily subsidizing the industries of the future...”
We don’t, or rather, I don’t. It would be a perfect example of the principle of comparative advantage for us not to waste our money on this crap.
“subsidizing the industries of the future”
Obama’s using the “infant industry” argument, which is reasonable, with one huge catch. How does the president know which will be “the industries of the future”? Or, granting him that foresight, how does he know what will be the companies of the future within the industries of the future? How do we know they’d fund another internet, velcro, or nuclear fission, instead of, say, buggy whips or beta max? We don’t.
Particular interests within the market, by the way, don’t either. But in their case, investment is guided by fear of failure. Which makes them follow signals more closely, and not to place hope above actual performance. Most importantly, there’s an ultimate check, as when they run out of money obviously stop investing. Not having to worry much about money, or not until recently, and even now not very government has infinitely less means of figuring out when and when not they’re running at a loss. Much of the time, there is no such thing as a loss, since their “investment” will actually be an outright subsidy. Cf. trains.
LLS
It was a political payoff, plain and simple. The investors were Obama donors, Solyndra, and how many other politically correct ventures, was financially in shabby shape, and that was already known.
I would venture that all this is a Ponzi scheme meant to benefit the big Dem donors and cronies, with the taxpayer holding the bag. When this all comes to the surface, Obama will make Bernie Madoff look like a piker.
This is deliberate. Obama is doing the community organizer thing - the Chicago Shakedown.
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Spot on rlmmmorel!
Big Zer0 donors. No criminal negligence and malfeasence with taxpayer dollars for political purposes here.
Why would he regret it. It wasn’t his money.
He’s willing to gamble on the long shots with our dough.
Only when they have some personal skin in the game. It's not his money.
Half vast, said quickly, would be exact.
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