Why is the media so surprised at the Solyndra scandal and the White House’s involvement? Only the ignorant would believe that Obama and the Chicago crooks he dragged to Washington with him left all their sleazy politics in Chicago?
Solyndra facts are coming at us faster than a speeding bullet. Here’s what happened.
Solyndra is a “green company” building solar panels, one of Obama’s pet companies. In May, 2010 Obama spoke at Solyndra’s newly unveiled factory bragging that “we can see the positive impact of the stimulus right here at Solyndra.” The speech was to announce that Solyndra was the first solar company to receive money from Obama’s slush fund, the Stimulus Bill, in the form of a $535 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department, all part of Obama’s green jobs push.
Ah, but wait. This loan guarantee was turned down by the Bush administration 9 days prior to his leaving office. They felt it was too risky. As soon as Obama took office the loan guarantee got onto a Fast Track. Why would Obama speed things along? The Washington Post found evidence that the White House made a concerted effort to improperly rush the Solyndra loan decision for political reasons. Of course, Obama has denied that, but now the emails are being made public – the emails that prove that Office of Management and Budget, who reviews loan guarantees, told the White House, “wait a minute, not so fast, we don’t have enough time for due diligence reviews, we are being rushed to approve this without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers.”
But the White House pushed forward because they were under a time crunch. They were scheduled to make the big Solyndra loan guarantee announcement within weeks, and they needed this approved immediately. The prediction? Well, one of the emails stated that the company would burn through the loaned money by September, 2011. But Obama and crew demanded it be approved anyway.
Two years later, September, 2011, it comes to pass. Solyndra filed for bankruptcy, putting 1100 people out of work.
But wait, there’s more.
One of Solyndra’s biggest stockholders is an oil billionaire named George Kaiser. Kaiser “bundled” (raised) approximately $100,000 for the Obama presidential campaign. Kaiser made no less than 9 visits to the White House in the weeks prior to the loan approval. Solyndra execs, including the CEO, also made numerous White House visits just prior to cashin’ in. Solyndra execs also contributed to Obama’s presidential campaign and other Democrats. Wow, you rub my back, I’ll rub yours. With taxpayer money, no less.
No wonder Obama’s position is that White House visitor logs are not for the public to see and continually drags his feet when a FOIA request for the records has been filed. He doesn’t want us to know who’s been currying favors at the White House. I mean, besides the unions.
And there’s even more.
In Feb. 2011 it was clear Solyndra was in great trouble, by their own admission. So what does Obama’s Dept. of Energy do? They restructure Solyndra’s taxpayer loan. Basically, they refinanced it. George Kaiser, you remember him, Obama’s donation buddy? Well, good old oil rich billionaire George agreed to make a $75 million loan available to Solyndra in exchange for the right to be repaid first if the company failed. Now by this time, everyone knew the company was going under, so Kaiser’s largess was no risk to him at all. How could this happen? Under the terms of the loan agreement and by Federal Code the American taxpayers must remain first in line for repayment when the taxpayer is the “bank”. But this didn’t matter to Obama and his village idiots. They put your tax money behind George’s because he raised lots of money for Obama and the Dems. This must be the Hope and Change he said we’d get.
And one other little tidbit.
The government’s interest rate on the Solyndra loan is at least 50% lower than interest rates given to other companies who received DOE stimulus funds. Most of the other loans were around 3.5%. Solyndra’s was between 1.025% and 1.515%. It sure pays to have a personal friend in the White House.
And just to give you all information on the subject, the DOE loan guarantee program that allowed this to happen is called the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Bush signed the bill with the support of most Republicans and Democrats, including then-Senator Obama. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 addresses energy production in the United States, including: (1) energy efficiency; (2) renewable energy; (3) oil and gas; (4) coal; (5) Tribal energy; (6) nuclear matters and security; (7) vehicles and motor fuels, including ethanol; (8) hydrogen; (9) electricity; (10) energy tax incentives; (11) hydropower and geothermal energy; and (12) climate change technology. It’s rather all-encompassing.
The Act was a byproduct of the Cheney Energy Task Force. However, the Task Force became a special interest group through which environmentalists, companies and industries could plead their case for government subsidies for their pet projects. The Task Force resulted in a law designed to shovel out taxpayer money to favored corporations and interests, no matter who sits in the White House. The intention may have been noble. The result has been corrupt political pay offs, such as the Solyndra Scandal.
This is a great example of what happens when the big government checkbook is used to subsidize pet projects that should be left to the private sector.
And there are many, many more “green energy” companies in the process of being approved for handouts of our money. Three others who received funds have already gone under.
The incompetence, fraud, lack of morality, ethics and virtue in the White House is astounding. We need to clean house. That’s what 2012 is going to be for. And we better continue what was started in 2010 or we are doomed.
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