Obama's Green Jobs 'Solyndra' under investigation for waste, fraud and abuse

Did Ford have the same cost structure and level of debt?

Arguing that "All GM needed to do to avoid bankruptcy was be a different company" doesn't really make sense.

 

Geesh, and they're not even PEOPLE!

 

Ford was in dire straits before the right exectutive took over.

Just like the USA, IF we had a capable executive, the economy would be recovered by now, without the debt.


http://www.dailycampus.com/2.7438/failing-ford-motors-approaches-bankruptcy-1.1058776


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Mulally#Ford_Motor_Company

 

Once again we have a wonderful example of "because they say so." This is the myopic world Liberals wrap themselves in to avoid reality, the truth and facts. You see, to understand and comprehend reality, the truth or the facts would expose the massive failure the Liberal ideology has been.

 

This is because in Liberal world, things are just because they say so. They do not need facts or the truth when they believe they should only be judged by how much more they care than anyone else; dontchyaknow.

 

Morning Bell: Solyndra Scandal Ends Green Jobs Myth:

President Barack Obama’s solution for America’s unemployment woes has been a stubborn campaign to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on economic “stimulus”–much of it on so-called “green jobs.” Report after report has shown the approach to be a total failure. And now, a new scandal involving Solyndra, a bankrupt solar panel company in California, should be the final nail in the coffin for the government’s meddling in the free market.

“[W]e can see the positive impacts [of the stimulus] right here at Solyndra,” Obama claimed when he spoke at the company’s newly unveiled factory in May of last year. He was correct that the results of his stimulus would be on display at that factory. But he was wrong that those results would be positive. Little more than a year later, the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to lay off more than 1,000 employees.

The Solyndra factory where Obama spoke was built after the company received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department as part of the stimulus’s green jobs push. “Through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations,” Obama noted. “This new factory is the result of those loans.”

But “everyone knew that the plant wouldn’t work,” according to a former Solyndra employee. So why was the President so sure of the plant’s success when he spoke there? What’s more, the company was built on “a model that says, well, I can build something for six dollars and sell it for three dollars,” according to an industry analyst. That would normally be a red flag for investors. So why did the President claim that “the true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra”?

The answer to both of those questions: The government’s decisions are driven by politics and ideology and are divorced from economic reality. Want proof? Take a look at a January 31 e-mail between Office of Management and Budget staff regarding “Solyndra optics” — that is, how the issue looks in the public’s eyes. ”If Solyndra defaults down the road, the optics will arguably be worse later than they would be today,” they wrote, adding:

In addition, the timing will likely coincide with the 2012 campaign season heating up, whereas a default today could be put in the context of (and perhaps even get some credit for) fiscal discipline / good government because the Administration would be limiting further taxpayer exposure letting bad projects go, and could make public steps it is taking to learn lessons and improve / limit future lending.

In other words, in January the Administration was essentially letting the 2012 campaign dictate decisions on the federal government’s financial involvement with Solyndra. They were not responding to normal profit-and-loss signals, as they should. Had Energy Department bureaucrats been investing their own money, they might have been more careful. But it was others’ money — taxpayers’ money — at stake. Self-interested investors, who naturally weed out bad investments, were wholly absent. The result: Taxpayers are likely to lose up to $535 million, while the people who made the decision to throw money at Solyndra have, so far, been completely insulated from reprisal.

Much attention has been paid to accusations of cronyism in the Energy Department, given that a major Solyndra investor is also a big Obama donor. But the fundamental lesson of the Solyndra scandal is not that money buys political favors. That now goes without saying. The real takeaway is that government intervention in the economy is a fool’s errand, as Heritage’s Nicolas Loris notes:

Solyndra exemplifies the government’s abysmal track record of picking winners and losers in the marketplace, and the solar company is not the only example of energy stimulus struggles. With a number of targeted energy tax credits set to expire at the end of this year or next, industry groups are lobbying hard for extensions. Especially given the U.S. fiscal situation, this is a time to end all energy subsidies—not to extend wasteful, market-distorting policies. When the government decides to favor a technology with subsidies, it’s a good bet that subsidy ‘winner’ is a loser in the marketplace.

Indeed, at least four other companies to receive money from Obama’s stimulus package have gone bankrupt, Fox News reports.

Even where companies do create jobs, they do so at such exorbitant cost that the effort cannot reasonably be considered a success. To date, The Washington Post reports, the Energy Department loan guarantee program from which Solyndra benefitted has created one new permanent job for every $5.5 million spent. Lend that kind of money to a private business in an industry that doesn’t rely on taxpayer support, and it will put hundreds if not thousands to work.

Government subsidies are invitations for political favoritism, of course. But more importantly, as engines of job creation, they simply don’t work (just ask Spain). Sure, the Administration’s “green jobs” program has led to allegations of corruption. But it has also failed even in its foremost task of creating jobs for an economy with a chronic unemployment problem. Columnist Jim Pethokoukis writes, “Solyndra is the logical endpoint of Obamanomics.” Unfortunately, the American people are paying the price for getting us there.

Source

 

Because it was government run has nothing to do with why it failed. It failed because it is using technology that will never work. If the government invested in something that provide clean, safe energy at a low cost like nuclear, we would all be socialists.

 

Not true.

Some have suggested that the easy money from Obama encouraged the company to reach too far too fast.

Without Obama's mad money Solyndra would have been a leaner and meaner company that could have attracted private investors with more business sense than those idiots in the White House.

 

That's nice.

But Obama restructured the loan so that the private investors get paid first and the taxpayer gets paid last if there is any money left.

 

So after two days of talking conspiracies in the Olive Garden thread and proving that you and your like have absolutely no knowledge of business practices, you now are here saying what is best for a business to survive? It would be funny if it wasn't so (*)(*)(*)(*) pathetic.

The administration is at fault because they guaranteed a loan that this company wouldn't have gotten in the first place. They were already in trouble. This company would have died under any circumstances. Bad management kills companies dead.

 

You have not proven anything to us except that you can keep your head buried in the sand for long periods of time without coming up for air.



Obama has shown his business and private sector stupidity in a number of ways.

All the ways to benefit a campaign donor that you listed plus the very awkward decision to let the private investors be paid back first.

That means the taxpayer will probably not see any on the money Obama gave this private company.

 

You fail because you automatically go to the Obama card. Nowhere can you find me defending this loan or Obama in this case. padding your buddies pocket is status quo for the job. You sir are the one that has your head in the sand if you think there is anyone out there who will change it.

So now you think bondholders should have no rights?

 

The responsibility ultimately belongs to him since everyone in the White House DOE works for Obama.



So now you think bondholders should have no rights?

The private investors have a right to whatever remains after the taxpayers are paid back.

But in this case the investor who was moved to the head of the line is a friend of Obama and major campaign contributor.

That smells pretty bad, don't you think?

 

The GM and Chrysler bondholders had no rights. The unions, with contributions and votes came out on top.

 

Obama is always putting politics above policy.

He rewards his campaign contributors and punishes everyone else.

 

What part of a Government tax payer paid loan of half a billion dollars did you miss????

 

^^ 100% correct.

 

I never said it wasn't his responsibility. You know conversations can be had without throwing Obama in someones face.

They were lied to and bought it hook line and sinker. That CEO sure has some balls openly lying in front of Congress.

If special treatment is involved, Obama should step down, but I will wait to see more evidence and the court cases that should surely follow.

 

It's all about Obama.

The green jobs that he pushed with Solyndra as his show piece is about Obama proving that he's smarter than everyone else.

As for Obama stepping down that won't happen.

Presidents always get in trouble for coving up wrongdoing in their administration, not for the actual wrongdoing itself.

Maybe Chu will lose his job but that is a very minor problem.

He'll just go back to academia and work fewer hours for more money.

The real harm for Obama is the stain on his green jobs agenda.

It makes him weaker when he tries to tell the public to trust him because he knows what he is doing.

Because clearly he doesn't know what he's doing.

 

It's not necessarily bad management. It was having a stupid idea to begin with.

 

If we had a better leader, they wouldn't have put money into something stupid like this. It isn't government itself. It's the stupid leaders people elected.

 

It was government leaders decision that was the problem, not the government itself. If we actually elected good leaders, they wouldn't have invested in something stupid like this.

 

It's obvious Obama doesn't know what he is doing. So why are you trying to put me on the side of agreeing with Obama?

 

I'm not trying to put you on the side of Obama.

What makes say that I am?

 

Its just the corrupt odrama political training shining through. He learned his politics in the ultra Corrupt Chicago Machine. Where bribes, threats, thuggery, payola, and voter fraud, ARE politics. He knows nothing but corruption.