Despite a growing backlash from his fellow Democrats, President Obama has doubled down on his attacks on Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital. But the strategy could backfire in ways Obama has not anticipated. After all, if Romney’s record in private equity is fair game, then so is Obama’s record in public equity — and that record is not pretty.
Since taking office, Obama has invested billions of taxpayer dollars in private businesses, including as part of his stimulus spending bill. Many of those investments have turned out to be unmitigated disasters — leaving in their wake bankruptcies, layoffs, criminal investigations and taxpayers on the hook for billions. Consider a few examples:
— Raser Technologies. In 2010, the Obama administration gave Raser a $33 million taxpayer-funded grant to build a power plant in Beaver Creek, Utah. According to the Wall Street Journal, after burning through our tax dollars, the company filed for bankruptcy protection this year. The plant has fewer than 10 employees, and Raser owes $1.5 million in back taxes.
— ECOtality. The Obama administration gave ECOtality $126.2 million in taxpayer money in 2009 for, among other things, the installation of 14,000 electric car chargers in five states. Obama even hosted the company’s president, Don Karner, in the first lady’s box during the 2010 State of the Union address as an example of a stimulus success story. According to ECOtality’s own SEC filings, the company has since incurred more than $45 million in losses and has told the federal government: “We may not achieve or sustain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis in the future.”
Worse, according to CBS News, the company is “under investigation for insider trading,” and Karner has been subpoenaed “for any and all documentation surrounding the public announcement of the first Department of Energy grant to the company.”
— Nevada Geothermal Power (NGP). The Obama administration gave NGP a $98.5 million taxpayer loan guarantee in 2010. The New York Times reported in October that the company is in “financial turmoil” and that “[a]fter a series of technical missteps that are draining Nevada Geothermal’s cash reserves, its own auditor concluded in a filing released last week that there was ‘significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.’ ”
— First Solar. The Obama administration provided First Solar with more than $3 billion in loan guarantees for power plants in Arizona and California. According to a Bloomberg Businessweek report last week, the company “fell to a record low in Nasdaq Stock Market trading May 4 after reporting $401 million in restructuring costs tied to firing 30 percent of its workforce.”
— Abound Solar. The Obama administration gave Abound Solar a $400 million loan guarantee to build photovoltaic panel factories. According to Forbes, in February the company halted production and laid off 180 employees.
— Beacon Power. The Obama administration gave Beacon — a green-energy storage company — a $43 million loan guarantee. According to CBS News, at the time of the loan, “Standard and Poor’s had confidentially given the project a dismal outlook of ‘CCC-plus.’ ” Last fall, Beacon received a delisting notice from Nasdaq and filed for bankruptcy.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. A company called SunPower got a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the Obama administration, and as of January, the company owed more than it was worth. Brightsource got a $1.6 billion loan guarantee and posted a string of net losses totaling $177 million. And let’s not forget Solyndra, the solar panel manufacturer that received $535 million in taxpayer-funded loan guarantees and went bankrupt, leaving taxpayers on the hook.
Obama has declared that all of the projects received funding “based solely on their merits.” But as Hoover Institution scholar Peter Schweizer reported in his book “Throw Them All Out,” 71 percent of the Obama Energy Department’s grants and loans went to “individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party.” Collectively, these Obama cronies raised $457,834 for his campaign, and they were in turn approved for grants or loans of nearly $11.35 billion. Obama said this week that it’s not the president’s job “to make a lot of money for investors.” Well, he sure seems to have made a lot of (taxpayer) money for investors in his political machine.
The cronyism and corruption are catching up with the administration. According to Politico, “The Energy Department’s inspector general has launched more than 100 criminal investigations” related to the department’s green-energy programs.
Now the man who made Solyndra a household name says Romney’s record at Bain “is what this campaign is going to be about.” Good luck with that, Mr. President. If Obama wants to attack Romney’s alleged private-equity failures as chief executive of Bain, he’d better be ready to defend his own public-equity failures as chief executive of the United States.
Marc A. Thiessen, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, writes a weekly online column for The Washington Post.
Ohhhh, the truth comes out. Some of the scariest words are, “We are from the government, and we want to help.”.
As Mr Theissen should know, as a AEI promoter, R&D is a risk environment and risk doesn’t care about Party. It does care about research, effort, determination over time and experimentation. As Edison once said “If it doesn’t work then we at least we know one more way that it doesn’t work”. That’s what R&D is all about, Bain or Solyndra regardless. And Maine’s Legislature, since the Governor can’t, better start realizing that. The wind turbine technology alone, regardless of what you think of wind power, has produced a near revolution in the manufacture, use and application’s of composite’s and local power transmission system’s. Maine has a huge advantage in the composite’s field and is letting the Governor squander it by deliberately starving this technology from further development. This technology alone, if they had the vision to see it, could well have provided Kestrel a means of improving their aircraft, AND, provide Maine an almost unlimited future in aviation manufacturing and the job’s that went with it. That Kestrel quit shows me, at least, just how much vision Kestrel had in itself and it’s potential.
As it stands now all Maine is gonna’ see is more wind turbine’s and little else from this technology’s application. That and the Governor’s clear position that if he doesn’t believe in the R&D then it must be bad for Maine. Such a public attitude is seen by both the manufacturing and investment sector’s (Gee, does anyone read the Moody’s and S&P report’s?) as a sign that Maine is not going to do anything to make it possible for any investment in R&D to happen in the State. That mean’s that as far as any business investment in Maine is concerned, for any type of manufacturing, it’s deader than a DeCoster chicken in a Tyson’s plant ! Maine’s Legislature need’s, indeed, should be demanding that LePage sign off on this R&D Bond. To not do so sends the worst of all possible messages to the business community, namely that Maine is open only for self-funded investment and is gonna’ get nothing from Maine to help the business community. And that is a message that is gonna be heard and felt by the business, and local, community’s economy’s for a VERY LONG TIME ! If Maine’s Legislature really wants to send both the investment and manufacturing the message that Maine is indeed ready to help them in setting up ‘shop’ here, then it’s time that they took the same steps they did when they upheld the Budget 3 months ago and stood up to LePage’s veto threat. That alone is a huge step in the right direction. It’s up to LePage to make the next.
Mike…it is not the governments role to invest MY money in r&d. I don’t want the goverment picking winnners and losers in the private sector. The possibility of fraud and/or cronyism, whether perceived or real, is all too apparent. Look at Obama’s problem with perception as outlined in the article.
I want to invest my money in companies that I believe have a compelling business model. Let private equity take a lead in investing r&d money in companies that they perceive, after thorough underwriting and analysis, to have great upside potential. No perception or possibility of cronyism there.
You mention Edison. Edison was one of the greatest inventors of all time. What you didn’t note was that he failed many, many, times while getting it right sometimes. He did it with private invesment (personal) money, not taxpayer money. Edison had, as we say, skin in the game. We can see what happens when the comapnies are given taxpayer funded equity infusion. The management takes huge salaries, money goes missing, and since they don’t have their own money at risk, they’ll bleed it and walk away.
Sir, it is the Govt’s job to create, develop, support and encourage the environment for business to start, grow and develop. Are there times when an idea or concept needs more than the investment market will bear to bring an idea to the point of commercial adoption and marketing ? There sure are. The aircraft industry is the best example since it was the private sector that initially started it (the Wright Brother’s) but it was the Gov’t, thru the military, that made the aircraft industry, and the concept of air travel, a reality. Without the Gov’t’s ‘feeding’ the aircraft industry back in the 1910’s with military aircraft contract’s, with the private sector participating in it’s development thru the flying of the U.S. Mail in the 20’s and 30’s, the entire concept of the airplane, and the air transportation system as we both know it, and what spun out of it (the space program), would never have been developed into what it is today.
The same can be said of the automotive industry since the military, up to and including the 1st half of WW 1, was still using horse and carts for the transportaion of military supplies. With the introduction of the truck and the ‘Jeep’, and their adoption thru-out the whole of the military, the rapid movement of manpower, supplies and goods was made possible. When this concept was brought home and expanded it spawned, in Maine no less as the first, the first State-wide highway system. With the creation of the National Defense Highway System in the 1950’s, The Interstate, this was made both more usefull, efficient and safer for everybody. Again, it was a concept that was beyond any one organization or private sector’s ability to fund that lead to the Gov’t stepping in and getting it going and now the private sector is still benefiting from this ‘Gov’t investment’. Same with the hydroelectric works such as Hoover Dam and the TVA hydroelectric system. It took Gov’t investment to get it going and private sector participation to make it complete.
As far as you investing your money where you want, fine. In this economy you are free to do exactly that. But that investment is for your use, development and benefit. The public’s benefit is far larger as is the investment needed to make it happen. Edison knew that. The use of gas as a light source in New York, and it’s frequent explosion’s by leaky pipe’s, was the major reason why Edison kept at the light bulb. He knew that he had a responsibility to the public at large to develop the lightbulb. That he would profit by it was an incidental, as has been recorded by any number of Edison’s biographer’s. And as far as cronyism goes, does anyone really believe that there hasn’t been cronyism involved in the manipulation of the financial service’s sector’s for the last 6 years ? Only a TP fanatic, or someone involved with the looting by ENRON, could believe that.
Mike, this isn’t about LePage, it’s about Obama squandering taxpayer money by investing it with business owners that supported his election. Why is it a democrat in Maine takes all of Obama’s faults and blames it all on Paul LePage. Very interesting move by the democrat party.
This isin’t about squandering. If you want a 100% guaranteed return on an investment then go and invest in a chain of funeral parlors and cemetaries if you want a ‘dead bang’ return. And since Obama, unlike LePage, has the vision to see that investing in the R&D of new technologies, and their various application’s, is neccessary to promote both business and the public at large’s position’s, well, time, economics and history, not either of us, will be the judge of that.
And as far as our chronic ‘lister of what Obama has ‘invested’ in goes, they might want to change their position and look at things from the other side and see just what the investing has done for us all, even now. The new technology of using carbon fiber instead of sheet metal for car part’s, which was 1st done by the Air Force no less, and which Maine can benefit from since a BIG part of that came from Maine’s composite’s manufacturing program, has reduced the weight of the average car and small truck by a minimum of 500 lbs. Now I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but even I know that weight requires fuel to be moved no matter how much air you put into a tire. Shave 500 lbs off a car or truck and see how much gas you save ! You can bet that the trucking companies know it. Just cruise thru the local Dysart’s or Irving’s stop’s and see just how many of those rigs have some kind of plastic or carbon fiber body part on. it. Lightweight component’s save fuel and no one can argue with that. Take the weight difference’s, cost the fuel saving’s per gallon for each, multiply them by mileage that the rig’s usually drive and see just how much fuel, and money, is saved. You can bet that the trucking company’s do. Ask them to show you the figures. That’s called return on investment and it’s the result of R&D.
The same can be said of the algae based fuel. We all know that diesel has that nasty tendency to freeze and jam fuel injectors and injector pumps everytime the temperature goes anywhere near 35 or less. Hey, we’re in Maine ! With the price of fuel being what it is, any synthetic fuel that can lower it’s cost and increase it’s efficiency to us all is clearly a worthwhile investment. Both the military and us folk’s here on the other side of the fence can benefit. And the private sector has already begun. Delta Airlines has just bought a old SUNOCO refinery in Philly for the express purpose of reducing their fuel costs by doing it on their own. The Air Force, 2 years ago, flew a B-52 with a synthetic fuel out at Edwards Air Force Base to see just how well their engines can fly on synthetic’s. That they didn’t announce the result’s tells me that they got far more than they ever expected. Sooner or later, and this is where ‘investment’ comes in, synthetic fuel’s that don’t freeze or gum up in cold weather are gonna come in. This is gonna happen only when Gov’t and private sector each invest their best to work toward what we all frevently hope is. Isin’t it about time that everybody quit the whining and just get on with what we all know is going to happen ? The sooner that happens the better off we’re all gonna be.
Did you even look at Howard’s list. So what percentage falls in the cronyism category? You can spin things in any direction, but to use it to suggest that research and development funded by public dollars needs to take a back seat to private investment is ludicrous and suggests that there is no public interest to be served. Private enterprise is just only now able to take advantage of the too many to count benefits from the rocketry program that began in Huntsville in the 50’s. 60 years of taxpayer funded R&D brought you the lifestyle you live today……. including that computer you are using to post your comment. And, I quote “Many concepts developed by industry and designed into products received
their initial funding from government-sponsored research and large-scale
government development programs. Some examples include computer core memories, computer time-sharing, the mouse, network packet switching, computer graphics, virtual reality (VR), speech recognition software, and relational databases. The federal government is the primary source of funding for university research in computer
science and electrical engineering as well as for research equipment.
It is also the primary support for graduate students who study and
conduct research in these fields.” Yes, I think there are many benefits to taxpayer R&D dollars. And industry, aka corporations, take those dollars, design something, test it over and over again, and sell it to you and I or governments because we really really want those things and along the way they make a profit. It’s the American way!
The bottom line is the fed govt does not create anything.
It doesn’t have any money to create anything. It confiscates
money from taxpayers and corporations and small businesses.
When it subsidizes what it perceives as a “good bet” like
the pres has said, it is gambling with OUR money and could
care less if some crony gets it and then it goes bust. Imagine
a community organizer surrounded by intellects who never
ran a business and all they know is what came out of a book
are “investing” OUR money to create what? This is the same
acute “businessman” who squandered approx 800B using the
pretense of all these shovel-ready jobs then laughed about finding
out there was no such thing as a shovel-ready job. Lot of laughs eh?
Creating jobs by the fed govt is such a joke. All they have to do
is hire more IRS agents to handle..Obamacare. That is job creation?
Taxing more will create what jobs? Nada.
Maybe Biden is the smartest of them all about J-O-B-S! Right on
Mr. Middle Class Joe!
Gotta love the Veep and his use of 3-letter words.
Using Google Alerts, I have information sent to me every day about what the Obama administration is doing on our behalf. Not counting the investments they have made in all aspects of American life, below are 161 investments they have made in just the ENERGY segment alone. You would do well to consider these things before complaining that this administration has a dismal investment record. Read on….
1. $787M to Buy
Fuel-efficient Autos
2. $6B Provided to
Develop More Fuel-Efficient Cars
3.
$2B
Invested in Electric Car Batteries
4.
$2.4B
Invested in Electric Vehicles
5.
Hybrid
Automaker Awarded $500M to Build a New Car
6.
$60M
Invested in Hybrid Transmissions for Vehicles
7.
$3.9M
Invested in a High-Capacity, High-Speed Battery Charger
8.
$1.7M
Awarded for the Purchase of Five Hybrid Commuter Buses
9.
$10B
Invested in Electric Car Industry
10.
$3M
Granted to Produce Auto Parts from Carbon Fiber
11.
Step
Taken to Develop Hydraulic Hybrid
12.
$175M
Invested in Advanced Vehicle Technology
13.
$12M
Invested in Biofuels Projects
14.
$8.5M
Invested in Electric Cars
15.
$1M
Invested in Sustainable Vehicle Systems
16.
Vehicle
Cost Calculator Introduced
17.
$7M
Invested in Hydrogen Storage
18.
$4M
Offered to Develop Wireless Chargers
19.
$408M
for Clean Coal Technology
20.
Drilling
of Oil Wells in Alaska Approved
21.
$40M
to Develop New Nuclear Plants.
22.
$45M
Invested in Centrifuge Technology
23.
Oil
and Gas Drilling Expanded
24.
11,160
Acres in Colorado Opened for Gas and Oil Drilling
25.
38M
Acres Made Available for Oil Drillers
26.
Drilling
for Gas Permitted in Utah
27.
$5B
to Weatherize Homes
28.
$6B
to Achieve Cleaner Energy
29.
$11B
to Produce a Smart Electricity Grid
30.
$6B
to Subsidize Renewable Energy Loans
31.
North
Carolina’s Renewable Energy Plan Approved
32.
$16M
for Oregon’s Renewable Energy Projects
33.
$4.5B
to Improve Energy Efficiency of Federal Buildings
34.
$4B
to Improve Energy Efficiency of Public Housing
35.
Tougher
Rules Set for Light Bulb Efficiency
36.
$1.9M
to Improve Fuel Cell Efficiency
37.
$14.5M
to Improve Energy Efficiency in Wisconsin
38.
$600M
to Build Renewable Energy Plants
39.
$85M
to Boost Renewable Energy in Developing Countries
40.
$187M
to Improve Nine Fuel Efficiency Projects
41.
Steps
Taken to Improve Fuel Efficiency by 30%
42.
“Cool
Roof” Technology Encouraged To Reduce Electric Bills
43.
112
Renewable Energy Contracts Awarded
44.
Rebates
Given to Encourage Energy-Efficient Homes
45.
$4M
to Build a Pilot Factory for OLEDs
46.
$797K to Train Workers in Energy Efficiency
47.
$8.5M
to Develop Better Building Insulation
48.
$92M
for 43 Clean-Energy Research Projects
49.
$300K
for Renewable Energy Technolog
50.
$4M
for Renewable Energy Projects in Delaware
51.
Cities
Encouraged to Use Renewable Energy
52.
$1M
Granted to Develop a More Efficient Method to Pump Oil and Gas
53.
$5M
Granted to Minnesota Farmers to Develop Renewable Energy
54.
$4.7M
Granted to Nebraska Farms for Renewable Energy Systems
55. $4M Granted to
Vermont/New Hampshire Farmers for Energy Projects
56. $4M Granted for
High-Efficiency Lighting
57. $18M for
Smart-Grid Technology
58. New Energy
Efficiency Standards Issued
59. $20M for
Renewable Energy
60. Renewable Energy
Contract Expanded
61. $34M Invested in
Energy Efficiency
62.
$400M
Invested in New Energy Technologies
63.
Geothermal
Plant Purchased
64.
$150M
Invested in New Energy Project Ideas
65.
$10M
Invested in Plasma Technology
66.
$100M
Invested in Biofuel and Electric Battery Innovations
67.
$78M
Invested in Biomass Technologies
68.
$600K
Invested in New Energy Technology
69.
$102M
Invested in Geothermal Construction
70.
$24M
Provided for the Commercialization of Biofuels
71.
$43M
Invested in a Flywheel Plant
72.
$3M
Invested in Biofuel Research
73.
$10M
Invested in Tidal Power
74.
$4.6M
Invested in Energy Research
75.
‘Innovation
Ecosystems’ Created to Market New Technologies
76.
$5M
invested in Geothermal Company
77.
$1.5M
Invested in Biofuels Research
78.
$65M
Invested in Fuel Cell R&D
79.
$900K
Investment in Fuel Cells Initiated
80. $1.7M Invested
in Bioenergy
81. $2.9M Invested
in Biofuel Research
82.
$26M
Invested in Hydropower R&D
83.
$47M
Invested in Biofuel Technology
84.
$85M
Invested in Geothermal & LED Research
85.
Four
States Encouraged to Grow Energy Crops
86.
$3M
Invested in Wave Energy
87.
$105M
Loan Guarantee for Ethanol Plant
88.
Four
Renewable Energy Projects Authorized
89.
$45M
Invested in Biofuels
90.
$12M
Invested in Biofuel Research
91.
$510M
Invested in Biofuel Development
92.
$75M
Loan Guarantee for Bioethanol Project
93.
$134M
Loan Guarantee for Ethanol Plant
94.
$499K
Invested in Biodiesel Research
95.
$17M
Invested in Hydropower Technology
96.
$350M
Loan Guarantee for Geothermal Project
97.
$105M
Loan Guarantee for Bio-refinery
98.
$136M
Invested in New Transportation Fuels
99.
$132M
Loan Guarantee for Bioenergy Project
100.
22M
Invested in Biodiesel Plant
101.
$44M
Invested in Biofuels
102.
$50M
Invested in Biofuels
103.
$25M
Invested in Biofuel Plant
104.
$232M
Loan Guarantee for Biorefinery
105.
$120M
Invested in Battery Technology and Energy Storage
106.
$14M
Invested in Algae as a New Fuel
107.
$388M
Invested in Nuclear Technology
108.
$5M
Invested in Advanced Fuel Systems
109.
$5M
Invested in Alternative Fuel Vehicles
110.
$535M to Produce Solar Photovoltaic Panels
111.
$170M
Invested in Solar Photovoltaic Technology
112.
First
Offshore Wind Farm Approved
113.
$2B
for Greater Solar Power Generation
114.
$122M
to Convert Sunlight into Fuels
115.
$3M
Provided to Develop Renewable Power Systems for Utilities
116.
Solar
Projects Funded in Four States
117.
Maryland
Received Funding for New Energy Projects
118.
$3B/500-Megawatt
Solar Plant Approved
119.
Purdue
Granted $749K for Wind Energy Training
120.
Ninth
Solar Energy Plant Approved
121.
Solar
Panel Company Given $400M Loan
122.
$967M
Loan Given to New Solar Project
123.
$200M
Invested in New Solar Technology
124.
417-mile
Wind Energy Area Established
125.
Loan
Provided for Maine Wind Project
126.
19
New Energy Projects Planned
127.
Solar
Power Plant Gets $1B Loan
128.
Solar
Power Plant Gets $2B Loan
129.
$4M
Invested to Cut Solar Power Cost
130.
$90M
Loan for a Solar Power Plant
131.
Installation
of Wind Farms Made Easier
132.
$737M
Loan Guarantee for Solar Plant
133.
$27M
Provided to Reduce Solar Costs
134.
$45M
Loan Guarantee for Nevada Solar Plant
135.
$359M
Loan Guarantee for Arizona Solar Plant
136.
$150M
for New Solar Wafer Technology
137.
$135M
for Wind Generation Project
138.
Three
Solar Plants Given $4.5B
139.
Oregon
Wind Farm Authorized
140.
$56M
for Solar Power at V.A. Hospitals
141.
$50M
Invested in SUNPATH Program
142.
$102M
Loan Guarantee for Wind Farm
143.
Five-Mile
Transmission Line Approved
144.
$852M
Loan for a Solar Facility
145.
$12M
for More Efficient Solar Products
146.
$12M
for More Efficient Solar Products
147.
$2.8M
to Study Future Solar Projects
148.
$150M
Loan for Solar Wafer Project
149.
$123M
for Wind & Geothermal Energy
150.
$1.2B
Loan Guarantee for Solar Project
151.
$168.9m
Loan Guarantee for Wind Project
152.
$1b
Loan Guarantees for Two Solar Projects
153.
$395K
Invested in Wind Energy
154.
$7M
Invested in Solar Tools
155.
$50K
Grant for Wind Energy Study
156.
Over
$12M Invested in Solar Energy Innovation
157.
$9M
Invested to Accelerate Solar Energy Innovation
158.
$481K
Provided to Reduce Solar Panel Cost
159.
$2.9M
Loaned to Solar Energy Company
160.
$1.6M
Invested in Wind Energy
161.
New
Wind Energy Farm Approved
So, with all that money spent, can you point to one instance that any of this has benefited one American citizen? And, by benefit, I mean it is actually being used somewhere, it saves time or money and it cost less than the private sector could have done. You might do some research on “wind energy” as an example to see how much more your electricity will cost if you ever even get a wind farm to produce some. And, the glut on the landscape is spectacular too! Never mind the poor birds!
If you purchase a CD from a bank, do you expect to get all your money back, plus interest, in a month’s time? If you buy stock in a company, do you expect that stock to immediately rise in value and pay you a handsome dividend in a week’s time? The key word is INVESTMENT, sir, which is almost always a long-term deal. Indeed, when Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb, did anyone in America immediately benefit from it? Anyone who knows two cents about economics knows full well that progress is not an overnight phenomenon. You invest a little bit here, stir a little bit there, let it simmer for awhile, and maybe — just maybe — you’ll have something. Can I point to one instance that any of the aforementioned investments have benefited any American? Of course not! Don’t be silly. But ask me that question perhaps 10 years from now, and if I’m still alive perhaps I can point to those instances where the investments in the field of energy by the Obama administration paid off. If you want immediate results, you and your friends might indulge yourselves in a game of Monopoly
I don’t pay taxes as an “investment,” sir. Can you show me in the U.S. Constitution where the federal gov’t has the power to tax for “investment” purposes. And, by the way, when I make an investment even in a lowly CD, I am told what interest I will be paid for the duration of the investment, so that I can withdraw both my original investment PLUS my interest. What exactly is the interest rate the feds pay on taxes already paid, because I’ve paid a lot of them and haven’t received any of them back and absolutely NO interest! Its’ one thing to play with your own money or private money, it’s quite another for a gov’t which has no authority to do any of those things with tax payer monies.
General welfare. We are but unruly hoards without government. Go to Somolia if you want government that doesn’t invest.
“General welfare” according to U.S. Constitution is limited to
transportation infrastructure as in the Interstate Hwy system or water
systems, a military capable of defending the country, to regulate
commerce, to establish uniform rules of naturalization and bankruptcy,
to coin money, to establish post offices and the ‘post’ roads, to
constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, to make rules
regarding piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, to declare
war, to make rules for the govern and regulation of the land and naval
forces, to exercise exclusive control over the (not to exceed ten miles
square) the “seat of government.”
I see nothing there about “investments” into privately owned companies for whatever reason!
Research and development of new technologies has often started with an infusion of our tax dollars. What I keep hearing is that the reason we are falling behind is because R&D dollars are dwindling. My father went to the then Hunstville Arsenal to assist with work on rocketry. That R&D investment got us quite far in the development of new technologies….. like, oh, yes this program we are using to post comments. And, he supported himself, his wife and two children on the salary he was paid while there. Yes, there are benefits personal and social to that kind of investment.
“Rocketry” if I am not mistaken at a gov’t arsenal would probably have to do with the “military,” right? Then, great you father supported your family doing something which the U.S. Constitution allowed the feds to do in the first place. And, I’ll bet the goal was to build a better “rocket” or something like that for use by the military. My father worked at Los Alamos as a nuclear physicist which was also gov’t funded to build a better, you guessed it, “bomb” also for military application. As a result, the scientists there also learned about fission, fusion, etc., etc. but as a side effect of building better bombs. Because they built reactors, those were used successfully to create energy until the envirofools decided they couldn’t be around any readioactivity even though most of France is powered today by nuclear energy as is lots of India. The gov’t wasn’t funding “R and D” for random things at that time, only things which it was Constitutionally authorized to fund.
And new technologies in energy development are not a military interest? Is the military the only interest the government is authorized by the constitution to spend dollars developing? I don’t think so. Technologies that will benefit the people I think is covered under general welfare. But I am not a strict constitutionalist. Or even a knowledgeable one. But, I think I can agree with you that we have gotten pretty far away from the constitution through a lot of twists and turns that were engineered behind closed doors.
The fed is limited to “promoting general welfare” not “creating or making general welfare.” And, promoting was actually, if you have read The Federalist Papers, about allowing “we the people” to create our own general welfare as long as we didn’t intrude on someone else’s “general welfare.” The fed was to ensure that each of the people in “we the people” would have the opportunity for creating “general welfare.” And, no, Solyndra had nothing at all to do with a military interest, and it failed anyway, along with quite a few more. Again, the gov’t must specify what it is doing, not pretend to do one thing when doing quite another. The gov’t isn’t supposed to be spending money “developing any interest in anything.” Our tax dollars are paid to make sure we have a standing military, that the waterways which run through more than one state are monitored in ways which will harm nobody and benefit each state respectively. When one truly understands that the framers were very reluctant to even create a “federal gov’t” in the first place because of the fear of the tyranny of power it might create, the Constitution is written to totally LIMIT federal gov’t to only what is written. Unfortunately, there are those who believe if it isn’t written, then it must be ok for the feds. NOT! The power was ultimately supposed to be given to each State. And, again, unfortunately, each State has slowly abrogated it’s sovereignty as a state power to the Feds. Some State’s are trying to regain some of that lost power which is exactly what each and every State should be doing!
Given the billions in tax money that he has squandered, Obama’s other investments will have to return astronomical rates of return just to break even. That will never happen. Please take the donkey glasses off and you’ll see that like all of these government programs, the only beneficiaries are those well connected to the political elite. Some animals are more equal than others.
You’re serious? These are all indictments! Maybe he should stick to his area of expertise, investing in stuff like high quality cannabis and drug paraphenalia (http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/a-users-guide-to-smoking-pot-with-barack-obama).
Of course they are going to focus on the ones that were problematic. That is where the master manipulators always go. Thanks for clearing the record and setting things straight.
162. Osama Bin Laden Is Dead
163. General Motors is Alive!
Mutt Romneys record at Bain will be nothing compared to this mess and the massive lay-offs and outsourcing of decent paying med device jobs if his healthcare fiasco is upheld by the supreme court. Billions of dollars in tax increases for these companies will do this. Medtronic, a $12B annual revenue company, alone has a per year $250M tax increase that will hinder R&D and operations in the years to come. Figure the math on Johnson and Johnson, Boston Sci, Abbot, Baxter and it is easy to figure out why the democrats are going to milk this cash cow. But, they and a number of other med companies are busy relocating jobs to Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Malaysia, and other rat infested locations. The media has given BO a free pass on many sensitive topics. The fact is the President has good ideas on social issues but as far as capital investments and knowledge of the free enterprise system, he is a little weak.
Totally agree, but all of us need to spread the record on Bain which produced between a 50% – 80% return to its investors and most of the companies who eventually filed for bankruptcy (which were very few) did so after Bain either was out of the picture or were a minority interest. Romney for the most part was no longer associated with Bain by that time! Why doesn’t the gov’t, if they’re so “competent” NOT even get a 3% ROI????????
Um, that would be because you are investing in technologies that have already been field tested. And, you have to prove to investors that you have something that has the potential to make them money otherwise they are not interested. It is only governments that do the really risky stuff. Sometimes it pays off big. Sometimes it is a bust. For lots of reasons. But the bottom line is it takes government dollars to move technology development forward. Just ask Alan Turing.
The American Enterprise Institute is a right wing propaganda and lobbying arm of the Grand Oil Party. Its mission is to keep the fossil fuel industry profitable. Investments in a clean energy economy are always a target of this organization.
We need to transition to a clean energy economy. We need to end subsidies to oil, coal, and gas. Take charge of your energy-go solar. Make electricity where it is used. Keep energy money in Maine.
If that were true then we would be building clean, reliable, affordable hydro. Instead we have political cronies like Angus King getting subsidies for windmills that run at 28% efficiency and replace hydro (since that is the easiest source to ramp up and down) so provide no net decrease in fossil fuel usage. Only the government could come up with a plan like that and call it a net gain.