White House under investigation?
Politically connected solar energy company Solyndra recently went bankrupt – even though it received over half a million dollars in taxpayer dollars! Now, the White House is facing calls for an investigation into why they would bet big on the company when even their own advisor’s were warning it may not be the best move. At least they can’t say they inherited it from the Bush Administration, who REJECTED it because it was a risky investment and the company would be out of cash in September 2011. Hey…what month is it?
Leaders of a House subcommittee want to make the Obama administration answer for putting taxpayers on the hook for a half-billion-dollar loan to a now-bankrupt solar panel manufacturer.
A hearing Wednesday will examine what went wrong with Solyndra Inc., which received a federal loan of nearly $528 million and recently filed for bankruptcy. GOP leaders of the subcommittee describe the loan as a “half-billion bust” that raises red flags about the administration’s efforts to generate more jobs in the renewable energy sector.
“It is not the role of government to pick winners and losers in the market,” said Republican Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and Cliff Stearns of Florida, in a joint statement. Upton is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, while Stearns oversees the committee’s investigations and oversight panel.
The investigation is even more timely considering ABC News has uncovered White House e-mails that show the loan wasn’t a slam dunk
“Think about this too. What’s the process that gets repeated with these things. The Obama administration comes out with some bright and wonderful estimate about all these jobs of going to be created, and how wonderful it’s going to be. People like us, it’s not going to work. It’s going to fail. Even their bright glorious wonderful recommendation was a $535 million loan to create 4,000 jobs. We’re talking about a $135,000 a job. Was it glorious bright estimate what this could do. These people are throwing around money with absolutely no regard what happens to it,” Stu warned.
