Solyndracal Reasoning

The Obama's Job Bill

The unbearable emptiness of the Obama Administration is evident in his jobs bill. He proposes to spend a half a trillion and pay for it with taxes on the rich. As I have pointed out, there is no economic theory according to which this makes sense. The stimulus theory holds that we should spend a lot now in order to "stimulate" economic growth. Once the growth gets going, we can pay for it later with increased revenues. Raising taxes now to pay for the spending will simply depress one part of the economy to stimulate some other part, at least if you buy the Keynesian or pseudo-Keynesian theory.

The President's proposal isn't economic policy at all. It is merely political strategy. The spending part is designed to make it look like the President has an economic policy when he obviously doesn't. The tax part is designed to make the President look fiscally responsible (maybe Voldemort could pull that off) and make the Republicans look like irresponsible meanies (who needs magic when you have the New York Times). Moreover, the taxes the President is proposing couldn't pass Congress even when the Democrats held the House and a veto-proof majority in the Senate. It doesn't look more viable now. Congressional Democrats have been almost as critical of the proposal as Republicans.

Solyndra

Concentrating on political imagery at the expense of any attempt at genuine policy is an Administration specialty. The recent bankruptcy of Solyndra illustrates this. From the Washington Post:

The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company's factory, newly obtained e-mails show.

There are two possibilities here. The White House pushed the Office of Management and Budget, over their reasonable objections, to approve the loan to Solyndra because they wanted the deal as evidence that their green jobs policy was working. Obama staged visits to the company on several occasions.

The other possibility is that the Administration exerted no such pressure and the OMB reviewers just screwed the pooch. It isn't the Administration's fault at all. That is what they are now claiming, but it doesn't help much, does it? Who, precisely, is in charge of the Executive Branch? Anyway, they're lying, according to ABC News:

The company's solar panel factory was heralded as a centerpiece of the president's green energy plan -- billed as a way to jump start a promising new industry. And internal emails uncovered by investigators for the House Energy and Commerce Committee that were shared exclusively with ABC News show the Obama administration was keenly monitoring the progress of the loan, even as analysts were voicing serious concerns about the risk involved.

If the Administration was "keenly monitoring" the loan application, then they can't blame the debacle on anyone else.

Not content with blaming his own OMB, the Obama Administration resorts to one of its top ten favorite tunes: blaming the Bush Administration. But that music doesn't play so well either.

The White House also noted to ABC News that the Bush administration was the first to consider Solyndra's application and that some executives at the company have a history of donating to Republicans. The results of the Congressional probe shared Tuesday with ABC News show that less than two weeks before President Bush left office, on January 9, 2009, the Energy Department's credit committee made a unanimous decision not to offer a loan commitment to Solyndra.

Even after Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, analysts in the Energy Department and in the Office of Management and Budget were repeatedly questioning the wisdom of the loan.

So the Energy Department had the good sense to say no, at least while George W. Bush was still President. It tried to do the same after Obama took office, but resistance was futile. Whose fault would that be?

The Obama Administration is not without content. Green jobs and stimulus spending fill its collective mind. Where it comes to actually grappling with reality and making coherent policy, there it has neither interest nor competency.

Comments

[duggersd]

Finally, somebody has noticed that it does not make a lot of sense to on the one hand want to protect Social Security and Medicare on the other cut the amount of money going into it. And to their credit, it was Democrats.

[Jimi]

Ken,

"It doesn't look more viable now"

It was designed so that the Republicans would not pass it. When they refuse to pass it, he and the media will immediately be out in force blaming the Republican's for the economy. If they pass it...it won't work, and he can blame them for passing it, so they are caught in a catch 22. Of course, I think enough people have figured out the way Democrats roll...so I doubt it will work for him, but when you're desperate you'll try anything.

Although....any country dumb enough to have elected him into power is dumb enough to keep him in power.

[Condy Kunger]

Solyndra is the tip of the iceberg. The controversy here is that DOE lied about doing due diligence and passed Solyndra through while intentionally delaying others that competed with DOE's officers business interests. The DOE could have safely diversified its bets with 40 small america business applicants but they blew the money on a few inside special interest applicants who paid lobby money while freezing out those small American businesses and jobs. Subpeona's will show that Lachlan Seward, of the DOE, ordered staff and consultant's to change their review criteria and findings in order to manipulate winners and losers.

Look into the ones that didn't get in because they didn't bribe the right people.

The site: http://corruptiondoe.weebly.com has the real truth about Solyndra and beyond...

It shows that: - Only campaign contributors received funding from the DOE ATVM and Loan programs and competitors to those interests were frozen out. - Key White House staff were informed of the misdeeds but they covered them up. - A criminally illegal protection investor money racket was being run by individuals in, and around, the DOE funding programs, Detroit and Goldman Sachs. - Detroit ordered all competing efforts killed off or permanently delayed. - Tesla is involved in the same influence-buying scam and financials fudging here Everybody knows about the site, above. Hundreds of thousands of people have seen it. Nobody can ignore the facts here. This was all pay-to-play.

(OK to Forward this)

[George Mason]

We will not have a strong and growing economy again until we eliminate the process of allowing the government to pick winners and losers. The government continues the economic stupidity of flushing money down the drain for windmills, ethanol, and fill in your favorite subsidy... and promotes corruption like Solyndra loans and the Boeing decision. A trillion dollars would have been better spent by writing checks to every citizen, allowing the individual to make their own decisions as to how to use the dollars. The obama administration should put to rest forever the idea that government can make intelligent decisions concerning business and economics.