WorldTraveller Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 It's worse. - White House chief of staff Jack Lew may have disregarded warnings from lower-level budget employees that the administration's efforts to prop up Solyndra were unwise and possibly illegal, The Washington Post is reporting based on an upcoming House Energy and Commerce Committee report. The Post's story says the report "suggests" that Lew — in his previous role as director of the Office of Management and Budget — "let the refinancing move forward without intervening, even though some OMB analysts thought a refinancing plan that favored private investors might violate the law." It quotes from January 2011 emails by OMB analyst Kelly Colyar suggesting that taxpayers would lose only $141 million if the company were immediately liquidated, as opposed to $385 million if the government restructured the loan agreement and released more money to Solyndra. Instead, the Energy Department approved a restructuring in which private investors agreed to put more money into the company in return for getting first crack at repayment — ahead of taxpayers — if the company went under. Now, under a proposed Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Solyndra may end up repaying only $24 million of its $527 million government-backed loan, according to some analysts. Colyar called herself "vastly confused by DOE's decision to negotiate away their senior position in this transaction," according to emails quoted by the Post. She also wrote that proceeds of an immediate sale of the company would be "significantly HIGHER than DOE's estimate," adding that the government "is better off liquidating the assets today than restructuring under DOE's proposal," the Post reported. - Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79313.html#ixzz22PBk0psb You have blatant disregard of taxpayer money from Obama's right hand man, despite all the warnings, he allegedly disregarded them in order to attempt to fulfill this administrations ideological goals. Scandalous Again, who do you want managing this country, Obama or Romney? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 To be fair, some of that money was returned to the Administration via attendance at $30,000/plate Obama fundraisers. p.s. where's the buzz, lefties? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 It's not illegal when the President does it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldTraveller Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 What's funny is that I just went over to WAPO's site, and it's nowhere to be found on their main page. (And if it is, it's hidden) However, they do have a nice article on Rafalca, Ann Romney's horse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 To be fair, some of that money was returned to the Administration via attendance at $30,000/plate Obama fundraisers. And let's not forget...when you invest in things like this, sometimes you have winners and sometimes you have losers. It just works that way when you invest in technology. Oh, sure, the WH was warned over and over and over by every person in their administration that this was a horrible investment, but that's not important. What's important is that Mitt Romney has a horse!!! Yeah. Yeah. That's its. A horse! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 And let's not forget...when you invest in things like this, sometimes you have winners and sometimes you have losers. It just works that way when you invest in technology. Oh, sure, the WH was warned over and over and over by every person in their administration that this was a horrible investment, but that's not important. What's important is that Mitt Romney has a horse!!! Yeah. Yeah. That's its. A horse! But if a business fails, it's not the owner's fault...somebody else did that. Clearly, the roads weren't good enough. Solyndra would've worked out if taxes were higher and they could afford to fix the roads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ieatcrayonz Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 But if a business fails, it's not the owner's fault...somebody else did that. Clearly, the roads weren't good enough. Solyndra would've worked out if taxes were higher and they could afford to fix the roads. Do you think it is possible that all these roads are being built not so businesses succeed but so that Mitt's horse will hurt its hoof? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Truer words never spoken: Solyndra CEO refers to the WH as "Bank of Washington." It's all just a joke until someone gets their eye poked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldTraveller Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 Truer words never spoken: Solyndra CEO refers to the WH as "Bank of Washington." It's all just a joke until someone gets their eye poked. Jesus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Jesus I don't see that as damning to Solyndra as much as I see it as mocking the government. That's the sort of cynical banter I hear regularly... ...and never put in an email, because you never know when your emails are going to be hauled in front of a congressional hearing and some know-nothing Wednesday congresscritter will think he's having a "Gotcha!" moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldTraveller Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 I don't see that as damning to Solyndra as much as I see it as mocking the government. ...and never put in an email, because you never know when your emails are going to be hauled in front of a congressional hearing and some know-nothing Wednesday congresscritter will think he's having a "Gotcha!" moment. Well yes.... And it is, even though we all know it's been happening for quite some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldTraveller Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/313024/when-government-plays-part-it-can-bring-private-sector-along The House Energy and Commerce Committee released some White House and other e-mails relating to Solyndra. Unsurprisingly, there were many, many warnings that this was a quite risky method of using taxpayer dollars, and it appears those warnings were ignored: White House Aide Aditya Kumar in an e-mail to deputy White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer and other White House staffers: “Dan: Some background. This is a Recovery Act Grant. Details: Will be first DoE Loan Guarantee since 1980s (since the geothermal grants in the 80s, I believe). Total amount will be $535M (with a $107M govt subsidy). This is a solar panel manufacturing company in Fremont, CA. Story is two things: JOBS: Solyndra estimates this will create thousands of jobs (over 3,000K was on estimate I saw but not sure how dated that was); When Government Plays a Part, It can Bring the Private Sector Along: Solyndra has secured over large amounts in private capital which is a story in itself.” Of course, all of the Solyndra jobs are gone, and perhaps this is a good example of government playing a part it shouldn’t. Venture capitalist Steve Mitchell in an e-mail to George Kaiser, an Obama donor and Solyndra investor: “Solyndra selected [Goldman Sachs] as the “banker on the left” for its S1 filing which will occur tmrw. Morgan Stanley is co-leading the IPO. The politics and pressure around this selection was nothing short of ridiculous at some level.” E-mail from Solyndra investor Brad Jones to top Obama economic adviser Larry Summers: “One of our solar companies with revenues of less than $100 million (and not yet profitable) received a government loan of $580 million; while that is good for us, I can’t imagine it’s a good way for the government to use taxpayer money (I’d prefer my opinion about that specific company to be between us). Every administration seems to feel it knows better than the private markets how to allocate capital, and I’ve just never seen that be true.” UPDATE: Wait, there’s more! Aditya Kumar to Jacob Levine of the Office of Energy and Climate Change: “feels like Rahm wants this too (barring any concerns) — POTUS involvement was Rahm’s idea.” A May 8, 2010 memo from an unidentified figure in Solyndra to George Kaiser Family Foundation Executive Director Ken Levit (George Kaiser was one of Solyndra’s largest investors): The past five months have witnessed a tremendous competitive headwind for the company coupled with some severe management mistakes. Cutting to the chase – we will not be going public during 2010 and our longer term business plan looks to be somewhat in jeopardy….” “I think there is still a plan here to getting a solid return out of Solyndra for ourselves (and our friends and family shares alongside us) but we have pushed out any significant positive event until 2011 and perhaps 2012. Three weeks after this memo reveals there will be no public offering, that the long-term business plan is in jeopardy, and there is a plan to get a “solid return for ourselves”… Obama spoke at Solyndra: It was during this event that President Obama declared, “companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Trying to wrap my head around the concept of skirting bankruptcy laws to reward a favored group that had lower creditor ranking and then ignoring bankruptcy laws that benefit tax payers to reward a favored group. Did this stuff really happen in the US? By the President? I'm used to seeing this in Russia or another mafia run banana republic. But in the US, really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 But guys there's way more important things to worry about. I mean, didn't you hear what Mitt said at the Olympics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 But guys there's way more important things to worry about. I mean, didn't you hear what Mitt said at the Olympics? What about his tax returns? Sure he didn't do anything illegal and likely benefited from tax laws that the Dems could have fixed in their first 2 years in office, but, hey, we can't have that happening! And what about the outsourcing by Bain? Nevermind that Romney wasn't there when it happened, or that even if he was, Bain created more jobs than were shipped overseas, or that outsourcing started in the early 90's, Bain was the pioneer of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 But guys there's way more important things to worry about. I mean, didn't you hear what Mitt said at the Olympics? You should track down the Moveon.org ad where they used 40-year-old special effects to have the horse explain that Mitt spends more on the horse each year than most people earn in a year. Seriously.With Harry Reid using a similar analogy of how Mitt makes more in a day than most of America, it's becoming increasingly clear that the WH is completely in panic mode right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Trying to wrap my head around the concept of skirting bankruptcy laws to reward a favored group that had lower creditor ranking and then ignoring bankruptcy laws that benefit tax payers to reward a favored group. Did this stuff really happen in the US? By the President? I'm used to seeing this in Russia or another mafia run banana republic. But in the US, really? Hope and Change!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erynthered Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/energy-dept-e-mails-on-solyndra-provide-new-details-on-white-house-involvement/2012/08/08/668dc042-e162-11e1-a25e-15067bb31849_story.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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