Forget Bain — Obama’s Public-Equity Record is the Real Scandal?
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
Consider just a few examples of Obama’s public equity failures:
● 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 in 2012. The plant now 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.”
Read More: http://visiontoamerica.org/9969/forget-bain-obamas...
“$1.2 billion to a solar company that’s building a plant in Mexico.” It’s true that the company that got the loans also recently opened a solar-panel manufacturing plant in Mexico.
“Half a billion to an electric car company that created hundreds of jobs in Finland.” the first round of government loans to Fisker Automotive . It’s true that the cars it has built so far were made in Finland.
“And tens of millions of dollars to build traffic lights in China.” . It’s true that for a time they were put together using LED lights made mostly in Asia, under a waiver the Department of Energy issued in February 2010
that the stimulus did not create any American jobs (when the Congressional Budget that President Obama has “wasted” $34 billion on investments like Solyndra
“Washington promised to create American jobs if we passed their stimulus. But that’s not what happened. Fact: Billions of taxpayers dollars spent on green energy went to jobs in foreign countries. The Obama administration admitted the truth, that $2.3 billion of tax credits went overseas, while millions of Americans can’t find a job