"That's a crony capitalist right there"
You didn’t really think she was gonna go away, did you?
American Crony Capitalism Brings Jobs to Finland
Yesterday, another shoe dropped in the chronicles of the Obama administration’s crony capitalism. A start-up electric car company with ties to Al Gore got a $529 million loan guarantee from Obama’s Department of Energy to build luxury electric cars…in Finland! Leaving aside the fact that to date only two of these $97,000 cars have been sold (one of them to a movie star), we might at least hope that this ridiculous exercise in the government picking winners minus any competitive, transparent process (Al Gore’s venture cap firm) and losers (the taxpayers subsidizing a car no one wants) would produce manufacturing jobs in the United States. Isn’t that the alleged purpose of Obama’s stimulus giveaways?
It’s bad enough that we borrow money from foreign countries to give to foreign countries. Now we borrow from foreign countries to finance jobs in foreign countries. (This kind of reminds me of the $2 billion assistance President Obama provided Brazil for their off-shore energy developments, while shutting down or blocking much of our own off-shore domestic drilling. He’s in favor of energy jobs in Brazil. But in America? Not so much.)
Do you think, as the President tours the country campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime, he understands that voters in Finland won’t get to decide whether or not he keeps his job in 2012, but voters in Michigan and Ohio sure will? In fact, I’m sure the millions of unemployed workers in every state will want to learn why the Obama administration gave half a billion dollars to finance “green” cars built in Finland.
While they’re at it, the geniuses in the White House could also explain the $1.2 billion they gave to SunPower, a company that makes Solyndra look like a blue chip stock. SunPower’s market capitalization is $800 million, but the company is in debt $820 million. What a great investment, huh? Your tax dollars at work, America! If President Obama wants answers about this, he better act fast because his Department of Energy was already caught revising history by scrubbing SunPower’s name out of old DOE press releases. The President should start by asking Democrat Congressman George Miller about the company. Rep. Miller was the leading advocate for giving money to SunPower, which hired his son as a lobbyist.
When President Obama signed his nearly trillion dollar stimulus boondoggle into law, he mortgaged our children’s future. And for what? Financing jobs in Finland? Propping up near bankrupt companies with connections to congressmen? For this we are burying ourselves in a mountain of debt?
This crony capitalism has to end. We don’t want it. We can’t afford it. And we must not tolerate it anymore. Wake up, America, before it’s too late.
Right now the federal government borrows 40% of what it spends. Now there are good reasons to borrow – long term infrastructure investments, wars, national emergencies – but the government has been spending like a crackhead with a stolen credit card.
“My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of subsidy . . .“
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Run-Sarah-Run, Sarah Palin
The United States has never been debt-free. The closest was when it was down to around $30,000 in the 1830s. However, there are some disturbing aspects to the debt.
We have been up to 120% of GDP in debt in the past. That was in post-depression World War 2, when two events required deficit spending. When they were over, we started running budget surpluses. We even ran surpluses after Korea, but the last time the surplus was enough to reduce the total national debt was 1957.
Going into debt happens all the time. Staying in debt perpetually and increasing it is a real problem. Giving out loans to start businesses overseas, well that sounds like George Bush.
There are many things about this administration that remind me of George Bush. : (
The quote is a keeper.
That’s just insulting to crackheads.
LOL, I think you may be right. At least crackheads don’t confiscate your property and try telling you it’s for your own good or for the good of your neighbors. Crackheads are pretty clear about why they need the money and they never, ever, misplace it. You don’t have to have an elaborate investigation about misappropriated funds with a crack head. They’ll tell you exactly what happened to the money.
This chart gives a good historical perspective of US total credit market debt. Government debt is only part of the whole debt mix of households, financials, corporate, etc. The chart only goes up to 2008. But today in 2011 for reference, US total debt is 350% of GDP, and US govt debt is 100% of GDP.
It’s not always and only about govt spending.
Also, even within the federal govt budget, three quarter of it is spent on medicare, social security, and defense. The $12 billion dept of energy budget for perspective is 1% the size of annual medicare spend.