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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Forget Bain — Obama’s Public-Equity Record Is The Real Scandal

Despite a growing backlash from his fellow Democrats, President Obama has doubled down on his attacks on Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital. But the strategy could backfire in ways Obama did not anticipate. After all, 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 — leaving in their wake bankruptcies, layoffs, criminal investigations and taxpayers on the hook for billions. 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.”

Worse, according to CBS News the company is “under investigation for insider trading,” and Karner has been subpoenaed “for any and all documentation surrounding the public announcement of the first Department of Energy grant to the company.”

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What difference does it make? All the "non-racists" of color will re-elect him.

Anonymous said...

Instead of cherry picking how about providing a comprehensive analysis of both the percent of companies and percent of funds allocated that went to bankrupt/failed firms. Oh I know why? The fact that the vast majority of these companies are doing just find might blow a few holes in that story. For ex. the constant shouting of "solyndra" hides the fact that only 2% of those green energy funds have went out to solyndra-type firms.

And agree or disagree, the man clearly campaigned on a promise to support green energy through tax payer dollars. Hardly a surprise that those firms would provide political contributions. Seems like the oil companies also provided gobs of money to the Obama campaign in 2008. You know, those same oil companies you say he's out to destroy. Ooops, guess thats another hole in the story too.

Anonymous said...

See what happens this year. Especially after the public has seen and heard the hypocrisy and lies by Pres O. The bottom line is we are worse off now than four years ago and will elect a new president and hopefully a new GOP majority senate.

Anonymous said...

Worse off? How so?

4 years ago:

-4 million jobs lost and continuing to spiral down.
- US troops entrenched in two war zones
-Stock market (your 401k) crashed

Today:
-unemployment down, job growth up
-men and women out of Iraq, on their way out of Afhan.
- stocks over 12,000

Anonymous said...

914-There are 2 million less "jobs" today than 4 years ago, along with the lowest labor participation rate in 30+ years. Dow is up because the printing presses are running 24/7. Check out the increase in USD supply over the last 3.5 years.

Iraq has closer relations to Iran than ever before. Not a success story. Afghanistan is still a hotbed, and continuing to turn the other way while Pakistan does what it does has left the warzone in worse shape(both Bush/Obama fault).

5 trillion more in debt. Smallest workforce in 30+ years. USD supply up by over 80%(reason stocks are up). Housing starts are lowest in 60 years. Unemployment over 8% for 3 straight years. Indefinite detentions for US citizens. Attacking free speech with invasive laws worse than the Patriot Act. Extension of patriot act. Gitmo. Continuing to torture abroad(extraordinary rendition is alive and well). Islam extremists taking over Libya/Egypt.

Any way you cut it, it's been a failure.

Anonymous said...

Obama is getting millions of dollars from private equity-where's the MSM?Up his you now where.