printThe way Republicans, in general—and Senators like Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in particular—are carrying on about Solyndra, you’d think that it was not “President George W. Bush’s administration,” and “the GOP-controlled Congress in 2005,” that cleared Solyndra to participate in this loan-guarantee program, and, even worse, passed the “legislation creating the loan guarantee program.”
Reports Dana Milbank of The Washington Post:
… the Republican paternity of the program that birthed Solyndra suggests some skepticism is in order when many of those same Republicans use Solyndra as an example of all that is wrong with Obama’s governance.
“Loan guarantees aim to stimulate investment and commercialization of clean energy technologies to reduce our nation’s reliance on foreign sources of energy,” Bush’s energy secretary, Sam Bodman, said in a Oct. 4, 2007, statement. It said the Energy Department had received 143 pre-applications for the guarantees and narrowed the list down to 16 finalists, including Solyndra.
Today, Fox News contributor Michael Goodwin affirmed that he had no issue with the underwriting by the government of certain crucial industries, only that funds allotted have to be administered judiciously.
Republican and Democratic members of the “Big-Government Party” sing from the same hymn sheet. Remember: There is no daylight between these factions once they come to power. Before a power grab, it’s all posturing.
UPDATE (Nov. 21): From the Facebook thread: For heaven’s sake: the point is that there is no difference between the Dems and the Rodents when it comes to the role of government. They both believe, irrespective of the founders’ constitution, that it is the role of the government to do just about anything it likes with funds it steals from us. The program created by The Shrub is unconstitutional, wrong, tantamount to theft. So what if thief # 1 opened the account and didn’t use it. Thief # 1 has no right to bolster any industry with my money. Or yours.
That George Bush had warts is no secret. But as far as Solyndra is concerned the fact that their management were big Obama supporters and had all sorts of contact with the Obama white house still puts this at BHO’s door. The shifty contact this administration has constantly had playing fast and loose with taxpayers money with phoney “green” companies is no secret. The Obama administration and the Democrat party are destroying the country and must be stopped by somebody. The Republicans are certainly leaky boats to depend on but that’s the way it shakes out. Dumping on George Bush is counter productive at best.
As George C. Wallace once so forcefully said: ” there ain’t a dimes worth of difference in the two parties.” How right he was!
James, you are right that the Republicans are about the only hope we have left to get the country back. However, if we ignore their mistakes and allow the Republicans to believe that they are not responsible for what they do, then it is a free pass to ignore their responsibility to future legislation and they will continue to provide the Democrats with good fodder for screwing things up. A Republican congress created the program in direct defiance of the Constitution which does not permit misuse of Taxpayer’s money. Then Obama misuses the money- two wrongs don’t make a right.
James: as usual, I fail to see why dumping on Bush (or Romney, Gingrich, Cain, and the Bailout Bums) are “counter productive”. What, I ask, is being “produced” but greater government. Why should I care between a black statist, a Mormon statist, a mop-haired adulterer statist, etc.??
The Republican passed “Energy Policy Act of 2005” was CORPORATE WELFARE whereby money gets channeled from supermarket baggers, plumbers, store owners, nurses, and computer programmers (e.g. “taxpayers”) and indebtedness is increased upon our children to give out money UNAUTHORIZED BY THE CONSTITUTION for “aid/loans” to “selected” recipients like Solyndra.
The “selection” of investment should be done by the market by investors!
@ IM – “Republican and Democratic members of the “Big-Government Party” sing from the same hymn sheet. ”
How True !
Robert and Ron: Good morning and it’s good to see that you are paying attention. No, I don’t advocate giving the Republicans a pass on their perfidy. We need to scald them out just as the Democrats. But, we’ve got start somewhere and getting a foothold in the Democrat controlled bog-marsh that is the federal government is the first step. First things first.
“First things first.” Agreed, Get the Republicans to square away and quit making stupid legislation that opens the door for more socialism would be a good start. The Democrats can’t come up with any new legislation of their own. Everything they do is borrowed or added onto something the Republicans did. Healthcare, compliments of Romney,Assault Rifles ban, and good lord how many other things they gave the Democrats. If the Republicans stopped introducing legislation, the government would stop dead.