For Whom Are These
People Working
Gary Gerard,
dumbhoosier.com
For Whom Are These People Working?
Gary Gerard
Times-Union General Manager
Here are three little tidbits that should make your blood
boil.
First, for the past couple weeks I’ve been mentioning the
solar panel company Solyndra.
The company filed for bankruptcy two years after being
fast-tracked by the Obama administration for a
half-billion-dollar loan.
The CEO and members of the company’s board of directors gave
lots of money to Obama’s election campaign.
The company was supposed to be the lynchpin of Obama’s green
jobs initiative, creating 4,000 jobs. Instead, 1,000 people
lost jobs and the taxpayers are on the hook for a cool half
billion.
Well now, according to ABC News, newly uncovered emails show
the White House was keenly monitoring the loan’s progress
even as its own analysts were voicing serious concerns
about the company.
According to emails obtained by ABC, one White House budget
analyst wrote “This deal is NOT ready for primetime.” That
was nine days before the administration announced the loan.
ABC notes:
Beginning in March, ABC News, in partnership with the Center
for Public Integrity’s iWatch News, was first to report on
simmering questions about the role political influence may
have played in Solyndra’s selection as the Obama
administration’s first loan guarantee recipient. Federal
auditors had flagged the loan, saying some applicants had
benefitted from special treatment.
Interestingly, an employee of a firm contracted to build the
Solyndra plant said everyone knew the plant wouldn’t work.
From a radio interview, “... the interesting thing while we
were building it, ‘cause it is a half-a-billion-dollar
plant, everyone already knew that China had developed a more
inexpensive way to manufacture these solar panels. Everyone
knew that the plant wouldn’t work. They still did it. They
still built it and, um, they waisted all that money.”
This interview was a week before the bankruptcy filing. And
when Solyndra honchos commented on the bankruptcy a week
later, guess what they blamed for their company’s demise –
Chinese competition.
OK, so some construction worker knew the plant was going to
fail and the Obama administration was clueless?
There are only two eventualities here. Either the
administration is crooked or stupid. And I don’t think
they’re stupid.
But hey, what’s a half billion tax dollars among friends?
*****
Another story that came out this week, this one by
Associated Press, was fairly irritating.
Here’s the lead:
Even as leading Democrats offered assurances to the
contrary, government experts repeatedly warned that a new
long-term care insurance plan could go belly up, saddling
taxpayers with another underfunded benefit program,
according to emails disclosed by congressional
investigators.
The Community Living Assistance Services and Support program
– that’s CLASS in Washington acronymomania – was a priority
of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
It was added into the Obama health care law even though
there were deep budget concerns among White House bean
counters.
According to AP:
The emails show that the first warning about CLASS came in
May 2009, from Richard Foster, head of long range economic
forecasts for Medicare. "At first glance this proposal
doesn't look workable," Foster wrote in an email to other
HHS officials, some of whom were working with Congress to
get CLASS into the health care law.
Foster said a rough outline of the program would have to
enroll more than 230 million people – more than the U.S.
workforce – to be financially feasible.
But work on CLASS continued, bolstered by a report for AARP
that laid out scenarios for implementing the plan. The AARP
study also raised financial concerns, although the seniors'
lobby supports CLASS.
In July, Foster tried again. After reviewing the latest
information from Kennedy's office, he wrote HHS officials:
"Thirty-six years of (professional) experience lead me to
believe that this program would collapse in short order and
require significant federal subsidies to continue."
Too late. The Obama administration had decided to support
CLASS. Documents and emails indicate that Foster was edged
out of deliberations.
Seriously?
And the White House is still, to this day, scrambling to
find a way to make it feasible. Why? Bag it for cryin’ out
loud.
*****
And finally, according to some keen investigative
reporting by the Daily Beast.
The Pentagon has worried for months that a project backed by
a prominent Democratic donor might interfere with military
GPS. Now Congress wants to know if the White House pressured
a general to change his testimony.
The four-star Air Force general who oversees Air Force Space
Command walked into a highly secured room on Capitol Hill a
week ago to give a classified briefing to lawmakers and
staff, and dropped a surprise. Pressed by members, Gen.
William Shelton said the White House tried to pressure him
to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a
company tied to a large Democratic donor.
To make a long, arduous, excruciatingly detailed story
short, the Pentagon has been raising concerns about a new
wireless project by a satellite broadband company in
Virginia called LightSquared.
The hubbub is over the GPS spectrum. Apparently, preliminary
Pentagon tests showed a new LightSquared proposal to use
certain portions of bandwidth could cause significant GPS
disruptions. Not cool.
The majority owner of the company is an investment fund run
by a big Demo donor.
The general’s testimony bore out the Pentagon’s concerns.
Somehow, the general’s prepared testimony was leaked in
advance to the company. And the Daily Beast reports the
White House asked the general to change his testimony.
White House officials wanted the general to add a couple
points:
That the general supported the White House policy to add
more broadband for commercial use; and the Pentagon would
try to resolve its questions about LightSquared within 90
days.
The general wasn’t happy and he made that clear when he
testified.
Hmm.
These are government officials. We the people are their
bosses, right?
Well I don’t know who it is these people think they’re
working for, but I’m fairly certain it’s not us.
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