Solyndra: Did the Obama Administration Reward Donors?

[RakuraiTenjin]

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/277360/obama-chu-instrumental-solyndra-loan-offer-andrew-stiles

If youre unfamiliar with Solyndra, it's a solar panel manufacturer (not a plant, but they manufacture panels) that received a guaranteed government loan from the Obama Administration's Department of Energy. Although the accountants for the government warned against investing in the company, stating that it was on a path to bankruptcy, the White House aggresively pushed for the loan to be approved.

The company ended up filing bankruptcy at the end of August, defaulting on it's $1,000,000,000 loan, as predicted and warned about. It is now coming to light that things were reworked to favor donors. Many of the lawyers and high ranks of Solyndra were massive Obama donors.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-n...rked-solyndra-loan-to-favor-donors-ar-258683/
From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration restructured a half-billion dollar federal loan to a troubled solar energy company in such a way that private investors — including a fundraiser for President Barack Obama — moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default, government records show.

Administration officials defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year, solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, putting more than 1,000 people out of work.

Even with the federal help, Solyndra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month and laid off its 1,100 employees.

Solyndra and it's founder are now under FBI investigation. Solyndra's offices themselves were RAIDED by the FBI in early September investigating the entire fiasco.

Newly released emails show the White House was worried about the likely effect of a default by Solyndra on Obama's re-election campaign.

"The optics of a Solyndra default will be bad," an OMB official wrote in a Jan. 31 email to a colleague. "The timing will likely coincide with the 2012 campaign season heating up."

The budget official, whose name is blacked out in the email, wondered whether Solyndra should be allowed to restructure its loan.

"Questions will be asked as to why the administration made a bad investment, not just once (which could hopefully be explained as part of the challenge of supporting innovative technologies), but twice (which could easily be portrayed as bad judgment, or worse)," the email says.

Your thoughts? Corruption in it's clearest form. I just wonder who the patsy will be.

 

[Doomination]

rewarding donors isn't really corruption, it's been going on since the country was founded: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoils_system

granted, spoils system gives jobs.. they're fairly similar.

 

[Maestro]

"It's always been that way" is usually another word for "corruption."

Second Gilded Age. ****, that's going in my signature.

 

[Krynn72]

Your thoughts? Corruption in it's clearest form. I just wonder who the patsy will be.

Funny how you admit to fall-guys in corporations when it supports your views of government corruption, but not when it supports corporate corruption.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Funny how you admit to fall-guys in corporations when it supports your views of government corruption, but not when it supports corporate corruption.

Where did I support fall guys in corporations? I said repeatedly, over and over in that thread, that that's a clear example of a failure of the criminal justice system and not an example of why we should curtail free speech. I repeatedly stated that those who took a criminal action should be investigated and prosecuted by authorities, if the authorities are doing their jobs. The problem is that blatant corruption in government often fails to do so. That doesn't mean we should remove anyone's ability to lobby the legislature just because sometimes people abuse their position.

Do you have anything to say about this situation though? You seem to have avoided the issue entirely and tried to set up a straw man of 'well you said these guys can so why not them!' when that's not even the case.

rewarding donors isn't really corruption, it's been going on since the country was founded: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoils_system

granted, spoils system gives jobs.. they're fairly similar.

We're not talking about someone being appointed to a position for donating (which itself is bad.) We're talking about a BILLION dollars of taxpayer money being funneled to these people, even the OBM sternly warned the White House not to. It appears to be BLATANT corruption- and that's why the FBI is involved.