Bankrupt "Abound Solar" Received Stimulus Money For Inherently Faulty Product

Posted by Brian

Another "green" boondoggle, paid for by taxpayers!
This time, the Obama administration gave millions to a solar company whose panels were literally bursting into flames (See video).
Meanwhile, cheap reliable energy companies are being shut down all over the country by the Obama administration, spearheaded by an EPA carrying out Obama's promise of making it "too expensive" to pay for the "Stalinist" regulations being foisted upon them.

Sources, documents suggest government-subsidized Abound Solar was selling faulty product Published: 11:50 AM 10/02/2012  
By Michael Bastasch

Seven months after calling themselves the “anti-Solyndra,” the Colorado-based solar panel manufacturer Abound Solar announced it was filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, arguing that cheap Chinese solar panels flooding the market caused their demise.

“With over $30 billion in reported government subsidies, Chinese panel makers were able to sell below cost and put Abound out of business before we were big enough to pose a real competitive threat to China’s rapidly growing market share,” according to the prepared congressional testimony by Craig Witsoe, former CEO of Abound.

Abound Solar was given a $400 million loan guarantee by the Energy Department, and drew on about $70 million dollars of the guarantee before DOE cut them off in September 2011 — the same month the Solyndra scandal began.
Continue Reading

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WH Senior Adviser: Unemployment Stimulates the Economy

Speaking in Durham North Carolina, and with unemployment rising to 9%, Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett is the latest statist to attempt to dumb-down the American public on economics. Like Nancy Pelosi before her, Jarrett makes the inane claim that unemployment checks are good for the economy. This follows her comment that  "we had" a bad economy. Had? This is the arrogance of the leftist. That she can sit there straight-faced, and imply that the economy is thriving, ignoring the suffering of people around the country, tells you how this bunch views the American public. Because they say it, we dolts are supposed to just ignore the economic ruin taking place in the country.
Look around you. Since 2009, gasoline (which affects the cost of everything) is up over 80%, beef is up 24%, bacon 22%. Inflation adjusted household incomes are going down. Your dollar today doesn't go as far as it did in in 2009.  Worse, it is the staples such as wheat and corn products, and all of the products that are dependent on those products, that are being affected.
And Valerie Jarrett wants the public to believe that high unemployment is a good thing? Amazing.



Flashback: Nancy Pelosi says Unemployment creates jobs and is one of the best economic stimulus.



Posted by Brian

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Your Stimulus Money At Work: Meth For Rats, Basket Weaving, Malt Liquor and Marijuana Study

Posted by Brian

Three Years Later, Some of the Stimulus’ Odder Projects: Basket Weaving, Polka Training, Rats on Meth 
By Matt Cover February 17, 2012

(CNSNews.com) – Three years after the enactment of the $787-billion economic stimulus spending program, critics are still pointing out some of the stranger and apparently most wasteful programs funded by the program, which was intended to create millions of jobs and keep unemployment below 8 percent.

Some of those programs include $210,000 to study the learning patterns of honeybees; $898,138 to study clouds over Greenland; and $50,000 for a Chicago, Illinois theater that put on a play showcasing former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D).

More at CNS News

BREAKING! CBO: President's "Stimulus" Hurts Long-Term Economic Growth

h/t to The Rush Limbaugh Show

Doug Elmendorf of the Congressional Budget Office testified before the Budget Committee today that the effect of President Obama's $800 Billion stimulus package is that it would be a "drag" on long term economic growth. $800 BILLION!! And over the long term it will hurt the economy! Finally somebody said what many of us, who are not economists, have said ever since they proposed this monstrosity. Keep in mind that this is just the "stimulus" bill. This does not take into account ObamaCare and all of the Trillions of dollars that have been spent on bailouts, Friends of Obama "investments" to Solyndra and others.



Posted by Brian

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Over $16B, or 80% Of The 1705 Govt. Loan Program Dollars Went To Obama Financial Backers

Posted by Brian

Obama Campaign Backers and Bundlers Rewarded With Green Grants and Loans

Nov 12, 2011 1:30 PM EST

Where did green-energy money go? Straight to campaign donors. Read more about Peter Schwiezer and his book Throw Them All Out in the new Newsweek on sale Monday.

When President-elect Obama came to Washington in late 2008, he was outspoken about the need for an economic stimulus to revive a struggling economy. He wanted billions of dollars spent on “shovel-ready projects” to build roads; billions more for developing alternative-energy projects; and additional billions for expanding broadband Internet access and creating a “smart grid” for energy consumption. After he was sworn in as president, he proclaimed that taxpayer money would assuredly not be doled out to political friends. “Decisions about how Recovery Act dollars are spent will be based on the merits,” he said, referring to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. “Let me repeat that: decisions about how recovery money will be spent will be based on the merits. They will not be made as a way of doing favors for lobbyists.”

Really?

It would take an entire book to analyze every single grant and government-backed loan doled out since Barack Obama became president. But an examination of grants and guaranteed loans offered by just one stimulus program run by the Department of Energy, for alternative-energy projects, is stunning. The so-called 1705 Loan Guarantee Program and the 1603 Grant Program channeled billions of dollars to all sorts of energy companies. The grants were earmarked for alternative-fuel and green-power projects, so it would not be a surprise to learn that those industries were led by liberals. Furthermore, these were highly competitive grant and loan programs—not usually a hallmark of cronyism. Often fewer than 10 percent of applicants were deemed worthy.

Read More at The Daily Beast

Crony Capitalism: Companies Owe Millions, Receive Billions in Stimulus Funds

Posted by Brian

Tax cheats among recipients of stimulus money

(AP) – 5 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of companies that cashed in on President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package owed the government millions in unpaid taxes, congressional investigators have found.

The Government Accountability Office, in a report being released Tuesday, said at least 3,700 government contractors and nonprofit organizations that received more than $24 billion from the stimulus effort owed $757 million in back taxes as of Sept. 30, 2009, the end of the budget year.

The report said the tax delinquents accounted for nearly 6 percent of the 63,000 contractors and grantees examined, and it cautioned that the real number might be higher because the known tax debt does not measure such factors as income underreporting.
READ MORE HERE--->  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h_lsGu-CZemZAKDvXZTHp_2pVrQg?docId=198b9a7d2b8744c4b38fb3832bb4026a

Pelosi and Dems: "Where Are The Jobs?"

The Democrat Congress is saying "Where are the jobs?', but by doing so they leave no doubt about who has gigantic cajones.  After two years of passing some of the most job-killing legislation in decades, the Democrats come out of the box swinging at a new Republican-led House of Representatives that hasn't even been sworn in yet.  When Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats took over both legislative bodies and the executive body in January 2009, the unemployment rate was at 7.6%.  The unemployment rate now sits at 9.8%.  If you count those wo are no longer in the system and/or who have given up and quit looking, that figure is closer to 17%. This, after the claim the the stimulus package would hold unemployment to no higher than 8%. After two years of "working for the littile guy" and demonizing banks, corporations and Wall Street, who are the only ones doing better? Wall Street firms, which have had two of their best years of revenue growth. Jobs "created" by the $1.67 trillion dollars spent by Congress turned out to be mostly temporary jobs, not long term true growth positions.  The Democrats benefitted on this by adding temporary census workers to the jobs gained list, but unemployment has crept back up to its highest point in 6 months as those jobs have vanished.  Normally, unemployment goes down during the holiday season as retailers hire temporary workers for the rush (some of whom are picked up as permanet after the holidays), but employment numbers are stagnant to slightly worse.  For the Dempocrats to ask "Where are the jobs?" is the height of condescension and chutzpah.  The American people are not that stupid and gullible - are we?  -Brian

Democrats now in minority looking a lot like old GOP as they harp on high unemployment
By Jon Ward - The Daily Caller Published: 1:39 AM 01/05/2011 Updated: 7:34 AM 01/05/2011

Democratic staff passed out a press release to reporters on their way into a briefing with the new House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer Tuesday that read: “Meet the New Republicans – Same as the Old Republicans.”

But on Tuesday at least, House Democrats were the same as the old Republicans.

One day before entering the minority, House Democrats rolled out a line of attack against the new House Republican majority that was almost identical to the one that the GOP used against them over the last two years.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, and other party leaders complained that the GOP is focused on health care instead of jobs, decrying the vote scheduled for next week to repeal President Obama’s health overhaul.  READ MORE HERE--->

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Government Fail: $95,000 Spent For Each Stimulus Job - Many Temporary

Sixty Percent of Stimulus Project Funding Remains Unspent

Onvia Reviews Recovery Act Spending, Predicts that Congress May Consider a Rollback of Unspent Funds
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) November 17, 2010

Onvia (Nasdaq: ONVI), the leader in gBusiness solutions and the creator of Recovery.org, has identified $120.4 billion in Recovery Act contracts that have yet to be awarded. Onvia’s government-spending expert, Michael Balsam, predicts that these unspent funds and unawarded government contracts will be under discussion in the new Congress, including the question of whether the remaining stimulus funds should be recalled to address Federal deficit concerns.


"Onvia is tracking 75,000 Recovery Act projects on Main Street, of which just 27,293 have been awarded,” said Michael Balsam, chief strategy officer at Onvia. “The rest are still working their way through the system, to the tune of $120 billion. These are funds that are mostly devoted to longer-term infrastructure projects and clean energy.” READ MORE HERE--->

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Japan Cuts Taxes To Promote Employment and Salary Increases

December 13, 2010

Japan to cut corporate tax to stimulate economy
Mari Yamaguchi

Japan's government announced it would cut the country's hefty corporate tax rate by 5 percentage points, in a bid to stimulate the economy and help Japanese businesses stay competitive.

The step announced late Monday is aimed at promoting investment, employment and salary increases at home so that Japan can exit deflation, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.

"I decided to take a bold step," he told reporters.
READ MORE HERE

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Feds Spent $800,000 of Economic Stimulus on African Genital-Washing Program | CNSnews.com

Though this may be a worthy cause as it relates to the spread of disease, how in the world is this a part of the stimulus bill? How many jobs were created by this? I don't think this was the kind of stimulus we were looking for.

(CNSNews.com) – The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), spent $823,200 of economic stimulus funds in 2009 on a study by a UCLA research team to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex.

Feds Spent $800,000 of Economic Stimulus on African Genital-Washing Program | CNSnews.com

Pelosi: Happy Days Are Here Again!

Just when I thought we couldn't sink any lower, we are blessed with this jewel from Nancy Pelosi about the "benefits" of unemployment checks: "This is one of the biggest stimulus's to our economy.. economists will tell you this money is spent quickly, it injects demand into the economy, and is job creating.. it creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative that you can name."