Mark America

How Much Cash Can You Hide In One Of These?

Some things politicians do should result in prison terms and this may well be one of them.  When you lift up the carpet to find what’s been swept under the rug, the growing scandal with Solyndra and other “Green Energy” companies begins to look less and less like energy initiatives  than political pay-offs from corporate connections.   Crony capitalism is reaching its pinnacle under the leadership of Barack Obama, and while there have been other practitioners, it’s clear that this President is engaged in a vast scheme to redistribute wealth from tax-payers to corporate pals who may well be paying a form of commission right back to his campaign coffers.  The fact that any president would do this is scandalous, but Obama campaigned as the champion of the down-trodden, and this disgusting debacle that warrants a serious investigation.  With other instances in which cronies seem to have paid not to play(Obamacare Waivers,) it also appears we now have a case of pure pay-to-play.  Congress must investigate this scandal.

Let’s be honest enough to admit that there have been politicians in both parties guilty of these sorts of things.  The sad political demise of Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) was the result of ridiculous defense contractor kick-backs, and it’s no surprise that our system has dealt with him as it ought, but when you see an instance like this Solyndra scandal, and begin to look at how many billions of tax-payer dollars went to support the “green jobs” lie, it’s small wonder that unemployment is still over 9%.  President Obama’s handouts to cronies for the sake of the contributions to be had, coming back as campaign cash from these large donors is a clear symptom of a system overwhelmed by corruption.

For those of you who don’t understand what’s been going on, let’s try to clear up the mechanism of the corruption.  First, the government, acting under the auspices of the “Green Jobs Initiative,”  part of the 2009 “Stimulus bill,” guarantees huge loans on behalf of the company in question, or provides direct financing in the form of loans and grants.  In the case of Solyndra, it will put the tax-payer on the hook for over a half-billion dollars.

For those of you who might be thinking that these sorts of things are done all the time, and some of them fail, you’d be correct, but this fails to understand the true scope of the scandal.  Solyndra officials visited the White House at least 20 times that we’re aware, and one can only guess how many times before the White House visitor logs were ordered released by a federal judge.  What then generally happens in these sorts of scandals is that after the money’s been given in one form or another to the company in question, or sometimes before it is given, there is an avalanche of bundling campaign dollars by company executives to politicians.  In the Solyndra case, as in many other instances, this appears to have happened.

Oh sure, it will all appear strictly legal.  Few are so mind-warped to do such things without the of cover of law, but this is what the legislative process has become:  It is a way to dispense money to corporate and union cronies in exchange for some paid back to the politicians who enacted the law.  Obama said “shovel ready,” and it was, because he shoveled it out the door to his cronies just as fast as he could.  Of course, even here, they will hide it behind the actions of some low-level staffer or political operative, but the facts always show up in the end.  The bucks started flowing at the President’s desk, and he had a responsibility to stop them.

While I don’t wish to sound too conspiratorial, I also wish to sound a note of caution to all those who think that because the FBI is now involved, we’ll inevitably get to the bottom of this.  What one must remember is that with Holder heading the DoJ, there’s some chance the FBI wasn’t visiting the home of Solyndra’s CEO to uncover incriminating information, but instead to bury it.

Sarah Palin is right:  We can’t restore or repair our republic until we’ve cleaned up the crony capitalists and corporatists in our nation’s capital.   We mustn’t pretend that our economy can be recovered by more dubious “green jobs” or anything else proposed by this administration.  President Obama simply isn’t capable of acting as an honest broker any longer.  Instead, he’s become just one more symbol of the corruption that rules Washington DC, with we tax-payers and our children as the perpetual suckers.