...your eyes and ears for the next two years Volume 3 www.obamabidenwatch.org Issue 9 September 2011 www.citizensunited.org The “Kaiser” Soze of Obamaland When President Obama was elected he promised to was flawed. This was clear to Wall Street, this was usher in a new way of doing business in Washington. clear to senior government officials, but this was not Well past the half way point of his administration, it clear to the White House. is clear that much like his promises of “Hope” and “Change,” a new Washington was little more than Solyndra sought funding to build a plant to produce empty rhetoric. its unique brand of solar panels. It went to Wall Street, but was largely rebuffed. The most optimistic Obama pledged to ban lobbyists from serving in his response Solyndra received was from Dun & Brad- administration, but granted waivers to the lobbyists street which rated the company as “fair.” The ratings he wanted on his team. He pledged to make the agency Fitch, rated Solyndra a B+, one of its most White House more transparent by placing its visitor speculative ratings. One distinct problem for Solyn- logs on the internet, but his clever staff hosted meet- dra was the excessive cost of its unique solar panels. ings with lobbyists at local coffee shops, free from the burdens of disclosure. His reform rhetoric has Absent broad Wall Street support, Solyndra looked to masked the fact that his administration is actively dol- the government for assistance. During the Bush Ad- ing out favors to entrenched special interests and his ministration Solyndra was denied loans by the Energy political supporters. Department. The Office of Management and Budget recognized that Solyndra was too high a risk to move The most glaring example of President Obama’s forward. “reformed” Washington, is how his political staff over stepped its boundaries to secure government Once the Obama Administration ushered in its new support for a green energy startup funded by one of way of doing business in Washington, things started Obama’s biggest financial backers. The startup was to look brighter for Solyndra. Despite Wall Street’s named Solyndra. Financed by Obama funder George negative views of the company and its costly solar Kaiser, Solyndra produced solar panels for mounting panels, Solyndra found support within Obama’s on rooftops. They sold a dream – that you could White House for its expansion plans. transform the large empty rooftop square footage into a lean, mean, energy-producing machine. This The Department of Energy and the Office of Manage- dream, much like Obama’s promises of hope and ment and Budget took a new look at the Solyndra change, was never realized. loan. This time they reached a different conclusion: they would support the proposal. This decision was While the dream of Solyndra warms the hearts of the not fully vetted because Al Gores of the world, the reality is that the business senior political officials Continued on the next page... © Citizens United ~ 1006 Pennsylvania Ave SE ~ Washington D.C. 20003 Page 2 in the Obama Administration demanded the decision be In this Issue made on a truncated timetable. The reason for the rush – Vice The “Kaiser” Soze of President Joe Biden planned to Obamaland attend the groundbreaking Pg. 1 ceremony of the new Solyndra plant and wanted to announce Solyndra: Spawn of the government’s support of Stimulus the program. This political Pg. 3 maneuvering helped secure Solyndra a $527 million dollar The Obama Record: More loan guarantee. To sweeten the Speeches, Fewer Jobs pot even further, the Obama Pg. 4 Administration tailored the loan in such a way that if Israel At A Crossroads Solyndra went bankrupt, inves- Pg. 5 tors like George Kaiser would be bailed out first with taxpay- The Solyndra Scandal Highlights Why 9/11: Past, Present, ers left holding the bag. This is crony Obama’s Stimulus Is A Failure and Future capitalism at its worse because the Pg. 6 American taxpayer gets hurt in the end. Citizens United Presents So how do you secure such special treatment from the government for a flawed Pg. 7 startup company? If you’re George Kaiser, it begins with donating $53,500 in support of President Obama’s 2008 campaign. That kind of money buys you Final Thoughts access in Obama’s “reformed” Washington. Then you grease the wheels by Pg. 8 donating $10,000 to Michelle Obama’s pet project , the University of Chicago’s __________________________ Urban Health Initiative. Drop by the White House a couple of times and meet with Valerie Jarrett who also worked with the University of Chicago’s Urban Published By Heath Initiative. Finally, you promise Joe Biden a nice press event where he Citizens United can feel presidential. If you follow the Kaiser/Solyndra model, maybe you too can get the Obama Administration to bail out your failing business! Editor David N. Bossie The whole $38.6 billion green jobs loan program has been a total failure. Presi- Managing Editor dent Obama promised that the program would create or save 65,000 jobs. Gov- J.T. Mastranadi ernment records indicate that the program has only created an anemic 3,500 jobs. The American taxpayer has been hoodwinked by this failed program that Contributors cost billions of dollars in taxpayer money. Chris Berg Jeff Marschner Solyndra suspended its operations on August 31 st sending 1,100 workers to the Alexa Coombs unemployment line. Congressional investigators must get to the bottom of this growing scandal. President Obama and all those who had a hand in this failed Publication Design company must be held accountable for the failed program that has cost billions Kirk Risinger of dollars in taxpayer money. President Obama was elected on the mantle that Jennifer Humphrey he was reformer. I guess he could not shake the corrupt Chicago way when he came to Washington. Copyright © 2011 by Citizens United © Citizens United ~ 1006 Pennsylvania Ave SE ~ Washington D.C. 20003 Page 3 Solyndra: Spawn of Stimulus and it’s becoming more and more evident that this is a Chicago-style pay-to-play operation that reaches to the highest levels of the White House. The American people In early September, President Obama finally unveiled his deserve answers from the Obama Administration. What jobs plan: a new $447 “stimulus” package. The President did President Obama and his cronies know and when did exhorted Congress to “Pass this bill!” but Americans they know it? aren’t ready for another round of “stimulus” – we’re still trying to recover from the consequences of the last one, The L.A. Times reported that at an October 2010 White which cost nearly twice as much. House meeting Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Na- tional Economic Council advisor Lawrence Summers In 2009, President Obama rushed the stimulus bill warned that the vetting process for the loans wasn’t rigor- through Congress without even allowing the time for de- ous enough. Their concerns were well founded as the bate or the appropriate safeguards to be built. The origi- Solyndra loan had already been rushed through approval nal Obama stimulus plan was nothing but a lesson in how for a political photo op – just in time for Vice President to waste almost a trillion dollars in taxpayer funds. Presi- Joe Biden to announce the government’s support of the dent Obama’s liberal ideology tells him he’s smarter than program at the ground breaking ceremony of a new the free market system, the system that’s made America Solyndra plant in 2009. Rushing taxpayer funded loans the greatest economic superpower the world has ever out the door in an attempt to prove your economic plan known. Allowing the federal government to decide isn’t a failure is irresponsible and incompetent. where taxpayer money is sent to “stimulate” certain sec- tors of the economy simply creates new opportunities for Solyndra is a scandal that will be with the Obama White waste and abuse, like we’ve seen in the case of the re- House throughout the 2012 election cycle, because it cently bankrupt solar power company Solyndra. demonstrates why his $787 billion stimulus was a total waste of taxpayer money. The American people deserve Solyndra was one of the first “green” companies to be to know the facts of this case. The House Energy Sub- awarded a $527 million taxpayer-guaranteed loan via committee on Oversight and Investigations has held a President Obama’s last “stimulus” plan. The California hearing on Solyndra but the CEO and CFO of the com- based company was supposed to be the success model for pany stonewalled by invoking the Fifth Amendment 20 President Obama’s clean energy jobs program, but instead times. What are they refusing to tell Congress about that its failure left 1,100 people unemployed and taxpayers on could be so incriminating? the hook for a half billion dollars. The half a billion dollar loan to Solyndra is just a fraction What’s worse is that one of the President’s major cam- of the whole stimulus-funded $38.6 billion green jobs paign contributors - George Kaiser - was Solyndra’s big- loan program, which was bad policy from the start. Some gest shareholder. The loan to Solyndra was specially “clean” energy companies even turned down loans after structured to benefit investors like Kaiser in the event of applying because the terms were too inflexible for the bankruptcy, at the expense of the taxpayers. startups to make the necessary changes and improvements to keep their products competitive in a new and fast- Kaiser even greased the wheels to gain favor with the changing market.