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发帖数: 29846 | 1 佩林轰奥巴马治下的裙带资本主义盛行：从通用电气（GE）拿了5亿联邦贷款保证然后
关门大吉的“绿色能源”Solyndra
Crony Capitalism on Steroids from GE to Solyndra
by Sarah Palin on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 8:25pm
In my recent speech in Iowa
, some eyebrows were raised when I took on our government’s enormous
economic problems caused by crony capitalism. As if on cue, just days later
President Obama selected someone who exemplifies a major crony capitalism
problem to sit next to the First Lady when he delivered his “jobs plan”
speech before Congress. He selected General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as
his honored guest.
Having grown up with great respect for GE thanks to stories my grandfather
shared with us about his days working for the company and even meeting GE
spokesman-at-the-time Ronald Reagan during a company event, I am saddened at
GE’s leadership evolution. This corporation is now the poster child of
corporate welfare and crony capitalism.
This icon of American industry is a company full of good employees who make
some good products (and is the parent company of a huge media outlet), but
GE is also a large American corporation that pays virtually no corporate
income taxes despite earning worldwide profits of $14.2 billion last year, $
5.1 billion of it in the United States. In fact, they claimed a tax benefit
of $3.2 billion, meaning they received more of our hard earned tax dollars
than they contributed. How is that possible? It’s because not only do they
shelter their money from taxes, but they also get many tax credits, loans,
government grants, and other benefits from the federal government that our
smaller businesses couldn’t even imagine being able to profit from.
Joining GE in the pantheon of crony capitalism is another Obama favorite
that has been in the news of late: Solyndra. The President hailed this “
green energy” company in a speech last May as “the true engine of economic
growth.” When he announced the $535 million guarantee to Solyndra, Vice
President Biden said that investments like this are “exactly what the
Recovery Act is all about.” (Dear God…If the failed Solyndra venture has
been what it’s “all about,” then that explains a lot.) As I pointed out
in my speech at the Reagan Ranch Center last February: “History has proven
again and again, when government picks the winners and losers, we’re stuck
with the losers, and we the taxpayers subsidize failure!” And that’s what
we’re seeing now, as the FBI raids
the solar energy company’s headquarters to glean more information after the
company was handed half a billion dollars in “green energy” Stimulus
funds from the American taxpayer only to later declare bankruptcy. More than
one thousand
Solyndra workers lost their jobs. Now as the truth comes out, we discover
that the White House was heavily involved in the Department of Energy’s
rushed decision to give the Stimulus funds to Solyndra, and they tried to
move the money through so quickly
they seem to have ignored concerns that the company was not viable. Why
would they do this? Perhaps it’s because a large investor in the company (
about 35%) is Obama campaign bundler George Kaiser. And with the way the
deal is structured, Kaiser will get his debts paid
before we the taxpayers see any relief. That is sickening. And that’s how
it works: workers lose their jobs, wealthy political cronies stand a good
chance of getting their money back, and the U.S. taxpayer gets the shaft.
Again.
President Obama has his sights set on raising $1 billion for his reelection
campaign. Raising that money won’t be easy. But if you can hand out other
people’s money to friends, it must get a whole lot easier. This crony
capitalism and government waste is at the heart of our economic problems. It
will destroy us if we don’t root it out. It’s not just a Democrat problem
or a Republican problem. It’s a problem of our permanent political class.
This won’t stop until “we the people” say enough is enough, and we retire
the permanent political class that votes for this.
- Sarah Palin |
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