Taypayer Handouts and Ripoffs

Stimulus: Obama Spends $1.85 Billion to Create 85 “Green” Jobs

July 10, 2010

SayAnthingBlog - A week ago I posted about the Obama administration spending $2 billion to create 3,500 jobs, with only 1,500 of those jobs being permanent. Clearly, even if we were to stipulate that government deficit spending on loans for industry that only exists because of additional government subsidies is sound economic policy (it isn’t), this is a rather inefficient level of job creation.

But John McCormack has drilled down a little deeper on this spending, and found that the majority of it is going to a Spanish company called Abenoga Solar to create just 85 jobs:

…President Obama announced in his July 3 weekly address that the federal government will back nearly $2 billion in loans to two solar power companies as part of its “green jobs” and stimulus programs. The $2 billion is supposed to produce 5,100 jobs–but most of them are only temporary construction jobs. A company called Abound Solar claims its $400 million loan will produce 1,500 permanent jobs in Colorado and Indiana, and–this is a fact Obama conveniently left out of his remarks–the $1.45 billion loan to the Spanish company Abengoa Solar will only produce 85 permanent jobs. That’s right: 85. I’m not cutting off any zeros.

But it gets worse. According to the Weekly Standard, it turns out that the VP for marketing at Abound Solar just happens to be the son of Representative Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania who sits on a House Subcommittee on Government Sponsored Enterprises. Which would be ironic if it weren’t so skeezey.

And this isn’t the first time Rep. Kanjorski’s son fleeced the taxpayers for big money:

Russell Kanjorski, the vice president for marketing at Abound Solar, was one of the principals in another energy company in northeast Pennsylvania, called Cornerstone Technologies LLC, which attracted $9 million in federal grants before it halted operations in 2003 and later filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. As reported by the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, “Cornerstone reported $14,100 in assets compared with $1.34 million in debt” in its bankruptcy filing. The $9 million in federal grants to Cornerstone were earmarked by Kanjorski’s uncle, Representative Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises.

By the way, if Abound Solar defaults on its government loans guess who gets to pay back 80% of them?

The taxpayers. Of course “pay back” is a misnomer in this instance. It was our money to begin with. So it’ll just be gone.

Hope for change.

Climate Policy Could Create Millions of Jobs

A report from the Center for Climate Strategies and Johns Hopkins University explains how federal climate policy could create 2.5 million jobs.

August 3, 2010

Guardian - The unemployment rate is stagnant at near record highs, businesses across the country are experiencing hiring freezes due to decreased revenue, and the overall state of the economy can be summed up with one word — blah. However, the federal government may be able to help improve the economy with one simple change, a federal climate policy. A new report from the Center for Climate Strategies and Johns Hopkins University, Impacts of Comprehensive Climate and Energy Policy Options on the U.S. Economy, details how climate policy could create 2.5 million jobs.

To reach this conclusion, researchers examined existing climate policies in 16 states and recommended the adoption of 23 different climate policy approaches. If implemented, the new climate policy could reduce pollution in a cost-effective manner, improve the health of our nation, improve the environment and spur economic development.

If all 23 of these measures were included in a new federal climate policy, we could realize a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions equal to 27 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. This is a greater reduction than that proposed by the federal government. The climate policy could also generate 2.5 million net new jobs and a $159.6 billion expansion in GDP by 2020. While there is direct environmental and economic benefit, the proposed changes could also lead to a reduction in energy costs for consumers: .56 percent reduction in gasoline and oil, .6 percent reduction for fuel oil and coal, 2.01 percent for electricity, and .87 percent for natural gas during the same time period.

These 23 measures fall into four sectors: forestry and waste; energy supply; residential, commercial and industrial; and transportation and land use. Areas targeted in the forestry and waste sector include urban forestry and expanding recycling programs. Energy supply topics covered include nuclear energy, renewables, coal plant efficiency, and carbon capture storage and reuse.

Energy efficiency is key in the residential, commercial and industrial category including building codes, combined heat and power, and appliance standards. Suggestions in the transportation and land use sector include mandating the use of anti-idling technologies, mass transit, and rebates and other purchase incentives for fuel-efficient vehicles.

Although this report shows that the national effect of a federal climate policy will be beneficial across the board, the state of the nation’s political system is not welcoming to climate legislation at this time. The Senate recently removed the climate bill from its agenda and unfortunately, no one knows when it may return.

GOP: Obama Programs Don't Create Private Sector Jobs

April 2, 2010

CBS News - Washington needs to do more to spur private job growth, both Democrats and Republicans are saying today. Yet while Democrats are touting their programs like the stimulus and health care reform as job-creators, the GOP contends those programs are simply bloating the federal government.

The unemployment rate for March held steady at 9.7 percent for the third month in a row, the Labor Department announced today. While unemployment did not go down, more jobs were created, which helped accommodate more people entering the workforce. The Labor Department said employers added 162,000 jobs in March, including 48,000 temporary workers hired for the U.S. Census.

The White House reacted with cautious optimism to the news.

"While this is the most positive jobs report we have had in three years, there will likely be bumps in the road ahead," Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement. "At the same time that we welcome today's encouraging labor market news, it is obvious that the American labor market remains severely distressed... Further targeted actions to spur private sector job creation are critically needed to ensure a more rapid, widespread recovery."

"We are beginning to turn the corner," President Obama said today at the Celgard LLC factory in Charlotte, North Carolina. "This month more Americans woke up, got dressed and headed to work."

Democrats have pressed the message that their policies will foster job creation.

While a year ago, the economy was hemorrhaging jobs, there is now job creation because of "the measures that we took," the president said today. "Measures that were necessary even though they were unpopular."

Yesterday at a health care rally in Maine, Mr. Obama touted a tax credit for small businesses to help them provide health care for their employees as "pro-jobs" and "pro-business." Anticipating that one of the president's next priorities will be energy legislation, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer this week called Mr. Obama's announcement to allow for offshore drilling a plan that "will help create jobs."

Republicans, however, are arguing that Democrats are promoting government-centric policies.

Republican House Whip Eric Cantor said today that the health care bill burdens some businesses and "forces them to cut jobs."

"We must work to move beyond this uncertainty by creating a sustained period of real job creation, and that can only start once Washington stops actively impeding economic growth," he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back in a statement claiming that health care reform will create up to 4 million new jobs over the decade.

"News that American job losses of nearly 800,000 a month under President Bush are now turning to job gains of 162,000 last month -- the most jobs added in one month in the past three years -- is evidence that U.S. businesses are gaining confidence," Pelosi said.

Republicans are also focusing on the large number of jobs added to the public sector last month.

"A near ten-percent unemployment rate is completely unacceptable, and no amount of taxpayer-funded temporary Census workers can mask the pummeling America's employers are taking from Washington Democrats' job-killing agenda," House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a statement.

Furthermore, they say the president's $787 billion stimulus package signed into law last year to create jobs has been ineffective. A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pointed to an administration report issued last year in which Romer and Jared Bernstein, an economic policy adviser for the vice president, wrote that without the stimulus package, unemployment would hit around 8.8 percent.

Mr. Obama said today that the stimulus package is not only helping now, but also part of a long term strategy to invest in industries that will be vital in the future, such as clean energy. He praised the stimulus investment in lithium ion battery production.

The United States is "already seeing an incredible transformation" in that industry, he said. He added that investment in lithium ion batteries can "expand and catalyze an entire new industry where the United States of America can gain enormous market share across the globe."