This one truly maxes out the irony meter. One day after Romney made a public appearance excoriating Obama for the Solyndra failure, calling it "crony capitalism", Konarka Technologies goes belly up. What is Konarka Technologies you ask? Konarka was a solar company that Romney subsidized as Governor of Massachusettes! :lol:
And Konarka isn't the only example of Romney's failed ventures into "crony capitalism". As one of his first acts as governor, Romney also doled out a $2.5 million subsidy to Evergreen Solar, which has also gone belly up.
Crossroads ad slams Obama over company that got taxpayer money from Governor Romney - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
:yawn:
That's not chrony capitalism... what chrony of Romney's is involved? There's a huge difference between a company that took some funds from the government as a subsidy when it showed signs of promising success individually, and giving government funds to start up businesses, but then giving private investors they know the chance to withdraw their investments before the company goes belly up, leaving the risk on the US Taxpayer money...
Solyndra was a 2005 start up... They posted $100M profit in 2009... The Obama Administration made a $535M investment in a $737M state of the art robotic facility in March of 2009, finalized in September of 2009... Then when it opened they touted it as an example of how to succeed... But, just 2 years later in September of 2011 it announced it was shutting down... The Obama administration was heavily involved with the running of Solyndra, and there was an FBI investigation into the corruption within the organization, which allowed a major campaign donor to the Obama Administration to take his large investment in the company out days before they announed that they would be shutting down...
That's nothing like the situation with companies going bankrupt in 2011 & 2012, with tinkering done by the Patrick Administration...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/business/energy-environment/15solar.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
"Ian A. Bowles, the former energy and environment chief for Gov. Deval L. Patrick, a Democrat who pushed for the solar panel factory to be located in Massachusetts, said the federal government had not helped the American industry enough or done enough to challenge Chinese government subsidies for its industry. Evergreen has received no federal money."
Evergreen Solar started in 1994, and recieved $21M from the MA State Government to assist with the loss of Ft Devens base closing... Mitt Romney is governor from 2003-2007, they get $2.1M of that money from the Government during Romney's tenure, then in 2008, the Patrick Administration goads them into building their new expensive factory in MA, with a $20M investment... in 2011, they announce that theyre going to shift production to China, closing the Devens plant, and then months later announced they would file for bankruptcy... (How are you attributing this to Romney?)
Konarka Technologies started in 2001, they were granted 8 patents in 2002 and 2003, Romney was Governor from 2003-2007 and they got $1.5M in government subsidies, while they had raised $170M in private equity... then later the Patrick Administration gave Konarka $20M, but Konarka Technologies filed for bankruptcy in 2012... (How are you attributing this to Romney?)
So Romney was governor, when 2 established companies took small susidies of $1.5M & $2.1M from the governmeent, but were mostly operating on private money... then 3 terms later, under a different governor, that tinkered heavily with the industry, with larger subsidies, to influence company's decisions those companies went bankrupt...
That's a huge difference from Obama making a significant investment of $535M (150 times as much as what Romney's administration invested in the two companies combined) in a single company, which didn't have the private funding to speak of, and having it go belly up within 2 years, and under his watch, with the FBI investigation showing corruption within the running of the company, and their collusion with the Obama Administration....
Don't confuse stories... I know you're trying to get cute to play politics, but realistically, you know there's a major difference between the two approaches...
In 1) The Government contributes a small amount of subsidy to a private company, which has attracted private investment and has a successful business plan... The risk is minimal, since the investment is minimal, and the government is hands off in their approach to dealing with the company...
In 2) The Government takes a small company, and puts a massive amount of funds at risk by becoming the major investor in a company thats not on sound footing, but they chance that expensive equipment will lead to results... Thus, the Government gets hands on in decisions made by the company, which creates the potential for collusions and corruption to take place...
The US has a long history of results from these two different approaches, with #1 leading to mostly successful companies who are able to slightly expand based on some additional subsidy... but #2 leading to mixed results, with some high profile failures risking public funds on unsound companies, and reports of corruption and collusion leading to mistrust of public funding and public officials as a result...
So people can decide... Approach #1 under Romney, or Approach #2 under Obama...
(and again, another major difference with most of Romney and Obama's actions... Romney did so as Governor with a balanced budget, Obama did so as President ballooning the deficit and debt to astronomical highs...)
