Rumors of a scandal swirl as the bankrupt corporation owes taxpayers $535 million

Four months ago, there was President Obama, intrepid stimulator of the economy, sage creator of jobs, fount of hope and change, summoner of transcendence and transparency in governance, on a visit to the Solyndra plant in Fremont, CA, inspecting solar panels on the factory floor, shaking the hands of construction workers–in hard hats and reflective vests!–and addressing the beneficiaries of his stimulus and the innovators leading the world in the green energy technology revolution. He closed his speech at Solyndra, the recipient of a $535 million dollar loan from the U.S. taxpayer, with a ringing endorsement of the company and its work:

Every day that you build

The Obama Jobs Speech Proposes a Solution and Sparks Tax Debate

President Barack Obama’s jobs speech to a joint session of Congress last Thursday night seemed to provide a blip of hope against a backdrop of unrelenting economic malaise, political gridlock in the capital, and the recent news that job growth had ground to a halt in August, the worst performance since September 2010. In an uncharacteristic display of executive leadership, President Obama abandoned the conciliatory, above-the-partisan-fray tone that has characterized much of his Presidency as well as the sweepingly inspirational, and conveniently vague, platitudes that swept him to electoral victory and, sounding confident and even mildly combative, delivered his plan to get America working again.

Despite a bevy of … Read more...

The 2012 elections will be all about taxes like them or not.

Tax mavens looking forward to next year’s general election are feverishly sharpening their knives. Because, make no mistake about it, taxes will figure grandly at the coming feast. The recent, Kick the can debt ceiling agreement has made this unavoidable. By their intransigence on precisely the issue of taxation, the members of the Tea Party have contrived to make taxes and spending the main item on the electoral menu.

And it is not solely the matter of whether to tax or not to tax, but whom to tax, how to tax, and at what rate. The 2012 elections, with 33 senate seats at play, 11 gubernatorial races on … Read more...