Private Investment vs Public "Investment"

We hear our anti-capitalist Dear Leader attack investment bankers as evil, though he doesn't use the word. That’s his “evil empire”; not enemies of freedom but venture investment companies like Bain Capital. Our Dear Leader is forever talking about the government (him and Democrats) investing “in our children”, “in health care”, “in manufacturing”, and most importantly “in green jobs”.

Well, let’s do a comparison. Here’s the “investments” by Obama in the “green energy” industry:

Evergreen Solar
SpectraWatt
Solyndra (received $535 million)
Beacon Power (received $43 million)
AES’ subsidiary Eastern Energy
Nevada Geothermal (received $98.5 million)
SunPower (received $1.5 billion)
First Solar (received $1.46 billion)
Babcock & Brown (an Australian company which received $178 million)
Ener1 (subsidiary EnerDel received $118.5 million)
Amonix (received 5.9 million)
The National Renewable Energy Lab
Fisker Automotive
Abound Solar (received $400 million)
Chevy Volt (taxpayers basically own GM)
Solar Trust of America
A123 Systems (received $279 million)
Willard & Kelsey Solar Group (received $6 million)
Johnson Controls (received $299 million)
Schneider Electric (received $86 million)

All failed. 

About 80% of these companies are in the bag for Obama. “… $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party. The grant and guaranteed-loan recipients were early backers of Obama before he ran for president, people who continued to give to his campaigns and exclusively to the Democratic Party in the years leading up to 2008.  Article here.

Here’s a note to your pocketbook. Fossil fuel based energy costs 5 cents per kilowatt hours. “Green” based energy costs 35 cents an hour.  Obama is on vid saying he wants to drive energy costs up. His energy policy by design is to raise the amount of $money it takes to warm and cool your house, and purchase gas and oil for your car. 

Bain Capitol was involved in 77 companies between 1984 and 1999; 22 percent of them failed within that period Romney worked there. Some of the companies included AMC Entertainment, Aspen Education Group, Brookstone, Burger King, Burlington Coat Factory, Clear Channel Communications, Domino's Pizza, DoubleClick, Dunkin' Donuts, D&M Holdings, Guitar Center, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Sealy, The Sports Authority, Staples, Toys "R" Us, Warner Music Group and The Weather Channel.  Some pretty good investments and lots of jobs were generated.  Certainly more than Obama's "investments" listed above. Of course Obama’s “investments” have cost $billions and tens of thousands of jobs have been lost. In case you're wondering, I'm putting "investments" in scare quotes because they aren't, they're payoffs for crony capitalism. 

Much grief was given Romney, even by some Republicans, most notably by Rick Perry and Newt Gringrich during the Republican Presidential Debates. For some reason they thought if an investment failed no profit should be taken.  That money gets reinvested too, so it’s a wash there. On the other hand Bain used money from private sources they raised by being so competent people were willing to trust them with their money to the tune of $billions. On the other hand, Obama and the Dems used money confiscated (through taxation), borrowed from unfriendly foreign countries, and printed, to finance companies with no demand for their products and services, and in the case of car companies were failing due to stupid management.

We have a president and political party that use tax payer money (not their own put at risk) to “invest” in private companies. That’s okay. But a man that gains the trust of others, and risks his own money to invest is not okay.  Go figure.