September, 2012 Political Class Insanity - Part 2: Solyndra Revisited, The Best Jobs In The World Are GSA Jobs, And Lost Money In California

Yesterday, we covered the first set of political class insanity acts that we have uncovered over the past month or so. Unfortunately, as time goes by, it seems we need more and more space just to cover the increasing insanity, idiocy and wasteful ways of our politicians. Thus, today is the carry over from yesterday's first set of the latest shenanigans from Washington and politicians all over:

- Most knowledgeable Americans are aware of the incredibly disastrous Solyndra escapade. In this example, we have reviewed the gory details many times:

• Solyndra, a California solar panel company, was given a Federal government/Department of Energy loan guarantee of over half a billion dollars, a loan guarantee that went south along with the taxpayer funding when Solyndra proved to be incapable of competing in the solar panel market.
• Another investor in Solyndra, with strong ties to the Obama administration, illegally had its investment priority put in front of the American taxpayer's, resulting in taxpayers receiving nothing in return after the bankruptcy proceedings of Solyndra divvied up the remains of the business.
• The biggest advocate for giving Solyndra the loan guarantee was a high ranking employee in the Department of Energy whose wife worked for the law firm that Solyndra used, a clear conflict of interest.
• The loan guarantee was made prematurely from a financial due diligence perspective because the President and his advisers wanted the loan guarantee to conform to his political photo op schedule, not the needed financial review schedule. This premature action resulted in the loss of over a half billion dollars worth of taxpayer wealth.

This is all serious stuff. However, to understand the true insanity of how our politicians cavalierly flushed half a billion dollars down the cronyism drain, consider the insulting quotes that have come to light from the actual emails that were generated as a result of Solyndra:

• The Office Of Budget Management was one of the government organizations that was not allowed to complete its analysis on the wisdom of the Solyndra loan. However, when it finally finished its analysis, an email from one of its analysts, Kelly Coylar, sent out an email with her estimate of what the American taxpayer might lose as a result of the Solyndra financing: "Expected loss: $385 million principle plus deferred interest." Thus, at least someone in the Federal government knew what was going to happen. Unfortunately, Ms. Coylar was not in a position to avoid the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.
• Another investor in Solyndra, Brad Jones, who was an advisor with Solyndra investor Redpoint Ventures, emailed that the Federal loan guarantee for Solyndra would be a positive move for Redpoint. However, even Mr. Jones knew any government investment in Solyndra was a stupid idea: “I can’t imagine it’s a good way for the government to use taxpayer money.”
• Thomas Baruch, who was the founder of the investment firm CEMA Capital, which was another private investor in Solyndra, is quoted in an email discussing how getting taxpayer money out of Washington was as important as actually succeeding in the marketplace: “Getting business from Uncle Sam is a principal element of Solyndra’s channel strategy.” You know you do not have a viable business model and product when getting free Washington money is critical to your success.
• This importance of Federal government financing was reinforced by an email from Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet that he wrote on October 9, 2009: "The Bank of Washington continues to help us!" What a disgrace that he viewed taxpayer money as a piggy bank for his company. That is how far from reality and success in the marketplace this project had strayed when it took down half a billion dollars of taxpayer wealth.

You can see many other disgraceful, attitudes, quotes, and the actual emails at the following web page:

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/08/03/the-10-most-revealing-solyndra-emails/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

How disgusting that business leaders, political cronies, and politicians can toss around hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer wealth as if they were in a nickel/dime poker game.

- Over the past few months we have covered the fiscal collapse and coming insolvency of various levels of California state governments, mostly as a result of wasteful spending over the decades by the California political class:

• A southern California city was rocked by scandal a few years ago when it came to light that the politicians in that city were making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to perform their duties, payment levels that were orders of magnitude greater than what most other local politicians are paid.
• Two large California cities, Stockton and San Bernadino, and other smaller California towns, have filed for bankruptcy as a result of having paid their current and retired city employees too much in salary and job benefits.
• Another southern California city revealed earlier this year that it sometimes paid it lifeguards over $200,000 a year, more than three times the average U.S. household income and orders of magnitude higher than your average lifeguard around the nation.
• The Associated Press recently reported that Hermosa Beach, a 1.3 square mile California town, was paying the two supervisors of its "meter maids" almost $100,000 a year and paying the rest of its meter maid staff an average salary of $75,000 or so, simply for writing parking tickets.

Thus, it is no surprise that towns, counties, and the state government are in deep, deep financial trouble. But in these times of tight tax revenue and revenue shortfalls, a recent audit of California state government financials found that the state is so poorly operated that the audit uncovered the fact that the state government has pots of unknown money laying about unused:

• $54 million was found in the California’s State Parks Department as the department planned to shut down 70 park facilities and was actively soliciting private donations to keep those same facilities open.
• Another $113 million was located in a bottle recycling program which had previous been reported as broke.
• As a result of these and other embarrassing discoveries of lost money, Governor Jerry Brown has called for a more detailed look into the state’s controller’s office, which is responsible for managing the state's financials.

What a disgrace. As California schools are closed, public servants like police and fire fighters are laid off, as social services are cut, it turns out that California has more money than it thought but just cannot find it. This insanity was neatly summed up by Nicholas Johnson, vice president for state and fiscal policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, to comment, “When a state’s revenues have been hammered as hard as California’s have during the last few years, the reasonable expectation would be that state officials are finding every last dollar before going after services with a meat cleaver.”

That would certainly be a reasonable expectation for everyone, except those that are in the political class.

- Keeping in mind a previous government spending scandal where General Services Administration (GSA) employees threw themselves a lavish, $832,000 Las Vegas party using taxpayer wealth and the average household income in this country is about $50,000, consider more depressing and despicable spending, again courtesy of the GSA. These findings came about by an investigation by WUSA Channel 9 in D.C. using GSA payroll official records and reported in the Washington Free Beacon on August 6, 2012:

• Although GSA employees make up only 1% of the Federal government workforce, GSA bonuses made up 10%  of Federal government bonuses paid out in 2011.
• A number of 2011 GSA employee bonuses were worth $50,000 or more.
• One GSA employee received an $80,000 bonus, in addition to $180,000 in salary and other compensation.
• The analysis found widespread abuse of GSA overtime pay including one instance where a GSA electrician received an $84,000 salary plus $115,000 in overtime and a $4,600 bonus.
• Two GSA air conditioning mechanics earned total pay of $130,000 and $201,000.
• The director of the Federal Acquisition Service made $257,000 2011, which included more than $63,000 in overtime pay and a $7,100 bonus.
• An environmental specialist at the Federal Acquisition Service received a $3,500 bonus on top a of $117,000 salary.
• Another “greening officer” at the GSA Public Buildings Service (PBS) earned a $150,000 base salary and a $7,500 bonus.
• A “gardener inspector” earned $90,000 in total pay, including more than $15,000 in overtime and a $2,500 bonus. Unbelievable.
• Three painters were paid about $80,000 each, which included bonuses averaging about $2,700 and overtime pay ranging from $12,000 to $16,000.
• One plumber made nearly the equivalent of his base salary ($51,000) in overtime pay ($45,000).
• An electrician earned a base salary of $93,000 and received $87,000 worth of overtime pay, as well as a $3,400 bonus.
• In an ironic twist, in the midst of this disgraceful spending, the GSA “cash control officer” in the GSA office of the chief financial officer earned just $41,000 total pay, including $432 worth of overtime and no bonus.

I had always thought that best job in the world was being a Washington politician. However, based on these payroll records, it might not be too bad of a gig to be a plumber, painter, electrician or just about any employee at the GSA. Ridiculously bad set of payment priorities in the midst of almost 13 million American taxpayers out of work and unemployed.

That is enough political class insanity today. Unfortunately, we will need another day to cover all of the insanity and goofball actions from around the country that occurred this past month. We will do that tomorrow along with providing some suggestions on how to stop the insanity of the American political class, insanity we can no longer afford to finance and insanity we should never be forced to endure in the first place.

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
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http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/