Using Obama's Senior Staff To Undercut His Tax The Rich Insanity

Before we do today's post, let me set some personal background:

1. I am not what the typical American would consider rich.
2. I drive an eight year old car and my wife drives a six year old car, neither of which cost us over $22,000 when we bought them.
3. We live in a typical American, suburban, 2,000 square foot home.
4. We do not take exotic vacations to far away places.
5. We do not own a boat (or yacht).
6. We do not own second and third homes in far away exotic places.
7. Our marginal income tax bracket in 2011 was 15%.

Thus, I personally have nothing at stake when discussing whether the rich in this country should pay more in taxes. All of the plans the President has proposed under his tax the rich class warfare will not directly affect my household.

As we have done many times in this blog, let's quickly review how the Washington political class wastes hundreds of billions of dollars a year:

• Unbiased, nonpartisan estimates put the annual waste and criminal fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid Federal programs at anywhere from $110 to $150 billion a year.
• Unbiased, nonpartisan estimates put the annual waste and criminal fraud in the Social Security system at about $100 billion a year.
• The Federal government has admitted that just one of its unemployment benefits program probably loses $17 billion a year to fraud.
• The IRS has admitted that it fails to collect upwards of $380 billion a year owed to it under the current tax code but unpaid by tax evaders.
• If the Federal food stamp program wastes money at the same rate of other Federal programs than about $7 billion a year of taxpayer wealth is lost via fraud in this program.
• Total waste just from these few Federal efforts: $515 - $545 billion dollars a year.

Thus, without going into other areas of Federal government waste (e.g. defense spending, overstaffing, bad contracting, etc.), we can easily see that the Federal bureaucracy conservatively wastes over $500 billion a year. This comes out to about $4,300 for every U.S. household every year. I am sure that every one of those households would like to see their household income increased $4,300 every year without suffering any cut back in government services if only the Washington political class ran a tighter ship.

This $500 billion annual waste is why no American, rich or poor, at this point in time should be required to pay another penny in Federal taxes. There is more than enough wealth go around, it is just that our Federal politicians waste so much of it.

But that is not how Obama sees it. It wants the higher earners in this country to pay more and more in Federal taxes even though these same earners already pay for a massive amount of the Federal bureaucracy, both in total dollars and as a percentage of total dollars. Their average percentage of income sent to Washington as taxes looks like the following distribution according to actual IRS tax return data (click on the chart for a larger view):

Consider the two tax the rich schemes that Obama has proposed:

1. In one scheme, Americans earning over $1,000,000 a year would pay more in taxes. This scheme would net the Federal government about $4.9 billion more a year in taxes. This is less than 1% of the annual amount that Washington wastes in current Federal programs. This will virtually no impact on making other Americans' lives better, reducing our national debt, or closing our annual deficits, considering the fact that the Obama administration is running deficits of voer $1 TRILLION every year.
2. In his other scheme, those Americans earning over $250,000 would pay more in taxes. This would generate about $70 billion more a year in taxes for the Federal government, only about 14% of the annual amount wasted every year. Even this $70 billion a year is only about 6% of an average Obama annual spending deficit so even this higher tax plan would do little to fix the financial state of the country.

The bottom line is that Obama and the rest of Washington's political class could get so much better returns if they focused on just plugging the leaks in current government spending rather than waste time and do all of this political posturing over taxing the rich. In addition, I would think that keeping more money available circulating in our weakening economy, either $4.9 billion or $70 billion, is a better use of this wealth than sending into the black hole of Washington. Obama said the exactly same thing several years ago in 2009: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/07/10/obama_flashback_last_thing_you_want_in_recession_is_to_raise_taxes

Okay, this is all a long winded set up to using Obama's staff as an example of why these are stupid tax plans. Consider the research and analysis that the Washington Free Beacon printed on July 10, 2012 (http://freebeacon.com/obamas-millionaires/):

• All of the information from the article are sourced back to the official White House website on White House staff salaries or to the original financial disclosure forms that White House personnel are required to file under law.
• Thus, a reader can verify that the Beacon article is based on official government documents and not speculation.
• According to the article, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, Press Secretary Jay Carney, Cabinet Secretary Chrisopher Lu, and senior advisers David Plouffe and Valerie Jarrett all earn the maximum White House salary of $172,200 per year.
• This top salary band places them well under the two potential tax the rich thresholds that Obama would like to see implemented, either $250,000 or $1 million, but in the upper 5% of all American wage earners.
• However, the Beacon reports, based on their own personal financial disclosure records, Jarrett’s net worth is between $3.3 million and $13 million. Lu is worth between $2.3 million and $5.2 million, Plouffe is worth as much as $3.6 million, Carney as much as $3.2 million, and Pfeiffer as much as $2.1 million.

Interesting stuff. Now consider a struggling business owner who is trying to get his or her business into a growth mode. They have thrown their life savings into this endeavor. They are trying to contribute to society by producing a worthwhile service or product. Let's assume that they are like thousands and thousands of other small businesses and they file their business and personal income tax returns together because that is the easiest and most advantageous approach for them. 

If they are like many small business earners, they have made tremendous personal sacrifices over the past few years, according to a recent Citibank survey of small business owners: 

“Keeping businesses afloat has required sacrifices on the part of both employer and employees, the survey found. Over the past few years, business owners report that they have, at one time or another, taken less profit (78 percent), worked more hours than usual (70 percent), and used their own money to help the business survive (69 percent).

“But what is most revealing is that the majority of respondents — 54 percent — say they have gone without a paycheck in order to keep the business running. And nearly one-quarter (23 percent) have gone without pay for one year or more.

Employees, too, sacrificed finances for their employers. More than one-third of owners (38 percent) said their employees worked overtime without pay; 18 percent said employees either missed paychecks or had paychecks delayed.” (see this CNBC report for the details: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47723383.)

Times are certainly tough and challenging for America's small business owners.

But let's assume that theoretical small business has gotten their business income up to $400,000 a year. Under Obama's second, and probably preferred tax the rich scheme, this business owner would likely now have to pay additional taxes on about $150,000 of his or her annual income stream.

These are additional taxes that cannot be used to expand the business. These are additional taxes that cannot be used to expand hiring or give additional benefits to employees. These are additional taxes that the small business owner will never see any advantage of paying.

And the ironic thing is that the millionaires sitting on Obama's staff, people that are financially far better off than thousands and thousands of struggling small business owners, people that have already made their fortunes and currently enjoy high salaries and outstanding benefits, will not be impacted at all. Does not seem "fair" or good economic policy to me.

Another example. Consider someone who has a net worth of $6,000,000. They have invested all of their worth in tax free municipal bonds that earn them a return of about 4% a year, tax free. Thus, they annually earn $250,000 a year but will not be paying any more in taxes. The hypothetical small business owner we created above would be paying more in taxes even though their personal and business wealth is likely far below this individual's $6 million personal wealth.

And that is the fallacy of Obama's tax the rich scheme. He wants to increase taxes on current high earners, as he defines them, which may not translate into taxes on the wealthy, as proven by our sample municipal bond investor and many on Obama's staff. Thus, he will be helping to cripple America's job creation machinery, small businesses, without any discernible impact on the economy, our national debt, or out annual spending deficit by the Federal government.

But this type of short sighted, self defeating is typical of most politicians including the President:

• Rather than do the nitty gritty work of coming come up with a coherent, fair, and economically favorable tax code overhaul, let's just tax more Americans in a helter skelter manner.
• Rather than do the nitty gritty work of coming up with a coherent, fair, and effective national energy strategy and policy, let's just throw around billions of taxpayer dollars in a helter skelter manner to near bankrupt alternative energy companies (Solyndra, Beacon, Spectra, A123, Ener1, etc.) and see what sticks, if anything.
• Rather than do the nitty gritty work of cleaning up the waste, inefficiencies, and criminal fraud that is rampant throughout every Federal bureaucracy and saving hundreds of billions of dollars in the process, let's just expand those programs to cover the shortfall of waste and tax Americans more to cover the incompetence.
• Rather than do the nitty gritty work of understanding the root causes of our escalating health care costs, let's just put another massive Federal bureaucracy in place and implement about two dozen additional taxes to pay for it without understanding how to address and resolve the underlying root causes.

Which I guess is the root causes of our problems with government and the politicians that operate it. They are unwilling, unable, or too distracted worrying about their reelection or personal enrichment to do the nitty gritty work of governing. Maybe that is why major issues never get resolved, our tax burden continues to increase, and our national debt burden is skyrocketing, not only for current generations of Americans but future generations also.

Thus, the next time you hear that the President wants to raise taxes on the rich to make our tax system "fair", remember that he is not necessarily talking about taxing the wealthy, he is talking about taxing current "high" earners. Current earners that are struggling to create viable businesses and the economic growth and jobs growth that comes with it.

Many wealthy Americans, including a lot of Obama's staff are wealthy but not current high earners, under his definition. They already made their wealth and Obama's short sighted tax the rich schemes will exempt them while penalizing the job engines of small businesses. 

It makes you wonder if Apple would still be one of the largest companies in the world from a valuation perspective if Wozniak and Jobs had been considered wealthy, under Obama's definition a few decades ago. They may have been required to pay more in taxes, under Obama's tax the rich scheme, for little in return, when they were still working out of their garages. How many potential Apple-like small business owners are working out of their garages today and will see their potential to grow hamstrung by a shortsighted and misleading tax the rich scheme?

We may never know but we do know that it is unnecessary, given the disgraceful level of government wasteful spending that goes on today.

***********************************
As far as the nitty gritty of running a government, a concept that seems foreign and undoable to many of today's politicians, may I recommend the following links to them for a starting point of actually running a viable, cost effective organization:

Revising the tax code: http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-fixing-our.html

Implementing a coherent national energy strategy: http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-presidency_09.html

Resolving our escalating health care cost issues: http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-solving-our_12.html

Saving the fiscal solvency of Social Security: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-saving-social.html



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 http://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/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Abra Kadabra - The Right Hand Of The Federal Government Still Does Not Know What The Left Hand Is Doing

Several times we have discussed the fact that our Federal government has grown so large and unwieldy, becoming more like Jabba The Hutt of Star Wars (a parasitic blob that wastes resources) than an efficient and effective organization, that we often come across ludicrous situations where one part of the Federal government is doing something that is in direct conflict with what another tentacle of the government is doing:

• A little while ago we saw how the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department were doing the exact opposite of each other. One entity was busy trying to reduce the volume of long term Treasury bills in the market and increase the amount of short term Treasury bills while the other entity was trying to expand the volume of long term notes and reduce the volume of short term notes.See the following link for more details: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/10/clueless-in-washington.html
• Another time we saw how the Department of Agriculture was increasing the amount of cheap corn in the market with its farm subsidies, making obesity provoking foods less expensive and more widely used due to the proliferation of cheap corn fructose while other parts of the government were trying to reduce the use of corn fructose infested foods to fight obesity. See the following link for more detail: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/06/your-local-and-state-government-in.html

I am sure I could pull up some other examples from past blog posts but you get the idea. This thing called the Federal government has gotten so large and cumbersome that it cannot help but get in the way of itself every day. If the loss of taxpayer wealth and loss of freedom was not so tragic, some of these antics and working at cross purposes would be kind of funny in a Keystone Kop kind of way.

Unfortunately, these actions do waste incredible amounts of taxpayer money and do rob us of our freedom as the government intrudes to our personal lives more and more with its bureaucratic bumbling.

Today let's talk about the latest crashing together of different government priorities and how this crashing negates the use of taxpayer wealth in the process. Specifically, the latest cross purpose example comes out of the recently passed Senate farm bill. Most of the following information comes from an article in the July 8, 2012 issue of Money News:

• The Federal government and every state government adds a multitude of taxes onto each pack of cigarettes that consumers buy in order to 1) collect taxes on each pack sold and 2) to discourage the purchase and use of cigarettes (not included in the Money News article).
• The Federal government recently announced a new $54 million, 12-week TV ad campaign it will be airing to encourage smokers to give up the smoking habit.
• State level and Federal spending on anti-smoking efforts have topped $800 million in some years.
• Which raises the question that if government entities want to discourage smoking, why does the latest Senate approved farm bill contain continued taxpayer financial support for the industry responsible for the product targeted by those anti-smoking ads, namely the tobacco farming industry?
• From 1995 through 2011, the Federal government has paid out $1.329 billion in subsidies for the tobacco industry. In 2011 alone, Federal taxpayers paid out over $190 million in tobacco subsidies to 58,350 recipients, according to analyses done by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
• North Carolina receives the largest share of the subsidies — 39.7% of the total or $528 million from 1995 through 2011 — followed by Kentucky at 28.7%. The taxpayer waste is not even spread out across a lot of states if only two states sop up almost 70% of the total subsidy.

So let me get this straight. Smoking is a leading cause of disease and death in this country and a prime driver in our problem with escalating health care costs. As a result, the Federal and state governments in this country spend taxpayer money, sometimes to the tune of $800 million a year, to discourage Americans from smoking. This is so important in one part of the Federal government that it is launching a $54 million television ad campaign to encourage people to stop smoking.

However, in the past seven years, the same people running these same government entities have also given away over $1.3 billion of taxpayer wealth to tobacco farmers to help them grow tobacco that leads to disease and death and contributes to our escalating health care costs.

Wouldn't this money have been better spent by either returning it to the American taxpayer, using it to fund lung cancer research, or to help treat victims of lung cancer, a cancer that is most often caused by tobacco smoking? These seems like better uses for over a billion dollars than giving it to tobacco farmers who grow a product that governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to discourage people from using. Makes no sense.

But making no sense by our political class should not come as any surprise. They do it every day. How else to you explain the fact that these same politicians have overspent and incurred a national debt of almost $16 TRILLION without resolving a single major issue facing American families today: our public schools still fail to educate, we are still losing a war on drugs, our borders still leak, we still do not have a national energy policy, our health care costs continue to rise, our infrastructure continues to decay, etc.

That is why Step 1 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" is so important. Step 1 would reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for five years. Not only would this result in a tremendous relief to our national debt problem and spur our economy, it would force these politicians to focus on a much smaller set of priorities since they would have far less taxpayer money to spend and waste and divert their attention. With a smaller set of priorities, maybe, just maybe, they might resolve an issue or two.

Lord knows paying tobacco farmers to grow tobacco to be consumed by consumers that the Federal government wants to discourage consumers from consuming is not the right priority.

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 http://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/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

How Obama Could Have Won The Alternative Energy Challenge Rather Than Lose The Alternative Energy Cronyism Game

Recently we talked about how the Obama administration has lost the alternative energy battle. Rather than come up with an overarching national energy strategy, his administration insisted on wasting billions and billions of dollars by showering Democratic political allies and donors with free taxpayer wealth for companies that were either ill-managed, ill-financed, or ill-prepared to deal with the reality of the real marketplace.

As a result of this very tactical, short term, amateurish approach, we as a nation gave away billions of dollars and have gotten nothing in return and will get nothing in return. Most of these tactical steps ended up with bankrupted, out-of-business companies and ventures. Solyndra, Abound, Beacon, Spectra, Evergreen, Fisker, Tesla. The alternative energy road of short term, political thinking is strewn with the wreckage of these companies.

But let's add insult to injury. According to a May 17, 2012 article by Business Week, the U.S. Commerce Department is trying to place tariffs on imported Chinese solar panels, accusing the Chinese of dumping solar panels on our market at far below market values. This supposed tactic was cited as the reason that Solyndra, Abound, and other alternative energy companies went out of business. The pending tariff could be as high as 31%, according to the article.

To most rational and observant people, it appears that China has beaten us to the market dominance position in basic solar panels. They have thrown their taxpayers' money at that industry in their country and now appear to be the top dog in the world manufacturing of solar panels. The Obama administration has proven that giving out millions of dollars to political cronies in this industry cannot compete with the Chinese that are giving away billions of their citizens' money.

Why then does the President continue to insist that he "double down" with our money on failed alternative energy initiatives? When will he figure it out that we have missed the train of market dominance in the solar panel industry? So why not accept these facts and for once, think strategically:

• Strategically, why not accept the cheap solar panels into the country tariff-free in order to make solar energy technology more affordable for homeowners?
• If you cannot expand the domestic solar energy PRODUCTION industry, if homeowners found solar panels much more affordable, courtesy of the Chinese, they would help create more jobs by expanding the solar panel INSTALLER industry and solar panel MAINTENANCE industry. This would certainly make a more positive contribution to our ailing unemployment situation than efforts like Solyndra.
• By adding 30% or so to the cost of the panels via tariffs, the probability of homeowners finding solar energy affordable will decrease dramatically.
• Wouldn't this strategy be consistent with the President's desire to expand the use of alternative energy sources in this country? By imposing this short term thinking of tariffs, that aim of expanding the use of solar energy gets delayed well into the future.
• In a previous post we reported on how an episode of the PBS TV show Nova was able to do a complete solar retrofit a suburban California home for about $60,000. That $60,000 cost was from several years ago so that cost has probably come down dramatically, especially if the Chinese are dumping panels into this market.

Let's do some math:

• Let's assume the cost of solar retrofitting a typical American home is down to $45,000.
• We know from a CBS News report we recently discussed, the Obama administration has already flushed $6.5 billion down the drain via failed alternative energy companies.
• Hypothetically, if the President had used those wasted billions to retrofit American homes with the cheap and below cost China manufactured solar panels, about 140,000 U.S. homes would now be energy independent with a minuscule carbon footprint.
• If we make an uninformed assumption that those 140,000 installations needed a crew of four people to install one solar retrofit, more than a half a million job experiences would have taken place vs. the near total lack of jobs created with the President's failed investments elsewhere.
• As for perspective, this 140,000 solar retrofits would have made almost 12% of all Arizona detached homes energy independent.

Of course, this is all hypothetical since that $6.5 billion is gone. Rather than thinking strategically and realistically (i.e. the Chinese already own this market), the President thought only tactically and politically, getting nothing in return. Only his political allies got a return.

An old saying goes as follows: "When handed lemons, make lemonade." If we cannot compete in the solar manufacturer level vs. the Chinese, why not leverage the low priced panels to build out our solar industry installation and maintenance industries at the cost of the Chinese taxpayer, reducing our carbon footprint in the process? Isn't 12% of Arizona worthwhile?

Obama is trying, and failing, to grow a few lemon tree saplings while the Chinese already own and operate whole lemon orchards. Let it go and make the best of the situation, he makes a very poor lemon tree farmer anyway.

Note: for a detailed plan that addresses the three interlinked issues of energy independence, alternative energy, and global warming, please go to the following United States Of Purple Presidency plan:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-presidency_09.html

What a wasted opportunity, an opporutniy that cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars and a chance at a large reduction in our carbon footprint, all because 1) the political class in this country continues to think only to their next election and 2) they would not know how think strategically if their lives depended on it.

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 http://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/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

More Losing Solar Bets "Abound"... As Abound Solar Goes Belly Up

Consider a recent statement by President Obama while out on the campaign trail (again): “It’s time to end taxpayer giveaways to an industry that’s never been more profitable [the oil industry], and double-down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising.” I would like to offer a counter observation: "When you are in a hole, stop digging."


I agree with him that we should stop subsidizing the oil companies, just as I believe we should stop subsidizing the farming industry, the auto industry, the California wine industry, and hundreds of other industries, companies, unions, and trade organizations. But he really scares me when he recklessly gambles away my tax dollars and the tax dollars of every other American in such a way that has been totally unsuccessful, leading only to the enrichment of his political cronies and the bankruptcy of just about any alternative energy company he has funded.

A recent CBS News/Bloomberg report summarized Obama's failed alternative energy "bets" thusly:

• Just in a few years, the Obama administration has paid out $6.5 billion in taxpayer dollars to a dozen different green companies that have faced severe financial hardships.
• The most infamous of these failures is Solyndra, the California solar panel firm that received a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee before declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy and being investigated by the FBI.
• None of the $535 million is likely recoverable for the taxpayers since the administration illegally moved political friends ahead of the American taxpayer in the bankruptcy proceedings and the dividing up of remaining Solyndra assets.[Not mentioned in the Bloomberg report]
• Among the 12 companies, five others besides Solyndra have filed for bankruptcy. These are Beacon Power of Massachusetts; Evergreen Solar, of Massachusetts; SpectraWatt of New York state; Eastern Energy of New York state and Ener1 of Indiana.

Other alternative energy disasters that
this administration  has ordained as being worthy of free taxpayer wealth have either been market busts or have been chosen not because of what they could deliver to the American public but what they could deliver in election campaign donations. In all cases, the following "bets" on alternative energy efforts have returned nothing to the American taxpayers for their investment:

1. A123
2. Ecotality
3. Fisker Automotive
4. Tesla Automotive
5. The Chevy Volt
6. Solar Reserve
7. Brightsource
8. Solar Serve
9. Brookfield Asset Management
10. Nevada Geothermal
11. Omat Nevad

And to this infamous collection of failures, we add a new member: Abound Solar. According to a June 29, 2012 Bloomberg report:

• Abound Solar Inc. announced that it intended to file for bankruptcy in Delaware in early July.
• It had drawn down and used $70 million of taxpayer wealth out of the $400 million that Obama's Energy Department had allocated for it before it went belly up. I guess the one good redeeming feature of this affair is that the company went bankrupt so fast that it never got to lose the other $330 million that it could have eventually taken from the Energy Department.
• Rather than hire thousands of workers at its Colorado and Indiana locations, the promise that helped get its loan application approved with Obama's  Energy Department back in 2009, the company announced it would be laying off its existing workforce of 125 workers.
• The company was supposed to produce high tech, thin solar panels but found out it could not compete on price with low cost imported solar panels from China.
• Not surprisingly, a Democratic fund raiser is a major investor in Abound. According to Bloomberg: "Pat Stryker, the billionaire heiress of a medical devices company, founded Bohemian Cos., one of six groups that invested $300 million into Abound. She is also a cash bundler for President Barack Obama according to the Center for Responsive Politics."
• What makes Abound different from every other Obama failed alternative energy project is that there were also Republican Party interlopers and political cronies that had also invested in Abound. It appears that until Abound, most if not all of other failures listed above were mostly/strictly Democratic political crony driven.

As the rock band Queen would say, "Another one bites the dust." This one bit the dust and swallowed $70 million more of taxpayer wealth in this process. Disgraceful.

In spite of all these failures, the President wants to double down on alternative energy projects with our taxpayer money and wealth. It is always easier to bet when you are using other people's money, like this President seems addicted to doing. Please Mr. President, get this addiction treated and take our advice: stop digging deeper into the this alternative energy cesspool hole you have dragged us into.

A wise old investment saying goes something like the following: Any worthy new idea, product or service does not need government support and financing to be successful in the market. All unworthy new ideas, products, or services will not be successful in the market regardless of how much government funding is wasted on it.

Let's leave the venture capital business to those that know how to do it and best of all, do it with with their money, not ours. This administration has proven that when it comes to acting like venture capitalists, they do not abound with worthy ideas and actions.

Note: Tomorrow I will provide the President with an excellent, simple approach for making solar energy happen in this country. It does not include enriching his political campaign donors and supporters, wasting billions of the taxpayer dollars in the process, but it is good for America. Maybe he should try such an approach once in a while. Lord knows the enrichment of political friends approach has not worked.


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/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/