via illicitinfo:
Opinion| To understand the future we must understand the past. At least when it comes to what we can expect from corrupt politicians.
To envision the size of the pot of gold that Democrats envision for themselves at the other end of the Green New Deal rainbow we only have to look back to the Obama administration, the $3 Trillion in “stimulus” money, the Green Movement, and how it seemingly enriched Democrats, their donors, and Nancy Pelosi in particular.
For background we cite a September 2011 article from the Daily Mail:
Even as government financed “green energy” pioneer Solyndra was failing, the Obama administration approved an additional $1 Billion in loans to similar green energy projects.
A whopping 737 million of that money went to the Crescent Dunes project situated in Tonopah, Nevada, to finance a 110-megawatt desert solar power plant.
Stay with me.
Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law was previously an “Executive Director”, and at the time the loan was completed, Ron Pelosi was an “Independent Director” of a parent company who held a minority share of the company that was a primary beneficiary of that money landing a $737 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy for Crescent Dunes.
Funny that as Democrats scream that Saudi’s renting out an entire floor of a Trump hotel is an untenable emolument. But I digress.
Despite knowledge that Solyndra was tanking then-Minority Leader Pelosi’s brother-in-law, second in command at the energy investment firm backing the project, somehow secured government funding for the SolarReserve project.
PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC, listed as one of the investors in the project was given the staggering loan, which even dwarfs that given to failed company Solyndra. PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund was reportedly a 2% owner of Tonopah.
The project was expected to generate enough electricity to power 43,000 homes. That’s it.
Obama’s Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the loan just two days after the doomed $535 million Solyndra disaster was scheduled for completion.
At the time, Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns, then-chairman of the investigations subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce warned:
“The administration’s flagship project Solyndra is bankrupt and being investigated by the FBI, the promised jobs never materialized, and now the Department of Energy is preparing to rush out nearly $5 billion in loans in the final 48 hours before stimulus funds expire — that’s nearly $105 million every hour that must be finalized until the deadline.”
Despite the warnings, Energy Secretary Chu, said the projects would create 900 construction jobs and, get ready for this, trumpets please… 52 permanent jobs. Whoopie!
More disturbing is that other investors included Steve Mitchell, who served on the board of directors of Solyndra while the company was collapsing.
All told, Obama era expenditures, first put in place by Speaker Pelosi, who did away with the usual budgetary process, exceeded revenues by more than $1 Trillion each year.
This became the baseline for unquestioned omnibus spending packages that subsequent Republican Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan refused to reign in. Welcome to the UniParty ripoff of America’s taxpayers.
This allowed politicians on both sides of the aisle to grow rich, while our children were saddled with a debt burden from which they are not likely to escape.
There’s a reason Nancy Pelosi has a net worth ranging from $120-185 million. It’s hard not to suspect that she earned her money the old fashioned way … by stealing it from taxpayers.
It’s the same reason Democrats are lining up behind the Green New Deal that reads like a Republican parody of a Democrat program.
Now put the “Green New Deal” in perspective. If the beltway elites grew rich by spending $4 trillion dollars each year, imagine how much can they believe they can skim from doubling or tripling those expenditures.