Obama Set To Cash In On Solyndra Loan Guarantee

Three Day Re-election Campaign Trip Underway


By Dell Hill

If you follow the money, you’ll soon discover a circuitous route from campaign donors all the way around to the political candidates and then back again!

That’s exactly what’s taking place with one Steven Spinner, a former official within the Energy Department, who has been - and continues to be - a major bundler of campaign cash for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

The cost to you and me?

A paltry $535 million dollars.  Just over half-a-billion if you want to get technical.

The 2008 presidential campaign - the one that never stopped - has evolved into the re-election campaign of 2011/12 and the deep pockets of California and Nevada Democrats will be rifled over the next few days to enhance that effort.  Oh, and there’s probably a post office to rename somewhere, making the trip an “official duty”, therefore it goes on the tax payer’s tab.

California, Here I come!  Air Force One Set To Haul Campaign Cash Back To DC

For that story we check in with the L.A. Times.

“A former Energy Department official linked to the failed Solyndra solar enterprise deal continues to raise campaign money for President Obama and helped plan a fundraising luncheon that the president will attend in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Steven Spinner, who remains in the top tier of Obama fundraisers, took part in a conference call in recent weeks devoted to planning the event at the W Hotel.  He also has joined other Obama fundraising calls, according to a person familiar with Spinner's participation who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

An Obama campaign official said Sunday that Spinner did not raise funds for the San Francisco event but is an "active fundraiser for the campaign."  He declined to comment on whether Spinner took part in conference calls about the luncheon.

Spinner could not be reached for comment.

His participation is controversial, even among Obama supporters.  Some think Spinner should take a reduced role in the campaign given the uproar over Solyndra, but the White House considers it a manufactured controversy being exploited for partisan reasons.

Solyndra, a now-bankrupt manufacturer of solar cylinders, was a showcase for the White House initiative to develop green energy.  The California firm received a $535-million loan guarantee through an Energy Department program that Spinner helped oversee.

Emails show Spinner pushed for a prompt decision on the Solyndra loan as his wife's law firm was representing the company.  Administration officials said Spinner recused himself from discussions about the loan guarantee and played no role in the decision.

The FBI and Republican-controlled House committees are looking into Solyndra, which declared bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 employees this summer.  Taxpayers may be on the hook for the full amount of the loan guarantee.

In the 2008 campaign, Spinner raised at least half a million dollars for Obama.  In campaign finance parlance, Spinner is a "bundler," gathering checks from many individuals and presenting the total to the campaign.  Every major presidential campaign has bundlers, often giving them honorific titles and special access to the candidate.

The Obama campaign voluntarily discloses all of its bundlers to the Federal Election Commission.  The latest quarterly report listed Spinner at the "$500,000-plus" level.

Obama leaves Monday for a three-day swing through the West, part of an aggressive fundraising drive.  He will stop at six fundraisers altogether, including events Monday in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.”

Read the entire story by clicking right here.

Even after the entire inventory of Solyndra properties is auctioned off, it will net only a tiny fraction of the $535 million spent of high-priced offices and equipment, thus YOU, the tax payer will be left holding the sack for nearly all of that loan guarantee.  It’s a situation similar to the federal takeover of General Motors - with just a bottom line loss of about 25 times the amount we’ll wind up swallowing on that failed experiment in “too big to fail” economics.

Not ONE of Obama’s stimulus programs has even come close to working.

So now he’s demanding another one.