Dems “Simply Do Not Know Where the Money Is”… What Else is New?
Trusted Obama Advisor Jon Corzine’s Excuse for Lost MF Global Money Could Describe the Record of Washington Democrats
- Testifying Thursday before the House Agriculture Committee, Obama advisor and stimulus architect Jon Corzine explained that even though his company lost $1.2 billion in its customers’ money on the way to bankruptcy, he “simply [does] not know where the money is.”
- Those words could aptly describe the record of Washington Democrats. The Democrats’ trillion-dollar failed stimulus has similarly resulted in a spending binge on questionable projects, including a loans to now-bankrupt Solyndra, that have left Americans wondering where their hard-earned taxpayer dollars have gone.
- The Democrats’ spending binge has achieved a record-setting increase in the national debt, yet Democrats refuse to cut government spending and continue to pretend that the only way to pare it down is with job-destroying tax hikes.
BACKGROUND
Testifying Thursday before the House Agriculture Committee, Obama advisor and stimulus architect Jon Corzine explained that even though his company lost $1.2 billion in its customers’ money on the way to bankruptcy, he “simply [does] not know where the money is”:
“ANALYSIS: MF GLOBAL PROVES ENRON-ERA ACCOUNTING LIVES ON”: (Nanette Byrnes, “Analysis: MF Global Proves Enron-Era Accounting Lives On,” Reuters, 12/2/2011)
“OFF-BALANCE SHEET ACCOUNTING METHODS THAT ENRON AND LEHMAN BROTHERS MADE FAMOUS… HAVE A MODERN DAY POSTER-CHILD: MF GLOBAL”: (Nanette Byrnes, “Analysis: MF Global Proves Enron-Era Accounting Lives On,” Reuters, 12/2/2011)
AMOUNT OF MISSING MF GLOBAL CASH “COULD BE MORE THAN $1.2 BILLION”:(Michael J. de la Merced, “MF Global Trustee Says Shortfall Could Exceed $1.2 Billion,” The New York Times, 11/21/2011)
“CORZINE: ‘I SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW WHERE THE MONEY IS’“: (Scott Patterson and Aaron Luchetti, “Corzine: ‘I Simply Do Not Know Where the Money Is,'” The Wall Street Journal, 12/8/2011)
REGULATORS SUSPECT CUSTOMER “MONEY IS NOT SIMPLY MISSING,” BUT “GONE”: (Ben Protess, “MF Global is Said to Have Used Customer Money Improperly,” The New York Times, 11/17/2011)
AND “CORZINE REBUFFED INTERNAL WARNINGS ON RISKS”: “MF Global Holdings Ltd.’s executive in charge of controlling risks raised serious concerns several times last year to directors at the securities firm about the growing bet on European bonds by his boss, Jon S. Corzine, people familiar with the matter said.
“The board allowed the company’s exposure to troubled European sovereign debt to swell from about $1.5 billion in late 2010 to $6.3 billion shortly before MF Global tumbled into bankruptcy Oct. 31, these people said. The executive who challenged Mr. Corzine resigned in March.
“The disagreement shows that concerns about the big bet grew inside the company months before the trade rattled regulators, investors and customers. The executive, Michael Roseman, whose title was chief risk officer, also expressed concerns directly to Mr. Corzine in meetings of just the two men and with other people present, people familiar with the situation said.” (Aaron Luchetti and Julie Steinberg, “Corzine Rebuffed Internal Warnings on Risks,” The Wall Street Journal, 12/6/2011)
Those words could aptly describe the record of Washington Democrats. The Democrats’ trillion-dollar failed stimulus has similarly resulted in a spending binge on questionable projects, including a loans to now-bankrupt Solyndra, that have left Americans wondering where their hard-earned taxpayer dollars have gone:
WHERE DID THE STIMULUS MONEY GO? “SOLYNDRA FACTORY HAD DISNEY-SINGING ROBOTS, SPAS”: “Former employees told the San Francisco Chronicle that the $733 million, 300,000-square-foot factory built in 2009 had spa-like showers, robots that whistled Disney tunes and glass-walled conference rooms.” (Sajid Farooq, “Solyndra Factory Had Disney-Singing Robots, Spas” NBC Bay Area, 9/29/2011)
NOW-BANKRUPT SOLYNDRA GOT $535 MILLION STIMULUS LOAN GUARANTEE:(Roberta Rampton, “Solyndra Saw Staff ‘Mutiny’ Before Obama Visit,” Reuters, 12/1/2011)
TELLING: WHITE HOUSE THOUGHT SOLYNDRA “WAS ONE OF THEIR PRIME POSTER CHILDREN” FOR THE STIMULUS: (Phillip Klein, “E-mails Show Obama Donor Discussed Solyndra with WH,” The Washington Examiner, 11/9/2011)
DESPITE “SOLYNDRA’S DETERIORATING FINANCES,” “EXTRAORDINARY EFFORTS” TAKEN BY OBAMA’S DOE “TO PROP UP THE COMPANY”: “The newly obtained documents, along with other records obtained in recent weeks, offer the clearest picture yet of Solyndra’s deteriorating finances and the Energy Department’s extraordinary efforts to prop up the company. Chu, who is scheduled to testify next week before a House investigating subcommittee, is likely to be questioned about his agency’s willingness to invest millions more taxpayer dollars in the firm, even after the White House had abandoned hopes of a rescue.” (Carol Leonnig and Joe Stephens, “Solyndra: Energy Department Failed to Sound Alarm as Solar Company Sank,” The Washington Post, 11/11/2011)
OBAMA “HAS POURED ROUGHLY $5 BILLION IN TAXPAYER FUNDS INTO THE ELECTRIC CAR INDUSTRY,” BUT TAXPAYERS MAY NOT “SEE A RETURN ON THEIR MONEY SOON, IF EVER”: (Carol Leonnig and Joe Stephens, “For Obama’s Green-Car Revolution, Fits and Starts,” The Washington Post, 12/7/2011)
“CBO: STIMULUS HURTS ECONOMY IN THE LONG RUN“: “CBO said that while the Recovery Act boosted the economy in the short run, the extra debt that the stimulus piled up ‘crowds out’ private investment and ‘will reduce output slightly in the long run — by between 0 and 0.2 percent after 2016.'” (Stephen Dinan, “CBO: Stimulus Hurts Economy in the Long Run,” The Washington Times, 11/22/2011)
99 DEMOCRATS NOW RALLYING AROUND OBAMA’S CALLS FOR MORE STIMULUS: (Thomas.gov, Accessed 12/8/2011)
1.9 MILLION JOBS LOST SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE: (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 11/7/2011)
CONFERENCE BOARD: “HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT AND SLOW GROWTH MAY BE THE NEW NORMAL FOR THE U.S. ECONOMY”: “High unemployment and slow growth may be the new normal for the U.S. economy, according to leading experts at the Conference Board, a global economic research association.” (Bonnie Kavoussi, “Conference Board: U.S. Growth Unlikely to Return to Pre-Recession Levels,” The Huffington Post, 11/21/2011)
“FEDERAL AND STATE EFFORTS TO STIMULATE CREATION OF GREEN JOBS HAVE LARGELY FAILED, GOVERNMENT RECORDS SHOW”: (Aaron Glantz, “Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises,” The New York Times, 8/18/2011)
THE GREEN JOBS SINKHOLE: STIMULUS “SPENT MORE THAN $111 MILLION TO TRAIN 18,000 PEOPLE WHO STILL HAVEN’T LANDED A [GREEN] JOB”: “President Obama’s highly-touted green jobs program — born out of his 2009 stimulus package — has spent more than $111 million to train 18,000 people who still haven’t landed a job.” (“Obama’s $500 Million Green Jobs Program ‘Far Behind’ Projections, Watchdog Says,”FoxNews.com, 11/2/2011)
STIMULUS GREEN PROGRAM AT 21 PERCENT OF TRAINING GOAL, 10 PERCENT OF JOB-PLACEMENT GOAL. PRETTY SURE THAT’S AN “F”: (“Obama’s $500 Million Green Jobs Program ‘Far Behind’ Projections, Watchdog Says,” FoxNews.com, 11/2/2011)
EPA’S ESTIMATE OF GREEN JOBS “CREATED OR RETAINED” BY STIMULUS SHRANK TO JUST 7,140 JOBS. THE PRICETAG? $1 MILLION PER JOB AND $7.2 BILLION DOWN THE DRAIN: (Sean Higgins, “Davis-Bacon Clogs Green Jobs,” Investor’s Business Daily, 8/30/2011)
The Democrats’ spending binge has achieved a record-setting increase in the national debt, yet Democrats refuse to cut government spending and continue to pretend that the only way to pare it down is with job-destroying tax hikes:
OBAMA DEBT BURDEN “THE MOST RAPID INCREASE IN THE DEBT UNDER ANY U.S. PRESIDENT.” (Mark Knoller, “National Debt Has Increased $4 Trillion Under Obama,” CBS News, 8/22/2011)
NATIONAL DEBT HAS NOW INCREASED $4.4 TRILLION UNDER OBAMA’S WATCH.(U.S. Department of the Treasury, TreasuryDirect.gov, Accessed 12/8/2011)
“NATIONAL DEBT CROSSES $15 TRILLION MARK”: “The total public debt outstanding was listed at $15,033,607,255,920.32 on Wednesday afternoon, with two thirds of that debt held by the public and one third made up of intergovernmental holdings.” (Brian Montopoli, “National Debt Crosses $15 Trillion Mark,”CBS News, 11/16/2011)
NATIONAL DEBT NOW THE SIZE OF THE U.S. ECONOMY: (Erin O’Neill, “Leonard Lance Says $15 Trillion National Debt Will Nearly Equal Size of U.S. Economy,” The Newark Star-Ledger, 11/21/2011)
MAJOR ECONOMIC STUDY LINKED GOVERNMENT DEBT TO SLOWER ECONOMIC GROWTH: “The sharp run-up in public sector debt will likely prove one of the most enduring legacies of the 2007-2009 financial crises in the United States and elsewhere… Our main finding is that across both advanced countries and emerging markets, high debt/GDP levels (90 percent and above) are associated with notably lower growth outcomes… Seldom do countries simply ‘grow’ their way out of deep debt.” (Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, “Growth in a Time of Debt,” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 12/31/2009)
DEMS CALL FOR $1.5 TRILLION IN JOB-DESTROYING TAX HIKES”: (Helene Cooper, “Obama Vows Veto if Deficit Plan Has No Tax Increases,” The New York Times, 9/19/2011)
AND ANOTHER $467 BILLION IN TAX INCREASES TO PAY FOR STIMULUS 2.0: “The Obama administration is asking Congress to raise taxes by $467 billion over 10 years to pay for the President’s one-year $447 billion stimulus, which he announced during a speech Thursday before a joint session of Congress.” (Neil Munro, “Obama Asks Congress for $467-Billion Tax Increase to Fund Jobs Plan,” The Daily Caller, 9/12/2011)
BUT TOP DEMOCRATS CLAIM “NOW IS NOT THE TIME” FOR A BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT: (Gregory Korte, “House Dems Will Block Balanced Budget Amendment,” USA Today, 11/5/2011)
“DEMS BALK AT BALANCED-BUDGET BID,” “SOME OF THE SAME DEMOCRATS WHO SAID ‘YES’ 16 YEARS AGO ARE SAYING ‘NO WAY’ THIS TIME AROUND”:(Marin Cogan, “Dems Balk at Balanced-Budget Bid,” Politico, 11/16/2011)