U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY):
“I just want to tell you this whole thing smells. It’s the kind of thing that is so discouraging to the public and the taxpayers and I’m here today as kind of the only Republican in the Senate who is on both the Energy Committee as well as the Environment and Public Works Committee. On Energy I’m the ranking member of the Public Lands Subcommittee. What I want to discuss here though is the latest developments in the Obama administrations Chicago style crony-capitalism. Start with one of the revelations from today, it turns out that the supposedly independent investigator of the energy loan program that produced the Solyndra debacle is actually a donor to the president’s campaign, a major donor, Herb Allison a Wall Street executive. He testified before Congress that there had been no wrongdoing in the program that squandered billions of taxpayer dollars. And then, turns out, he’s donated $52,500 to the Obama campaign. That donation to me raises a major red flag.
“And I think to any outside observer, this operation by the Obama Energy Department, their loan program was a disaster. Half a billion dollars was lost on Solyndra alone, even though people in President Obama’s inner circle saw the warning signs and refused to act on it. And then when you look at the so called independent investigator, I mean to me it makes his so called independent investigation illegitimate. It was already questionable as an investigation but when you take a look at the fact that he’s donated over $52,000 to the president’s campaign, it looks like now he also made a major in-kind contribution by turning a blind eye to the administration’s reckless use of taxpayer dollars…
“Also out today, front page story New York Times, news that a company with long-standing ties to the Obama administration and, actually, to Barack Obama from his days in Illinois. Excelon received favorable treatment, special access. You know, this report is nothing new from an administration that has given preferential treatment to companies like Fisker, Solyndra, First Wind, many more that have special relationships with the White House. The president, he promised to change Washington, promised to have a more transparent administration. I think he actually said it was going to be the most transparent administration in history. But what we’re seeing is scandal after scandal and it’s clear that what the president may have said running up to his becoming President and even after being elected turns out to be empty rhetoric. So, you know, we should know a Chicago politician would play Chicago politics and that’s what we’re getting from Barack Obama.
“The final point, I think Tim mentioned it, was that today Mitt Romney is in New Mexico. He’s outlining his plan for North American energy independence by the year 2020. He has a plan to make energy more affordable, more secure, it creates jobs, it creates opportunity for the middle class. And I just look at that and see how it contrasts to President Obama’s record. The president’s record is one of handing out taxpayer dollars to energy companies, of his political supporters of his cronies, and trying to choose winners and losers and picking winners and losers is not an energy policy. I believe the president is clearly looking out only for himself and that at this time we need new leadership in the White House.”
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