Hillary Clinton's Rich Imagination About a National Infrastructure Bank

During a private fundraiser in  Greenwich Village New York City,  Democrat Presidential hopeful First Lady Senator Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY) raised the prospect of establishing a national infrastructure bank modeled after the Clinton Foundation.




So it seems that Mrs. Clinton has more ideas than just "Vote for Me, I'm a Woman who married Bill". The trouble is that using the Clinton Foundation as a model raises all sorts of questions about crony capitalism, influence peddling, governmental waste and eviscerating the proper budgetary role of the legislative branch.

According to the Hillary 2016 campaign, such an infrastructure bank would “leverage public and private capital to invest in critically important infrastructure projects, including energy infrastructure projects.”  But hasn't this been tried already, like the $534 million given to Solyndra as part of President Obama's 2009 Porkulous? A lot of good that "shovel ready" pork barrel project did. 

Then there is the favoritism problem. What entities are allowed to draw from such a hypothetical infrastructure pot?  Conservatives railed against the Export-Import Bank as being crony capitalism which favors select international big businesses.  Why should the government be picking winners and losers and funding some of them?

Of course, there is the thorny issue about where the money comes from.  With the Clinton Foundation, people betting on getting access to a future power broker like Mrs. Clinton were happy to contribute millions of dollars.  Where would this pot of gold come from?  

But at least Hillary Clinton's rich imagination about a National Infrastructure Bank temporarily took away the public's focus on Hillary's E-mail irregularies. 

h/t: Washington Free Beacon 

Mike Lee on Cronyism

Freshman Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) shows that he is not afraid to call out his own as well as those in the opposing party to advance ideals of the free market. No wonder why Lee is a darling of Tea Party types.

The Payoff of Obama's Green Bets?

One of then candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)'s  promises when he ran for President in 2008 was that he would create five million green jobs.




So as part of the Feburary 2009 stimulus (a.k.a. Porkulous) of $847 Billion, almost 6%, or $50 Billion,  was earmarked for shovel ready green energy, to be monitored by Vice President Joe Biden.  That was a pretty significant "investment" in energy from solar, wind, geothermal and maybe unicorn flatulence.

Despite anemic job growth during the Obama so called Recovery, America has come nowhere near creating five million green jobs.  But to justify what they have Representative Darrell Issa's (R-CA 49th) Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing in June 2012 explored how the Obama Department of Labor defines "green jobs".



My favorites were floor sweeper at a Green manufacturer, antiques dealer and an Oil Lobbyist who advocates green issues.

Many critics of Porkulous suspected that it was an unwise expenditure from the Federal Government that acted like a slush fund for the Obama Administration's favorite groups and contributors.  The cronyism and corruption in green transportation can be seen in Amtrak, supposed High Speed Rail projects and most pointedly in green energy projects (FutureGen coal gassification and Solyndra).

During the First Presidential Debate in Denver, Republican Presidential nominee Governor Mitt Romney asserted that President Obama did not pick just with winners and losers with $90 Billion in tax breaks but that the incumbent picks losers.




Let's see how President Obama's bets on green energy companies have been paying off.

To use the Obama 2012 forward (sic) sounding campaign parlance,  are you ready to go all in with your great grandchildren's inheritance or are you going to hedge your bets on November 6th?