Why let a little fact like the Bush administration declined to loan Solyndra the money get in the way of a time-tested excuse?
(Washington Examiner) — As the Congressional hearing on the failed solar energy manufacturer Solyndra gets under way, it’s already clear that the Obama administration is prepared to fall back on a tried and tested strategy: blaming Bush.
In prepared testimony released ahead of the hearing before the House Energy and Commerce committee, the director of the Department of Energy’s loans office, Jonathan Silver, emphasizes that the program that eventually granted a $535 million loan guarantee to the troubled firm was created during the Bush administration. . . .
But Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the oversight subcommittee that is conducting the Solyndra investigation, said that there’s a problem with that version of events. “In reality, on January 9, 2009 — at the end of the Bush administration — the DOE Credit Committee voted against offering a conditional commitment to Solyndra, saying that the deal was premature and questioning its underlying financial support,” Stearns said in his opening statement. “Only after Obama took control, and the stimulus passed, was the Solyndra deal pushed through.”