You’d think that after all the controversy over money poured down the rathole known as Solyndra, members of the U.S. House of Representatives would ax the program that wasted taxpayer dollars. But you’d be wrong.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) sponsored an amendment to shut down the Department of Energy program that funded Solyndra. It failed,receiving only 136 votes.
Republicans are supposedly the party that champions free markets, not government influence-peddling. And they do deserve partial credit. Two-thirds of the Republicans from Michigan voted “yes.” (I don’t have time to do the work to find out the comparable numbers at the national level.) They were: Benishek (1st); Huizenga (2nd); Amash (3rd); Camp (4th); Walberg (7th); and Miller (10th).
But one-third of the Republican representatives from Michigan voted “no” to the idea of ending this example of corporate welfare. They were: Upton (6th); Rogers (8th); and McCotter (11th).
I have to say that I was disappointed in Upton. Last year he was seen supporting consumer freedom by calling for an end to the all-but-in-name ban on incandescent light bulbs. That’s wonderful. Let the consumer decide what products exist in in the marketplace.
But consumer freedom should also include letting companies stand or collapse on the basis of how consumers, not politicians, favor their goods. Loan guarantees are but one example of how government works against consumer freedom.
By contrast with the Republicans, two-thirds of the Democrats voted to continue crony capitalism, opposing the Kucinich-McClintock amendment. They were: Kildee (5th); Peters (9th); Levin (12th); and Clarke (13th).
Hats off, though, to the two Michigan Democrats who voted for the amendment, and thereby, against crony capitalism. There were Conyers (15th) and Dingell (16th).
I’ll give the last word to the Cato Institute’s Ted DeHaven, who says “That the Republican-led House couldn’t get rid of the program that begot Solyndra is about as low as it gets.”