Let me see if I have this straight… You think government isn’t good at picking winners… but you support a government investigation to see if “most of the money [is] going to companies like Solyndra, or is it actually going into companies that will succeed in manufacturing and create jobs for this country?”… And how precisely is Stearns going to decide this if government is bad at picking winners?

Please at least be consistent! Bob_Wallace has it right here. Government is *supposed* to try the riskier things… that has always been its role. Try the risky things with potentially large returns.

If this had been a 100% sure thing with a quick payoff large corporations would have funded it. Was it a fairly likely thing which would turn a profit after a few years it would have been funded by venture capitalists.

This was the sort of project that we fund with a minuscule amount of our national budget. We take a few very small gambles in hopes that we spin up the next big thing, or at least something that will give us American jobs and economic growth.

When one takes risky endeavors and funds them, one expects a number to fail. They are not the sorts of activities one should include in their portfolio, the risk is too high.

It’s the sort of thing that we, as a country of over 300 million people can, and should take.

What did it cost each of us? Well, the full amount is less than $2 per person.

Then consider that most of that money went for salaries of 1,100 employees. That means that 1,100 fewer people were receiving welfare checks. Part of our money back.

Those 1,100 employees paid taxes on their incomes. More money back.

Those 1,100 employees spent their incomes in their communities and that money turned over several times as it worked its way from grocery store to wholesale grocer, to farmer, to fertilizer plant and all the other places those dollars traveled, creating taxes as it spun its way through the economy. More money back.

The money not spent on salaries went to equipment companies, to builders, to utilities, to all the places money has to be spent to make a business a business and at each stop that activity created taxes. More money back.

So what did this cost you? Probably less than a quarter.

If our government keeps giving away tax dollars to fund disastrous ventures over and over, then it is a sign that these are not smart moves. What’s their batting average? Would you continue to put your 401-k dollars in funds that continue to lose money or spend a little time reading a prospectus or two before you trusted them with your nest egg? Our country is in deep debt. We need smarter investments.