Obama Admin Uses 'Green Energy' Loans to 'Recycle' Money Back to Donors

Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute, said President Barack Obama had a "recycling" program that used crony capitalism to reward its campaign contributors, who would then funnel money back to the Obama campaign.  Appearing on Fox News's one-hour special on Thursday about the "District of Corruption" movie, Schweizer said crony capitalism was so rampant in the Obama administration that Obama campaign bundlers received more than $21,000 on average in government-backed loans and grants for every dollar they contributed to the Obama campaign.  Schweizer said the Obama administration treated taxpayer dollars as "gift bags" to give to its top donors, which he called "the Obama recycling program."  In many instances, Schweizer said top Obama administration bundlers and influential Democrats -- like California Senator Dianne Feinstein and former Vice President Al Gore-- invested in companies before those companies received government-backed loans and grants, and then saw their investments flourish. One such company was Amyris biotechnologies in Berkeley, California. Weeks before Amyris received a $25 million grant from the Obama administration, Feinstein and her husband bought nearly a $1 million in equity in the company. Then, the initial investors, such as Gore, saw a $12 million investment balloon to more than $80 million after they took the company and cited the government grants as a reason the company would be successful.  As Schweizer noted, the IPO was only possible because of taxpayer dollars...more