just as i'm retracting my last republican hypocrisy poke, i think it's time for a brand new one:
you may have heard about the republican obsession with solyndra. not everyone has. despite their unending flogging of the issue, it just hasn't jumped out of the wingnut media bubble all that much. to people in that bubble, this is proof positive that the MSM suffers from an overwhelmingly liberal bias. to the rest of us, it just seems like a lame attempt to drum up a bogus scandal.
that's because if you're not infected with a rabid hatred of whatever the obama administration does, there doesn't seem to be any scandal. sure, giving that company loan guarantees was a bad call. but a bad call isn't a scandal (if it were, every politician everywhere would be scandal-plagued). it doesn't look like anything about the deal was illegal. conservatives have tried hard to make this into a violation of their own vague principle of a level playing field, that the government is wrong to give any financial benefit to a particular company. except the government regularly gives financial benefits to particular companies. that's what the small business administration does ferchristssake.
that's the wind-up, here's the poke: why are some of the same people beating on the solyndra scandal drum also opposed to president obama's efforts to eliminate special tax breaks for oil companies? if giving special breaks to a company in one portion of the energy industry is a violation of hallowed principles, then why is giving special breaks to a company in another portion of the energy industry okay? if it's a scandal for the government to put its thumb on the scales, then why aren't they applauding president obama's attempt to lift the government's thumb off those scales that are giving special tax breaks to oil companies that other companies don't get?
you may have heard about the republican obsession with solyndra. not everyone has. despite their unending flogging of the issue, it just hasn't jumped out of the wingnut media bubble all that much. to people in that bubble, this is proof positive that the MSM suffers from an overwhelmingly liberal bias. to the rest of us, it just seems like a lame attempt to drum up a bogus scandal.
that's because if you're not infected with a rabid hatred of whatever the obama administration does, there doesn't seem to be any scandal. sure, giving that company loan guarantees was a bad call. but a bad call isn't a scandal (if it were, every politician everywhere would be scandal-plagued). it doesn't look like anything about the deal was illegal. conservatives have tried hard to make this into a violation of their own vague principle of a level playing field, that the government is wrong to give any financial benefit to a particular company. except the government regularly gives financial benefits to particular companies. that's what the small business administration does ferchristssake.
that's the wind-up, here's the poke: why are some of the same people beating on the solyndra scandal drum also opposed to president obama's efforts to eliminate special tax breaks for oil companies? if giving special breaks to a company in one portion of the energy industry is a violation of hallowed principles, then why is giving special breaks to a company in another portion of the energy industry okay? if it's a scandal for the government to put its thumb on the scales, then why aren't they applauding president obama's attempt to lift the government's thumb off those scales that are giving special tax breaks to oil companies that other companies don't get?
