|
 |
 |
|
Stearns: Obama ‘doesn’t understand this country’s economic system'
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) hit back at President Obama on Thursday, arguing that the president’s continued support for providing loan guarantees to renewable-energy companies shows a lack of understanding of the nation’s economic system.
“If President Obama believes that we should borrow billions of dollars from China to subsidize American businesses trying to compete with China, then he doesn’t understand this country’s economic system,” Stearns, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said Thursday in a news release.
“I don’t buy that,” Obama said in reference to the idea that the United States can’t compete with China in such areas, though he didn’t name Stearns. “I’m not going to surrender to other countries’ technological leads that could end up determining whether or not we’re building a strong middle class in this country.”
The White House leapt on Stearns’s comments this week in an effort to counter growing Republican criticism of the administration’s 2009 decision to grant a $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, a California-based solar panel manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy in early September, laying off 1,100 workers.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer called Stearns’s comments “counterproductive defeatism” in a blog post Tuesday.
Stearns, in his Thursday news release, said the United States should not be investing in solar and wind manufacturing. Instead, the country should focus on using its skills in the technology sector to innovate.
“We should invest in and provide incentives to companies that can exploit our competitive advantages in technology and innovation, utilizing our strengths in taking on China and other nations in the global market, and not subsidize industries when these other nations have cheaper labor, no environmental or safety standards, less regulation and easy access to raw materials,” Stearns said.
Thursday in the Capitol, Stearns told reporters that he was surprised the president specifically criticized him.
“I was a little puzzled to see the president single me out,” he said.
Stearns told reporters earlier this week that his comments were taken out of context.
In an interview Wednesday night on Fox Business Network, Stearns said the White House has “spun this and truncated my words to say that I don’t believe that we can manufacture solar panels.”
Stearns said NPR took his original quote out of context.
“I said, as it’s structured now, we can’t compete with China because they have low wages, access to materials and they have no environmental conditions,” Stearns said Thursday.
“The only way we can compete is to bring the technological advantage we’ve got in the computer industry and the aerospace industry and to manufacture our products with that [information technology] advantage — otherwise we can’t compete. So, they left that whole quote out.”
Stearns said he supports loan guarantees, but raised questions about investing in solar manufacturing. Solar generation, for example, offers better opportunities, he said.
“I think loan guarantees, when national security is involved and when we have a technological advantage, are completely appropriate,” he said Thursday.
— Ben Geman contributed to this story.
