Labor’s Inspector General Critical Of Obama Green Job Programs
By Jim Kouri
The Department of Labor was supposed to have trained over 124,000 people for these new “green jobs,” but less than half that number have actually received any training. Of those, some 8,000 were placed in jobs yet only 1,300 workers had jobs lasting more than six months.
The Solyndra scandal ignited a firestorm on Capitol Hill among congressional leaders who are chastising the commander-in-chief for responding to an economic recession with a failed “green energy subsidy experiment.”
In fact, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) released a special report blasting the president for wasting nearly $100 billion to create “green jobs.” Undue political influence has determined how much of the money has been disbursed, investigators found.
Rep. Issa expressed his views regarding a newly-released Department of Labor Inspector General report that documents costs and missed objectives of a department “green jobs” program:
President Obama touted green jobs as a way to improve the environment and as a central pillar of his stimulus program. The Inspector General’s report released paints a starkly different picture than what the Obama Administration told the American people.
The Department of Labor was supposed to have trained over 124,000 people for these new “green jobs,” but less than half that number have actually received any training. Of those, some 8,000 were placed in jobs yet only 1,300 workers had jobs lasting more than six months.
“President Obama should move quickly to redirect these funds to deficit reduction and focus on broad-based job creation and economic recovery, not just a niche program that has fallen far short of expectations,” said Issa.
As President Barack Obama’s disastrous and costly green energy agenda becomes the focus of a congressional investigation, the administration celebrated the multimillion-dollar “green makeover” of a public housing facility in Washington State.
The festivities came on the heels of a major scandal involving a California solar panel company that folded after receiving more than half a billion dollars from the government. The White House helped the bankrupt manufacturer (Solyndra) get the money over the objections of federal budget analysts and news reports have identified one of the company’s major investors as an Obama fundraiser.
