One of President-elect Donald Trump’s most controversial promises (controversial among liberals, that is) is to totally disband the Department of Education.
Last week President Joe Biden gave an excellent reason that he shouldn’t stop there.
It may be time to make the Department of Energy and its $153.4 Billion budget also a thing of the past.
Last week the lame duck Biden administration made an astonishing decision.
It authorized the Department of Energy to guarantee a loan of $6.6 billion to Rivian — a failing direct competitor to Elon Musk’s Tesla for the electric vehicle (EV) market.
The loan — to construct a Georgia manufacturing facility — was justified because of the thousands of jobs they claimed it would create.
But the figures don’t add up, according to businessman and former GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy.
"Biden is forking over $6.6 billion to EV-maker Rivian to build a Georgia plant they’ve already halted," said Ramaswamy, who is slated to co-manage Trump’s non-salaried Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
"One ‘justification' is the 7,500 jobs it creates, but that implies a cost of $880k/job which is insane," said Ramaswamy, who added that the move "smells more like a political shot across the bow at @elonmusk & @Tesla."
To illustrate how far Rivian is failing as a business, three years ago it had an estimated $150 billion net worth; its current estimated value is $10 billion.
The Energy Department’s loan to Rivian is reminiscent of a similar DOE loan authorized by the Obama administration in 2009. At that time, it guaranteed a $535 million loan to Solyndra, a failing solar energy company.
Two years later Solyndra filed for bankruptcy.
Rivian is borrowing more than 12 times the amount loaned to Solyndra, which may illustrate that Biden may be lamebrained in addition to being a lame duck.
It’s also anti-capitalism, where entrepreneurs take the risk — using their own capital, and the capital of lending institutions willing to share in that risk — to start a business or to expand an existing one.
The U.S. Treasury is not a bank — if you’re not credit-worthy enough for a commercial lender to loan the money without a government guarantee that it would be paid, you’re not credit-worthy enough for the American taxpayer to take the risk for you.
Capitalism has proven to be the greatest builder of wealth in world history across the population — not merely the business owners. Socialism has been a failure everywhere it’s been tried.
Rivian’s loan guarantee is more akin to socialism and one can’t help but wonder if something else is at play. Is this a way to launder funds to the Democratic National Committee to pay off the debts of another failing enterprise? — the Harris-Walz campaign?
It also illustrates another reason we need a DOGE — Musk and Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has pledged to strip trillions from the federal budget.
The dynamic duo promised to complete their task by July 4, 2026 — the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and a day when the country will finally be financially independent if they succeed.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry pledged during a 2012 Republican presidential primary debate to eliminate three federal departments: Commerce, Education, and Energy.
Ironically, he became the 14th secretary of energy during Trump’s first term in office five years later.
A quote often attributed to the late, great Sen. Everett Dirksen goes, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money."
Although it can’t be confirmed whether the Illinois Republican actually said it or not, it sounds like something he would have said, and it certainly captures the thinking of Congress.
As long as it’s not their money, they’ll spend it like a drunken sailor. In this case that drunken sailor is the Department of Energy, and it’s past time throw it a retirement party.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.