Betting on America: Obama Regime to Invest $20 Million in Wind Farms & Solar Panels for Africa Spreading the wealth to his green homies. (CNSNews.com) — The U.S. government is spending $20 million to “help clean energy projects in Africa get started.” Those projects include wind farms and solar panels, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced at the recent Rio +20 Conference in Brazil. But the government watchdog Judicial Watch criticized the spending as wasteful, given the administration’s track record in trying to pick green energy winners. “The U.S.-Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative will help clean energy projects in Africa get started,” said Clinton in her June 22 speech. “This is an innovative partnership between three United States government entities — the State Department, OPIC (the Overseas Private Investment Corporation), and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. We want to drive private sector investment into the energy sector.” Clinton said the initial $20 million grant will “leverage much larger investment flows from OPIC,” which is the U.S. government’s development finance institution. “That will open the door then for hundreds of millions of dollars of OPIC financing, plus hundreds of millions of more dollars from the private sector for projects that otherwise would never get off the drawing board.”. . . Tom Fitton, president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, told CNSNews.com that “governments are particularly incapable of ascertaining how to allocate private capital. Exhibit A: Solyndra.”. . . “Under that brilliant plan,” stated Judicial Watch, “villages in Africa, Asia and South America got 100 million clean-burning stoves in the name of saving the planet.”
Mass Exodus in Maryland After Tax Hike Home - by BigFurHat - July 9, 2012 - 23:51 America/New_York - 23 Comments Washington Free Beacon More than 30,000 Maryland residents have fled the state to escape Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley’s heavy taxes on the rich, costing the state more than $1.5 billion in lost revenue, a new study has found. CNBC reports: The study, by the anti-tax group Change Maryland, says that a net 31,000 residents left the state between 2007 and 2010, the tenure of a “millionaire’s tax” pushed through by Gov. Martin O’Malley. The tax, which expired in 2010, in imposed a rate of 6.25 percent on incomes of more than $1 million a year. The Change Maryland study found that the tax cost Maryland $1.7 billion in lost tax revenues. A county-by-county analysis by Change Maryland also found that the state’s wealthiest counties also had some of the largest population outflows. In total, Maryland has added 24 new taxes or fees in recent years, Change Maryland says. Florida, which has no income-tax, has been a large recipient of Maryland’s exiled wealthy.