We can add two new ventures to the federal government's list of costly, taxpayer-subsidized failures.
A Colorado company called Open Range got nearly $270 million in loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand high-speed Internet in rural areas.
But in October, Open Range filed for bankruptcy.
The cost to taxpayers: the $74 million portion of the loans that Open Range received but didn't repay before it went belly-up.
Days later, a Massachusetts company that makes systems used to store energy filed for bankruptcy protection. That company, Beacon Power Corp., had received nearly $70 million worth of "stimulus" grants and loan guarantees from the federal government, plus millions from Massachusetts taxpayers.
It still owes the U.S. government more than $39 million and the state of Massachusetts nearly $3.5 million.
These boondoggles come on top of the recent failure of Solyndra, a California solar panel manufacturer that got a half-billion-dollar loan guarantee from Washington. Taxpayers are on the hook for that squandered money.
Isn't it past time we demanded that Congress stop wasting our money this way?
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They gave campaign money to Obamination. Obamination, with taxpayer dollars paid them back in spades.
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