I wrote this originally for the hometown Arizona Daily Star, but it's important for everyone to know about. This successful loan guarantee program is the kind of thing Republicans want to eliminate on purely ideological grounds. As I write below, "When it comes to the economy, people often jump into debates over what they think is happening without understanding some very basic information. Job creation isn't a partisan issue. The best way to get our economy back on track is to put people back to work - period. We succeed as a community when everyone is working, paying taxes, reducing their reliance on social safety nets, and making regular payments on their homes. I don't know why most lawmakers won't talk about job creation, but I'm going to keep raising the point until it sinks in."
Read or link to the original at http://bit.ly/....
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When I and some of my colleagues in Congress talk about investing in job creation, Republicans say the government doesn't have any money, that we're just tax-and-spend liberals, and that private companies are the only ones who create jobs. They've even created a class of people called "job creators" - their code for "the very wealthy" - who they say shouldn't be questioned or asked to pay their fair share in taxes for our economic recovery.
The truth is that no one creates jobs without investing upfront, and the federal government can help make that possible for many small businesses. Federally guaranteed loans, which cost taxpayers nothing and help businesses around the country expand and hire new employees, are a proven way for federal agencies to help our economy.
You may have heard recently about two large federally guaranteed loans for solar projects in Southern Arizona. Abengoa Solar recently finalized a $1.45 billion loan guaranteed by the Department of Energy to help build a new solar plant near Gila Bend, and Agua Caliente Solar finalized a similar $967 million DOE-backed loan on Aug. 5 to build a new plant in Yuma County. I was happy to support them both. These projects, made possible by the Recovery Act, don't cost taxpayers a dime, and they aren't alone.
How do these loans work? The DOE Loan Guarantee Program (LGP) was initially created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to make it possible for emerging technologies to help grow and create jobs. The Recovery Act temporarily expanded the LGP's authority to guarantee loans for certain renewable energy, power transmission and biofuel projects. In all, since the Recovery Act became law, Arizona has received approximately $2.8 billion in federally guaranteed loans, helping to create about 2,400 new jobs.
It bears repeating: None of this has cost taxpayers a dime. A loan guarantee is an agreement between a federal government agency, the borrower, and a private creditor - usually a bank - in which the agency will cover the borrower's debt in the highly unlikely event of default. This allows the federal government to reduce the financial risks of projects that employ new technologies by partnering with companies that have established their financial stability.
Every borrowed dollar guaranteed by the government leads to several dollars in additional private investment. Federally guaranteed loans open the door to job-creating projects several times larger than their own dollar amount. Loans don't have to cover the entire cost of a project - say, a solar plant - and private investors know that. What they do is something just as important: They help move projects forward, indicate economic viability, and make sure buildings don't end up half-built.
These loans aren't just creating jobs - they're creating good jobs, green jobs, high-paying jobs. As the saying goes, everybody wins. The company gets to expand, the local government gets a bigger and more prosperous tax base, and the community as a whole gets more confidence and a brighter economic future.
Arizona isn't alone in taking advantage of these offers. DOE has so far issued direct loans or loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling more than $40 billion to support 42 clean energy projects across the country. Together, these projects have already begun creating tens of thousands of jobs across 21 states. The next time you hear someone say the government should get out of the way and let job creators do their work, do two things: Remember these loans, and ask them where the jobs are.
When it comes to the economy, people often jump into debates over what they think is happening without understanding some very basic information. Job creation isn't a partisan issue. The best way to get our economy back on track is to put people back to work - period. We succeed as a community when everyone is working, paying taxes, reducing their reliance on social safety nets, and making regular payments on their homes. I don't know why most lawmakers won't talk about job creation, but I'm going to keep raising the point until it sinks in.