Solyndra

So the government gave a company called Solyndra $535 million in loan guaranty money and now the company is in Chapter 11. I agree that this could and should be considered President Obama's Enron. I also agree that it looks like the company was given special treatment that may have bent or broken some rules or laws. The question now is - what to do about it?

If I was in Congress I would try to introduce a bill that would call for a special charge of $1.73 per taxpayer. If you were a head of household - you would pay that $1.73 for every member of your household. This would be a charge that everyone would have to pay. Doesn't make a difference if you are considered a student or retired and normally would pay no taxes. You would have to pay this $1.73 tax charge.

Where do I get the $1.73 figure? Well if there are 309 million people in America then the $535 million wasted on Solyndra divided by 309 million would equal roughly $1.73. If you made people pay for government waste and money given to special friends then people would start to demand a better accounting of how their tax dollars are spent. Let Solyndra stand as the first step to real fiscal responsibility where government waste would be a real out of pocket expense to the taxpayer.

I'm guessing something like that would whip people into holding their elected representatives accountable. That's why I don't think anything like what I suggest would be possible to pass into law.