Cliff Stearns: “In an ideal world, the government would never really have gone down this road to create these loan guarantee programs in…”

“In an ideal world, the government would never really have gone down this road to create these loan guarantee programs in the first place. I think all of us realize that. While eliminating the program outright is admittedly appealing, and I think a lot of us on this side of the aisle want to do that, we must be mindful of the fact that applicants in the queue have already invested significant time and financial resources towards simply securing their loan guarantee, and they have really narrowed their financing options also in reliance of the existence of this program. So the question would be, when we thought about this: Is it fair to change the rules in the middle of the game? We're the United States Government. We hear all the time that the government changes the rules. We should be striving to reduce risk caused by the Federal Government, not create it. That's why I said in my statement here that we have to be mindful of the fact so many applicants have already committed themselves and put their time in. But I think we can learn from this Solyndra debacle. And based upon this amendment by Mr. Waxman, I think we realize that in the end that the No More Solyndras Act tackles all the points that he's concerned about. Mr. Chairman, I urge a ``no'' vote on the Waxman amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time. The CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman).…”