"'[W]hat we did with the auto industry,' President Obama told a crowd
 in Colorado Springs, Colo., last week, "we can do it in manufacturing 
across America. Let's make sure advanced, high-tech manufacturing jobs 
take root here, not in China," 
The Washington Examiner's editorial board writes.
"For anyone who understands the nature of GM's 'success,' and of 
Obama's previous attempts to prop up American companies like Solyndra 
against Chinese competitors, this campaign rhetoric is somewhat 
dispiriting. It serves as a troubling confirmation that Obama has 
learned absolutely nothing from three and a half years of trying 
unsuccessfully to reshape and reinvigorate the American economy through 
bailouts and subsidies. Obama's industrial plan continues apace, 
oblivious to the losses and failures it has created so far."
What does this mean for you?
*
 "Within days of Obama's statement came the news that taxpayers are now 
expected to lose $25 billion on the automotive industry's $85 billion 
rescue. This represents an upward revision from the previous estimate of
 $22 billion, yet it nonetheless assumes that GM is valued at $22 per 
share as it was in late May. GM has since suffered a 40 percent decline 
in profits year-over-year, a 3 percentage point loss of U.S. market 
share year-over-year for the month of July and brutal press for its 
flailing attempts to expand in Europe. The current GM share price is 
just above $20, so the latest estimate is almost certainly too low 
already."
* "Obama failed also to learn this lesson in the case of
 Solyndra, the solar panel manufacturer whose bankruptcy cost taxpayers 
more than $500 million in stimulus cash. In the spring of 2010, shortly 
after Solyndra was approved for a federal loan guarantee, 
PricewaterhouseCoopers found the company had already burned through $558
 million in private investors' cash without ever turning a profit. The 
loans were made despite this record of failure. Yet even with all of 
this government help, Solyndra could not keep up with its Chinese 
competitors."
The Examiner concludes: "It cost taxpayers half a 
billion dollars for Obama to save a relatively small company from the 
reaper for a few months. It has became a great political embarrassment 
for Obama already but, as his remarks from last week suggest, not a 
great enough embarrassment to teach him that propping up companies that 
cannot succeed on their own is always a losing proposition."