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November 04, 2011
Friday News Dump: WHITE HOUSE REFUSES TO COMPLY WITH SUBPOENA FOR SOLYNDRA DOCUMENTS
The media will play this neutrally as some petty squabble the public doesn't have to concern itself about. Just partisan games.
But one party here seeks to share information with the public, and the other party seeks to hide it from that public.
The White House on Friday all but refused to turn over the documents House Republicans have subpoenaed on bankrupt solar firm Solyndra, firing off a letter saying the request would put an "unreasonable burden on the president's ability to meet his constitutional duties."
The feisty response appears to set up a clash between congressional investigators and the White House over the sprawling probe into Solyndra's finances and the administration's involvement in the decision to provide the struggling company a $528 million loan with taxpayer money.
White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, in her letter, scolded GOP lawmakers for demanding more documents, noting the Obama administration has already turned over 85,000 pages of documents in the course of their investigation. Without explicitly refusing to comply with the subpoena, Ruemmler repeatedly described the order as "overbroad."
"The Committee's extremely broad request for documents -- now a subpoena -- is a significant intrusion on Executive Branch interests," she wrote, saying she can only conclude the subpoena was "driven more by partisan politics than a legitimate effort to conduct a responsible investigation."
The White House is of course turning over lots and lots of documents which are nonresponsive and not what what Congress is asking for.
We're talking about a half a billion dollars, just for Solyndra, nevermind all the other boondoggles.
No, Mr. President, this is not something you get to say "Mind your own business" about. It's a half a billion dollars of our money wasted, not yours.