Carney struggles with questions on public equity | Washington Free Beacon

Carney struggles with questions on public equity | Washington Free Beacon: White House press secretary Jay Carney struggled with questions on public equity in his Tuesday press briefing, after being challenged on how his justification for the government-loan program for energy differs from Mitt Romney’s on private equity.

REPORTER: Has the administration done a good job of making decisions about who to invest in, about where to invest?

CARNEY: Look, I think the program as created under the Bush administration and pursued by this administration, has always acknowledged that not every company invested in would necessarily succeed—that is why companies like that needed investments, in order to scale up, to allow them to grow and succeed. Not all of them would grow and succeed. The portfolio as I understand it, contains a number of companies that are progressing and succeeding. Again, if the suggestion is that the United States should wash its hands of these investments, you all need to assess that for what it means, which is saying: “The Chinese can have these industries; the Brazilians, the Europeans, the Indians can have these industries, and we’ll simply import that technology—just like we’ve been dependent on foreign oil.” I think that is a wrong-headed proposition.


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