Is your tax money paying for jobs in Finland?
A TV ad running in
eight states blames President Barack Obama for sending stimulus money overseas while Americans are out of work.
"Tell President Obama, American tax dollars should help American taxpayers,"
the narrator says. Instead, $2.3 billion in tax credits funded jobs in Mexico, Finland and China, the ad claims.
Americans for Prosperity, a group dedicated to "educating citizens about economic policy" that works closely with
tea party activists and has been
funded by the conservative Koch family, released the ad April 26, 2012.
Here’s the string of claims, starting with an image of the president signing a bill:
Washington promised to create American jobs. We passed their
stimulus. But that's not what happened. Fact: Billions of taxpayer
dollars spent on green energy went to jobs in foreign countries. The
Obama administration admitted the truth, that $2.3 billion of tax
credits went overseas, while millions of Americans can't find a job.
$1.2 billion to a solar company that's building a plant in Mexico. Half a
billion to an electric car company that created hundreds of jobs in
Finland. And tens of millions of dollars to build traffic lights in
China.
We rated one claim from the ad, about stimulus tax credits supposedly funding a plant in Mexico, a
Pants on Fire falsehood. A second claim, on building traffic lights in China, we rated
Mostly False.
In this fact-check, we’re examining if those tax credits included
"half a billion to an electric car company that created hundreds of jobs
in Finland."
(We've also checked many other exaggerations
about the stimulus.)
The ad said its source for the Finland claim was an ABC News article, "
Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland."
A loan for U.S. work
The first clue something’s wrong is in that ABC News headline. A car
company got a "U.S. loan." That’s not the same thing as a tax credit.
Taxpayers expect to get loan money back, with interest. (Though, they
don’t always. See:
Solyndra.)
Things get even more wrong from there.
That
U.S. loan program?
It's the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program through the
Energy Department. And it's not funded by Obama’s stimulus bill —
otherwise known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
It is, in fact, a program signed into existence by President George W.
Bush
in 2007 and first funded by legislation Bush signed in 2008.
The program was designed to support development of advanced technology vehicles.
The Bush administration was in charge when the automaker filed its
application. The Obama administration was in charge when the company’s
loan was approved. The stimulus bill had nothing to do with it.
Now, the ad could have raised relevant criticism of the Energy Department’s loan programs. Watchdogs
inside and
outside
government have argued since the Bush administration that the programs
haven’t included safeguards sufficient to protect taxpayers. Instead,
the ad says stimulus tax credits funded overseas jobs. That’s the claim
we’re weighing here. And that’s just not the case.
Fisker Automotive, a U.S. automaker with global headquarters in Anaheim, Calif., got its
$529 million federal loan to develop and produce two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles — the Karma and the Nina.
The project was expected to create about 2,000 jobs in Wilmington,
Del., where the Nina would be manufactured, according to the Energy
Department.
Part of the loan — $169 million — paid for design, engineering and other work
in the United States
on the Fisker Karma. A larger part — $359 million — was slated to help
buy and reconfigure a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware to
build the Nina.
Here’s where Finland enters the story: Before its Energy Department
loans were approved, Fisker had decided it would manufacture the Karma
at a plant in Finland. The company argued there simply
wasn’t a U.S. plant available for the type of car they were building. But 65 percent of the parts for the Karma, based on cost,
would come from U.S. suppliers.
"There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually
produce our vehicle," Henrik Fisker, the company's founder, told ABC
News. "They don't exist here."
The loan for the design of the car "was only used for the U.S. operations" and could not be spent overseas, according to
Fisker and the
Energy Department.
Meanwhile, most of the loan has yet to be disbursed.
Fisker says it stopped
taking loan money from the Energy Department in May 2011, after drawing
$190 million — most of it for Karma design and development. Its Nina
project, now called the Atlantic, has been delayed.
The
News Journal in Wilmington, Del., reported the payments to
Fisker stopped after the company failed to meet Energy Department
milestones set as conditions for the loan.
"Our loan documents require borrowers to meet certain milestones and
other conditions prior to receiving loan proceeds," department spokesman
Damien LaVera told PolitiFact. "As has been widely reported, Fisker has
experienced some delays in its sales and production schedule -- which
is common for start-ups.
"As Fisker works through those issues and incorporates lessons learned
from the production of the Karma, the department is working with Fisker
to review a revised business plan and determine the best path forward so
the company can meet its benchmarks, produce cars and employ workers
here in America."
That makes it an open question when the Delaware plant will produce
Fisker autos. As of April, it only employed a small maintenance team. In
the meantime, it's not getting loan money.
Our ruling
An ad from Americans for Prosperity starts with an image of Obama and
says the stimulus bill sent tax credits overseas, such as "half a
billion to an electric car company that created hundreds of jobs in
Finland."
The reality: Half a billion in loans from a Bush-era program were
approved for Fisker Automotive. But they weren’t tax credits, weren’t
part of the stimulus bill, and didn’t go to Finland. And so far, the
company has only gotten $190 million in those loans, far less than the
half a billion.
Instead, the U.S. company spent a third of the money on U.S.
engineering of a new electric vehicle. It chose to manufacture the car
in Finland, without U.S. help. Another two-thirds of the loan, which it
may or may not get, will go toward retooling a shuttered GM plant in
Delaware.
The ad strings together disparate statements to tell a concocted story. The result is simply False.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/may/03/americans-prosperity/ad-says-stimulus-tax-credits-funded-jobs-finland/
About this statement:
Published: Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 at 11:11 a.m.
Subjects: Corporations,
Energy,
Environment,
Message Machine 2012,
Stimulus
Sources:
Americans for Prosperity, "
AFP Wasteful Spending Ad," April 26, 2012
Americans for Prosperity, "
AFP Ad Scrutinizes Wasteful Use of Taxpayer Dollars," April 26, 2012
PolitiFact, "
Ad says stimulus tax credits funded a solar company building a Mexico plant," May 2, 2012
PolitiFact, "
Ad says stimulus tax credits funded traffic lights in China," May 2, 2012
New Yorker, "
Covert operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging war against Obama," Aug. 30. 2010
NPR, "
Who's raising money for tea party movement?" Feb. 19, 2010
Los Angeles Times, "
Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power," Feb. 6, 2011
Americans for Prosperity, "
About Americans for Prosperity," accessed Nov. 11, 2011
Washington Times, "'
Green' jobs no longer golden in stimulus," Sept. 9, 2010
ABC News, "
Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland," Oct. 20, 2011
Inteview with Damien LaVera, spokesman for the Energy Department, May 2, 2012
Fisker Automotive,
Fisker Automotive Fact Sheet, accessed May 2, 2012
Energy.gov, "
Fisker, Tesla, and American Auto Innovation," Oct. 20, 2011
Fisker, "
Press Releases: Fisker Statement re: Misleading News Reports," Oct. 21, 2011
Fisker Automotive, "
Fact Sheet: Fisker Karma and Fisker Automotive," Feb. 16, 2012
Energy Department Loan Programs Office, "
Fisker Automotive," accessed May 2, 2012
Energy Department Loan Programs Office, "
About the ATVM Loan Program," accessed May 2, 2012
Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, "
The Financing Force Behind America’s Clean Energy Economy," accessed May 2, 2012
Energy Department, "
Department of Energy Announces Closing of $529 Million Loan to Fisker Automotive," April 23, 2010
Federal Register, "
Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program," Nov. 12, 2008
Wilmington, Del., News Journal, "Can Fisker keep its promise?" Feb. 13, 2012, via Nexis
Wilmington, Del., News Journal, "Fisker catches flak on GOP campaign trail" April 19, 2012, via Nexis
Taxpayers for Common Sense, "
DOE Loan Guarantees: Overview, Risks and More," Nov. 3, 2011
Government Accountability Office, "
New Loan Guarantee Program Should Complete Activities Necessary for Effective and Accountable Program Management," July 2008
Government Accountability Office, "
Further Actions Are Needed to Improve DOE’s Ability to Evaluate and Implement the Loan Guarantee Program," July 2010
Written by: Becky Bowers
Researched by: Becky Bowers
Edited by: Bill Adair
