Paul Ryan's U-Turn on Green Car Loans

Paul Ryan is no fan of subsidies for green energy—lately, anyway. His 2013 budget refers to loans for the development of electric cars as “corporate welfare.” In a Sept. 4 interview with CBS News, he attacked the Obama administration for extending such credit: “If you take a look at the president’s policies—he said he calls them investments—it’s borrowing money and spending money through Washington, picking winners and losers, spending money on favorites, you know, people like Solyndra or Fisker.”

Fisker Automotive, which qualified in April 2010 for a $529 million federal loan to build electric cars, has become a Republican punching bag since Washington froze all but $193 million of that credit last year after the company missed production targets for its first model, the $103,000 Karma. Ryan has been citing the loan as an example of recklessness with taxpayer money.