Obama: Solyndra Was a 'Bet' and Taxpayers Should Expect to Lose More

QUESTION:  (OFF-MIC) Solyndra, in particular, that investors (inaudible) warned your administration that a government-backed loan of $500 million in that company might not be a wise use of taxpayer money.  In retrospect, do you think that your administration was so eager for Solyndra to succeed that it missed some of the critical warnings?

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  I will tell you that even for those projects under this loan guarantee program that have ended up being successful, there are those in the marketplace who have been doubtful.

So, I mean, there's always going to be a debate about whether this particular approach to this particular technology is going to be successful or not.  And all I can say is that the Department of Energy made these decisions based on their best judgment about what would make sense.

And, you know, the nature of these programs are going to be ones in which, you know, for every success, there may be one that does not work out as well.  But that's exactly what the loan guarantee program was designed by Congress to do, was to take bets on these areas where we need to make sure that we're maintaining our lead.