Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested to a group of business people in Michigan on Thursday that entrepreneurs should ask their parents for money instead of using loans from the federal government.

In a speech to the Greater Farmington Area Chamber of Commerce, the former Massachusetts governor blasted the Obama administration for trying to jump start renewable energy with government loans to companies like Solyndra.

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“When the president says I’m going to take your money and give it to Tesla and Fisker, two new car companies, which by the way, Fisker now builds their cars in Finland, that’s not good,” he explained. “When he takes $500 million and puts it into Solyndra, that’s not good. That’s not good for American enterprise and innovation.”

“The president wanted to encourage solar energy and he thought by taking $500 million and giving it as a loan to a company would do that,” Romney continued. “It did just the opposite. Not understanding the private enterprise system explains why he doesn’t understand that.

“Because my guess is that there are about 100 or more entrepreneurs in America that have ideas for solar energy, and they’re trying to go out and get funding for their business, for their startup for their ideas. Going to venture capitalists and angels and their parents to try and get funding.”

Although the Obama administration did approve funds for Solyndra, the loan process began under President George W. Bush’s administration.

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Feb. 16, 2012.

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(H/T: Think Progress)