Posted by
Tomás Aquinas on Wednesday, July 08, 2009 6:00:42 PM
Over on Red Planet:
Capped
Check the cartoon. Unfortunately, it applies to local government as well as the Feds and the state.
Meanwhile, as for Cap and Trade ripoffs, here's a good read from Jamie Dupree:
Cap and Trade grows
An excerpt:
Oh
yeah, other stuff caught my eye as well, like on page 473, "Bounties
for Replacement, Retirement, and Recycling of Existing Low-Efficiency
Products."
You read that right - under
this bill, the Secretary of Energy would pay money to retailers that
get rid of older appliances and machines that use extra energy.
In
the same section, the bill lays out "Premium Awards" that would be paid
to the manufacturers of new energy efficient appliances.
From what I can make of the legislative gobbledygook on page 479 of the bill, it looks like the feds would pay the manufacturers of "Superefficient Best In Class Products" for each unit that they produce.
* $75 for each dishwasher
* $250 for each clothes washer
* $200 for each refrigerator or refrigerator-freezer
* $250 for each clothes dryer
* $200 for each cooking product
* $300 for each water heater
Now
I don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if you pay
enough of those awards, that is going to be a big chunk of change in
Fiscal Years 2011, 2012 and 2013, which is when the awards would be
paid out.
How much money are we
talking here? Well, the entire section relating to super efficient
appliances would get $600 million for FY 2011, 2012 and 2013 - and then
"such sums" as may be necessary in the future.
The
bill specifically says that "no less" than 40% of the money in those
first three years shall be for "Premium Awards for Development and
Production of Superefficient Best-in-Class Products."
This
would be a great horselaugh if it weren't the Real Deal. They are going
to give away your money and mine, to private business. Well, we should
be used to that by now.
Speaking of which ... how we doin' with
that $150,000 subsidy to the golf course? That contract is up for
renewal, and we have elections coming up this November.