ENERGY BLOGGING
Matthew’s challenge has been answered: Kevin Drum comments on “Dick Cheney’s energy bill,” even using the non-wonky description “odious.”
The biggest one for me is that there’s nothing to blog about. This bill is very plainly nothing but an enormous piece of corporate welfare, with tax giveaways and unneeded incentives for practically every energy-related lobbying group around but practically no actual energy policy. It’s just one big pork fest, and the folks who came up with it barely even did us the courtesy of trying to hide it. There’s nothing in this bill that deserves any serious analysis.
Is the free market in coal and oil really so broken down that America’s energy industry needs $100 billion worth of tax breaks in order to bother coming in to work every morning? And are Senate Democrats really so craven that they’re going to allow themselves to be bribed into supporting this monstrosity by the pittance of a few billion dollars in ethanol subsidies? I hope the answer to both questions is no.
Well, apparently, the answer is yes, at least with respect to the Senate Democrats. Frankly, I find it difficult to assess these omnibus bills, since they contain so much extraneous junk in order to buy votes. I don’t like the budget process very much, but it has been the way these things have been run for decades, and is a natural byproduct of our regional division of political power.
As to what our energy needs are and whether this bill solves any, I haven’t a clue and, absent some exciting new revelations, am frankly unlikely to devote the hours necessary to study up on it.
No hours of study from me, either, but you really don’t need to dedicate that kind of time to it. Basically, if there were anything worthwhile in the bill you’d expect to hear about it from the usual suspects. So far, I’ve heard almost nothing positive, even from the kind of folks who would normally support it.
Ergo, I conclude that this bill has virtually no redeeming features.
So in other words:
“I don’t know shit about what I am talking about but I’ll rant and rave and call it corporate welfare.”
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This bill is very plainly nothing but an enormous piece of corporate welfare, with tax giveaways and unneeded incentives for practically every energy-related lobbying group around but practically no actual energy policy. It’s just one big pork fest, and the folks who came up with it barely even did us the courtesy of trying to hide it.
NOPE! No left wing demagoguery there… I must have been mistaken.
This is really pathetic.
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