Archive for the 'Waste' category

The Problem With No More Solyndras

Sep 14 2012 Published by under Congress, Craziness, Government, Politics, Waste

So the House has now passed the exceptionally poorly named “No More Solyndras Act“.  I say poorly named because it doesn’t actually prevent more Solyndras.  As Taxpayers for Common Sense has noted, they should have called the bill the Even More Solyndras Act.

“This measure would still put taxpayers on the hook to loan out billions of dollars more to at least 50 additional shady alternative energy schemes that were submitted before January 1,” Rep. Tom McClintock, a California Republican, said on the House floor Thursday, adding that the bill should be renamed “The 50 More Solyndras and Then We’ll Stop Wasting Your Money — Really — We Promise Act.”

The bill grandfathers in 50 existing applications totaling nearly $90 BILLION dollars. For those keeping score, that is roughly 180 times as much money as Solyndra lost.  The bill is meant to be a political winner for the GOP, but actually exposes the party to huge liabilities.

Let’s assume that one of these fifty companies collapses (which is quite likely).  Now the GOP owns the failure, not Obama and the Democrats.  You see the Democrats actually pushed for an amendment that would have ended the program outright.  They argued that if the program is so bad that it needs to be ended, we should not gamble another dollar.

By letting these 50 applications proceed, the GOP is essentially gambling that none of them will fail.  Mark my words, when they do, the Democrats will trot out statement after statement that says, “See, this is why we wanted to end it all.”  The GOP, on the other hand, will be left flat footed trying to explain how “No More Solyndras” produced more failed companies and more lost taxpayer dollars.

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Alas, Poor USPS. I Knew You Well.

Jul 11 2012 Published by under Craziness, Government, Waste

A friend emailed me a moment ago with this note he received from his neighborhood association:

July 11, 2012

Our Mailman, Wayne, came by today with a plea to save the US Post Office
from HR 2309.

He spoke of:

No Saturday service. By eliminating Saturday delivery, the Post Office
would have to lay off 60,000+ workers (Wayne’s alternate for Saturday would
lose his job).

No door to door service – they would install cluster boxes which you would
have to walk to.

No one day service – (Example: mail to Alexandria would take 2 to 3 days as
opposed to next day delivery).

Postal workers would have to pay more for their health insurance.

Please call 1-888-863-6103. They will ask for your zip code, and will ask
if you Oppose or want HR2309 to be passed.

I suggested he send back the following reply:

While Saturday service, door-to-door service, and the ability to send mail to Alexandria next day seems great….

  • I rarely get anything on Saturday that’s critical, and if I do, I get it from Amazon – via UPS
  • I could stand to lose a few pounds.  I’ve seen my neighbors.  They could to.  The walk to a cluster box would do us good.
  • If something needs to get to Alexandria that fast, I should introduce you to something called email.  Or a car.

All of which is a pleasant way of saying none of that is worth the $14 billion the US Postal Service will lose this year.

Door to door service for mail is an antiquity we just don’t need.  While they have worked to improve the Postal Service fleet, it still contributes a staggering amount of carbon to the atmosphere.  Cluster boxes would reduce the amount of driving required, as would getting rid of Saturday service.  And if Saturday service is so critical, why don’t we have Sunday delivery?

If you consider the fact that the overwhelming majority of stuff you get by mail is direct marketing junk, magazines that will be thrown out, and paper bills, the sheer volume of useless mail the USPS hauls is unreal.

They acknowledge as much on the USPS website, noting that email and paperless billing by large institutions has contributed greatly to the loss of revenue.

So let’s see… The postal service is a relic, it’s main revenue source now is bringing you all the crap you don’t want anyway, and it clogs up the air with CO2.  Why do we need to keep this, again?

 

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The Trouble With Dem Messaging Against Romney

Jun 12 2012 Published by under Elections, Government, Greentech, Messaging, Technology, The President, Waste

David Roberts, who writes for leftist enviro rag Grist, has a recent post looking at the message challenges facing the Democrats.

In order to inoculate themselves against attacks on Solar Trust of America, Bright Source, Solyndra, LSP Energy, Energy Conversion Devices, Abound Solar, A123 Solar, UniSolar, Azure Dynamics, Evergreen Solar, and Ener1 (collectively, let’s call these “Obama’s green failure or OGF for short), the Dems have been using a “them too” attack that says Romney supported green tech, too.

That very act, says Roberts, is a bad move for the left.

When Konarka is called “Romney’s Solyndra,” I suspect political elites do not hear “Romney’s civic-minded attempt to support clean energy.” They hear scandal and vulnerability. They hear that funding clean-energy companies is a dark secret to be embarrassed about; that government support for clean energy is always cronyism; that solar is not a viable business, even with subsidies. [emphasis mine]

Roberts is exactly right on that point. The left has, with its rebuttal attacks, done two things.  First, it has authenticated the hits on OGF.  It has acknowledged that Obama has bet big on big losers and cost the taxpayers a staggering amount of money.  It gives full-throated support to the idea that they have tried to pick winners and failed.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, as Roberts suggests, it has made greentech investments by government the poster children for government waste.  It sets such investments up as a shining example of how both parties have pursued that idea, and both parties have failed.

If anything, Romney supporters (not the campaign, mind you) have a huge opening to make the case that Romney’s is the right message – “I tried greentech and found it wanting, so my position evolved into opposition.”  The President and his minions, however, will double down on the idea that more, not less, government dough should be dumped into the wastebin that is solar.

There is a big opening for Romney to focus on the laundry list of OGF. His supporters, in the meantime, could use the very investments Obama has attacked as a sign of a wiser, and more experienced politician – one who learns from his mistakes rather than doubling down on failure.

One of the biggest criticisms the left had of Bush was his insistance on staying the course in the face of abject failure.  Romney’s backers would be wise to make that the rallying cry against Obama’s tenure as well.  OGF are a great place to start.

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Wasteful, Inefficient Government Ideas That Refuse To Die

Feb 08 2011 Published by under Craziness, Government, Travel, Waste

A new piece in Fast Company today highlights the Administration’s renewed push for high speed rail.

For those keeping score of wasteful, inefficient government ideas that refuse to die, back in April of 2009, Team Obama announced an $8 billion push for high speed rail.  I noted at the time the almost complete inability to go north by train.  I also noted the old adage that trains offer all the discomfort and cost of air travel, but in six times the time.

All of that still holds true.  The new plan still foresees a US population only concerned with lateral movement, and one that wants to pay top dollar for low value.

The one thing that changed is the price tag.  Now the government wants to spend $53 billion taxpayer dollars (a 6.5 fold increase in the cost) to subsidize a mode of travel that has never been profitable in the US.

That’s change we can believe in, and what counts as a commitment to responsible spending by the administration these days.

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High Speed Rail: The New Crappy Way to Get Nowhere

Apr 17 2009 Published by under Craziness, Government, Stuck On Stupid, Travel, Waste

So the administration has rolled out its high speed rail plan. Perhaps not suprisingly, it look very similar to the old crappy rail system.

The old and new rail system

The old and new rail system

The old joke is that trains give you all the discomfort of airline travel, but in six times the time. The rail plan calls for trains to travel 100 miles per hour, so the joke should be revised to four times.

The fact is, trains are a great idea in a country the size of Japan, France or Britain, that you can backpack across in a day. They suck, just a little bit, for travel across a country 3000 miles wide. Why take a high-speed train that gets you from LA to NY in two days when you can fly and be there in 5 hours?

High-speed trains would be a better idea for high traffic commuter corridors. As an example, look closely at the map and you’ll notice you still can’t travel North. There is no connector between Oklahoma and Kansas City, or anywhere in Georgia up through Kentucky, Tennessee and into Indiana.

You can’t get from Albuquerque to Denver, Denver to Phoenix, Phoenix or Albuquerque to Salt Lake City, or any of those cities to anywhere in Texas.

If you are a salesman in the southwest, you can get to Chicago faster than you could run there, that’s true. Chances are most of your travel will still be by air, and flying short distances within your region, though.

It looks to me like someone went to Amtrak and said, “If you could go to all the same places using the same shitty routes, but do it marginally faster, what would that look like?”

Congrats, guys. You batted their answer out of the park.

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