McConnell knows that Kentucky gets most of its energy from the TVA.

166 views • 4 upvotes • Made by LarryCaird 4 years ago in politics
16 Comments
SoulRiven
5 ups, 4y, 1 reply
Read through the bill.  Search up H.R.227... if your into links https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/227/text?r=1&s=1.  If you want to be thorough, there will be several substantial detours to understand where the 9 trillion dollars will be funneled and why only 3 trillion of that amount  will be used for actual upkeep/new projects but it'll be well worth your time.  We can compare notes afterward.



Comparing the Build America Act to the New Deal doesn't make too much sense.  The biggest factor, aside from 6 trillion dollars disappearing from the project into accounts that will not have oversight, are the current policies which pay people quite well to not work.  During the Great Depression people jumped at the change to work for pay and by investing in those people via the creation of infrastructure, it stimulated natural economic recovery.  H.R.227 isn't that.  It's a tax revenue shell game, will make petroleum prices raise by nearly double and is rather moot considering the other policies that are in place which dilute or directly oppose stimulation efficacy.



I would be all for an infrastructure bill that was just about infrastructure and energy production.  Personally, I'd love to see a bill passed for a nuclear facility to be built.. or several.  But politicians are going to politician... they seem to insist upon squandering our taxes and national recourses on dumb crap.  Well... 2/3rds of it anyway.
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LarryCaird
0 ups, 4y, 3 replies
merryprankster
2 ups, 4y
Yes. It is  called "TRUTH".
SoulRiven
1 up, 4y
Your predictable response is duly noted.  You lack the ability to due diligence and find the reasons for why things are as they are... so instead you Reeee onto the internet and castigate all around you who attempt to point you in the correct direction.



Again -- and for the last time, I hope -- I don't care about Trump and I'm not Republican.  I view people and ideas from a lens of what makes the most sense; logic and reason.  That you have to continually go back to a blatantly false ad hominem to avoid doing research is stunning.  You would be a very good example of why politicians correctly assume they can get away with anything they want... you're gullible, tribal and easily led by the nose because you'll believe anything someone on your side says.  Most Republicans/Democrats/Idiots-in-general are not excluded in this, to be sure... but your response was such a elegant example, I needed to highlight it.
WiseCracker
0 ups, 4y, 1 reply
Willkie opposed the government competing with private industry, which is very different than opposing the project itself.  You see, the government can undercut any private industry because it does not rely on the organization to be profitable, as it can be subsidized with taxpayer funds.



Additionally, he didn't argue against the TVA to the Supreme Court - he argued against it to Congressional committee.
LarryCaird
0 ups, 4y, 2 replies
If Wilkie did not argue this to the Supreme Court, how do you explain "Babb v. Wilkie?"  The TVA is run like a private company, without subsidies for decades.  As for private industry, parts of TVA have been offered for sale, and no private companies were interested.  But, these are just the facts.  You and your friends are free to ignore them.
WiseCracker
1 up, 4y, 2 replies
The TVA ended up buying the existing, private energy company, C&S, in 1939 using $78 million in public funds.



You aren't as clever as you think you are.
merryprankster
1 up, 4y
LarryCaird
0 ups, 4y, 1 reply
I hardly think I am as clever as I think I am.  Commonwealth and Southern was one of the companies represented by Willkie.  The TVA bought up many companies and properties between 1933 and 1944, while it built 16-Hydroelectric plants at dams in the South.  It was and is a success story, no matter what you say.  I have confirmed that it gets all of its funds from private purchasers of energy, and paid over $500-million to states and local governments in pilots (taxes) last year.
WiseCracker
1 up, 4y, 1 reply
The capital to create the dam came from?



THE GOVERNMENT!
LarryCaird
0 ups, 4y, 1 reply
I am surprised with this statement.  The capital came from The People.  And, over the decades they have been paid back, with interest.  The jobs building and operating the dams,  hydro-electric plants and other projects paid people well. They helped get us out of the depression.  The water and other agriculture related tools it provided helped hundreds of family farms flourish.  It provided the energy we needed to win WWII.  It has paid billions of dollars to states and other entities.  In other words, the TVA worked so America could work.
WiseCracker
0 ups, 4y
As I stated earlier, private industry cannot compete with a state owned enterprise (the government), as the government can subsidize with public funds.  This is a prime example.  TVA was able to absorb the competition because it carried both the legislative and economic might of the government.  Power companies of the day couldn't compete against unlimited funds and the ability to make laws.  Now, no competition is allowed.



That is what Willkie was arguing against, and he was right - to this day, nobody is able to compete with the TVA - it's a federally run monopoly.  People have been writing articles about this very recently, calling for regulation to make for the possibility of competition for the TVA.
WiseCracker
0 ups, 4y, 1 reply
LarryCaird
0 ups, 4y, 1 reply
You are right.  I confused two cases.  Wendell Willkie represented the Power Companies when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Roosevelt over the legality of the TVA.  So, he did lose, while not officially arguing the case.  None-the-less, I jumped to a technically incorrect conclusion.
WiseCracker
0 ups, 4y
History remembers that he got a record purchase price for C&S - so, for his part - he won.
Chairman_Jao_Bidung
2 ups, 4y
As long as they can keep the covid grift going the country isn't going to be anything but a 3rd world country with all the illegal migrants pouring over and just imagine when the rent moratorium really ends.
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Created with the Imgflip Meme Generator
IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY ACT OF 1933 WAS THE "INFRASTRUCTURE BILL," OF ITS ERA. REPUBLICANS SAID IT WOULD CAUSE THE END OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. IT HELPED END THE GREAT DEPRESSION, BUILDING 30 DAMS AND HYDROELECTRIC PLANTS THAT SUPPLIED THE ENERGY WE NEEDED TO WIN WWII. IT SPURRED CAPITALISM IN MUCH OF THE SOUTH. IT STILL PROVIDES "GREEN," ENERGY,78-YEARS LATER.