They Win

I’m not sure who they are; but, they win.

I’m watching the NPR news and kind of listening to what they are saying as I surf.

There’s some new mid-six billion dollars being floated for health care over the next ten years and a twenty percent increase in taxes for what I’ve heard described as the affluent. Earlier today, I heard that if the federal government shut down today, with interest on the current debt, the budget still wouldn’t be balanced. Alternatively, if the feds took every dollar earned above $75K by every person in the country, we still couldn’t pay for what is being spent. The source on the last two matters is Neal Boortz, a second tier talk radio guy that I don’t trust, but…..

I can’t get my head anywhere near around any of this stuff. For the short term, I’m not going to listen to this stuff – they win.

I am going to pay attention to the Georgia Legislature’s current limited forty day run. They are always good for a laugh.

As an example, the state DOT board just fired its Commissioner because she was touted by the Governor and they’re mad at him because he has proposed to make the board irrelevant.

Then there’s the passage of a bill in the Legislature that allows Georgia Power to start charging people for a new nuclear power plant before it goes on line. The “money fact?” If it goes over budget we pay for it, not the stockholders, the company still gets to make it’s normal rate of return and tack the over runs on to rates. If Georgia Power makes more than its rate projections, it doesn’t have to count the extra profit against cost over runs on the plant. Or in government speak: “even if the Company has overearned on its revenue requirement, the Commission could not use those over-earnings to offset any under-recovery of the finance costs and would still have to allow ratepayers to be charged the full true-up amount.” I think I got that right. And if all goes well and the plant is built for the projected budget? Us rate payers save $300 million over the sixty year life of the plant.

I've got a dollar against. Any takers?