The current impasse over un-employment benefits between Democrats
willing to extend them and Republicans wanting cutbacks in spending
elsewhere to maintain fiscal discipline is unnecessary. Democrats
should have a handy list of departments and programs to sacrifice for
contingencies such as these. Success requires throwing out those
programs that are not only useless but do not help the progressive
cause nor which garner much support from other side of the aisle.
The Department of Energy, for example, was a prime candidate for
elimination, if only Rick Perry could have remembered. Oops! But
surely what Democrat would fall on their sword for this grotesque
barnacle that needs scraping off our ship of state.
The Department of Energy has and is doing a very poor job of
picking and funding winners. This is a very sad state of affairs
because asset allocation, when done correctly, is a huge benefit to
society and we as a country have the distinct advantage of doing it
better than others. Our advantage comes from a combination of
relatively free markets and press. Advantages the department
currently does it's best to stifle.
The Department of Energy has three silos working at cross
purposes to promote Fossil, Nuclear and Renewable Energy
individually. It gathers crony capitalist scheming to bulldoze over
free market and property rights concerns such as insuring nuclear
plants from liability, funding uneconomic projects to clean coal and
jump starting battery production for a nascent electric car industry
that does not yet know its market nor battery needs. This
department's failures leave it with unhappy constituents such as the
Sierra Club, distressed with nuclear and coal initiatives not on
their agenda. Fossil fuel interests are laughing uncontrollably over
the the industry's fracking revolution driving our country to energy
independence despite former Secretary Stephen Chu's best efforts
against it. That he has left recently with desultory result and
scandal symptomatic of a useless agency should give President Obama
pause. If he is disappointed enough with his surge in Afghanistan to
disengage from there, why not with the Department of Energy?
Mr. President preserve that which you truly believe in and throw
this particular agency to the wolves. The G. O. P. will resist at
it's own peril, despite their serial hatred for your administration,
and it would put the fear of elimination in other bureaucrats. Yes
there are other departments that need letting go, but let us start
with this easy one first.
Cato's YouTube presentation
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