It’s not enough that Washington Republicans seem bent on signing onto any immigration deal that supposedly helps them with their “image” problem, but why do so many of them want to bash one of Obama’s better ideas in his budget: privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)? Let’s see: Barry Goldwater was for this before it was cool, and Ronald Reagan broached the idea in 1981, and was beaten back. Now Obama has grabbed hold of it. Start selling federal assets, and pretty soon the deficit might start to come down.
It is understandable that Tennessee senators Corker and Alexander would oppose the idea for the usual home team reasons, but why aren’t other Republicans jumping on board and upping the ante? (Probably for the usual deference/log-rolling reasons; they’ll want Corker and Alexander to support their home state pet projects down the line.) I recommend that Republicans suggest adding the Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest, and watch the Democratic senators from Oregon and Washington object. That’s probably why Obama didn’t include Bonneville along with TVA. Memo to GOP: Go big with this idea.
The Washington Post notes in an editorial:
The political irony is delicious: A Democrat plays against ideological type, at the short-term expense of red states that didn’t vote for him anyway; ostensibly free-market Republicans scramble to explain why this particular behemoth should stay in Uncle Sam’s portfolio. . . It’s worse than hypocritical for Republicans to stand in the way.
I like this comment from one observer:
“The odd thing is that a bunch of Rs are defending the most liberal, collectivist, state-managed thing ever undertaken in the United States,” said [Mike] McKenna, [a Republican energy lobbyist] whose clients include the Atlanta-based utility Southern Co. (NSC) that could benefit from a sale of the TVA, in an e-mail. “TVA was the brainchild of the near-communists in the Roosevelt administration.
McKenna’s got a point. The TVA’s old logo is perfect New Deal beaux arts fascist:
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