When GWB and other “free market” politicians were pushing deregulation of power markets back in the 1990s, “competition” and “low prices” were the most used words by them and other propagandists to get the bill passed and overcome the fears of consumers at the change. Two decades later, those lies have been exposed for what they are, lies. I’ve suspected it for years, but have never really dug into the numbers to prove it. That liberal rag, The Wall Street Journal, did that digging for us, and published the results. AND, those results will piss you off like it did me. I hope you’re sitting down – Since 2004, Texas power consumers forced to buy from retailers have overpaid by $28 BILLION than if we had just stayed regulated.
That’s right; not only did we hand our power grid over to unregulated operators that has led to several major power outages including the one last week where the body count is now 80, we’ve paid extra for the privilege.
Republicans Libertarians have two answers to every problem: cut taxes, and privatize. As we’ve talked about before, when you only have a hammer in your tool box, every problem looks like a nail. As we’ve learned with many other services, including health insurance, prisons and military functions, privatizing costs more, provides worse service, and endangers lives when you insert profits into the equation. We were infected with the disease of privatizing by Reagan when he blamed government for all ills. He is the one who kicked off the now 4 decades long disassembly of our social safety nets putting millions of Americans at risk and costing hundreds of billions of our dollars.
Even with calls for reform and Abbott’s hostage video last night, the propaganda of “free markets” has been embedded in conservatives’ Libertarians’ DNA and I fear that the misinformation is so pervasive that even this failure will be swept under the rug like all the others and the “reform” will be a little nibbling around the edges keeping the profits in place and keeping Texans’ wellbeing at risk as politicians kick the can down the road. After all, these are the clowns who say it’s OK for a gun nut to shop at Kroger for this weekly supply of Twinkies with an AR-15 strapped to his chest. How can we expect them to actually fix a system whose beneficiaries pours millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of those who protect them?
