Tuesday, September 1, 2009

To Insulate or FEED, that is the question.........

At least that shack to the left is GREEN, right?

Can you imagine that people are losing jobs and our government's intent on insulating low income housing now with stimulus money?

Two questions: SHOULD this money be used for insulation, etc.? AND, if you think so, Why hasn't it been spent on it already?

Read this article HERE, please, and chime in............I'm stunned at this stuff. "Let's insulate a house instead of getting a job for the inhabitant?" Is this what they want?: "We had nothing to eat, but our electric bill went down.."??
What do you think?
geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeZ!!

19 comments:

FrogBurger said...

More non-sense like cash for clunkers. Did you see the car sales numbers for GM?

If one more lefty tells me gov is efficient, I'll take his head and will make marshmallows out of it.

Always On Watch said...

From the linked article:

so far, Gaston Community Action, the nonprofit organization administering that program, hasn’t spent a single stimulus dollar from $8 million allocated for weatherization in our area. They should have that money by now, but they’re still waiting.

As FrogBurger mentioned, there is a similarity to Cash 4 Clunkers.

Last week, my 30-day registration for my new car expired. You may recall that I did a Cash 4 Clunkers deal.

I phoned the dealership. Guess what? I can't get a DMV title for my new car until the federal government picks up the clunker and authorizes the title.

As of last week, not a single clunker had been picked up and paid for at the dealership I used. Not one!

I phoned the dealership again today. Yesterday, the federal government started picking up the clunkers -- over a full month since the clunkers began being traded in on July 24 (the date I got my deal done -- the first day of the program).

I may have to make a special trip to DMV. I have a bill of sale because I paid in full for the new car AND, wisely, transferred the tags from the clunker. Those tags do not expire until next year. Nonetheless, I still do not have a valid registration to carry with me!

As for making our homes more energy efficient, it seems to me that such a step is the homeowner's responsibility -- federal funds or no federal funds. I installed thermal windows in this old house in March of 2008 and got not even a tax break as such a break had expired in December of 2007.

Z said...

FrogBurger...no making his head marshmallows? too late, already done.

Always...good luck with that...big gov't ALWAYS makes things complicated and inefficient.
As for 'responsibility'?.. those were the days, huh?

HoosierArmyMom said...

Froggie, I keep thinking if one more delusional leftista says something about "government can do it all", that their head should explode. I'm with you, how can people witness the evidence out there like the wasteful spending done on tarp and the stimulus, and the NoCash for Clunkers and all the government bureaucracies that are bankrupt and then try to tell people they can run health care??? Their heads should definitely explode.

shoprat said...

Those who are incapable of doing anything productive always become bureaucrats so they can prevent others from being productive.

Deborah on the Bayside said...

They're using it to fill potholes in Redondo Beach. Same difference.

What's worse about the insulation, is (at least in early stories I read on this) they were singing the praises of all the winter savings in cold regions when summer air conditioning costs were higher. Exemplifies what's wrong with whole program - designed to appeal to feelings not facts.

This is political payoff straight and simple. It creates nothing but an obstacle to real growth and recovery.

Chuck said...

The Chinese proverb "give a man a fish; feed him for a say. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime"

We need to stop giving people things.

Anonymous said...

Boy oh boy, I wonder how many nuclear power plants $787,000,000,000.00 would build? I think if they're going to spend our money come hell or high water, it might as well do some good for millions of people and the country's dependence on foreign oil.

But then, that's too easy. Why solve a big problem, energy independence, when you can throw it down a rathole.

Pris

Sandy said...

Have you been through Charlotte on I-85 lately and seen that mile markers have been erected every 2/10 mile in the center median? Not only an enormous waste of money, but annoying as heck! One per mile was plenty if you ask me, but some Democrat's buddy who owns a sign company probably got a sweet stimulus deal on that work.

I read something the other day that said when you look at other huge Presidential spending sprees the country at least got something lasting and worthwhile like Mt. Rushmore, the interstate highway system, the great dams of the Tennessee Valley, a man on the moon. Maybe we'll remember Obama for all the new toilet seats in public restrooms, annoying and oft misspelled road signs, and well-insulated ghetto housing. A legacy befitting the man.

RightKlik said...

How many times does central planning have to fail before we stop experimenting with it?

Apparently central planning is the best idea that never worked.

FrogBurger said...

Cap and trade => higher energy prices that will mostly hit the poorest => insulation

I think that's the thinking. They need to keep buying the electorate.

David Schantz said...

Z,

You beat me to it, "FrogBurger...no making his head marshmallows? too late, already done."

God Bless America, God Save The Republic.

MathewK said...

You can always trust the likes of obama to come up with yet another scheme to waste tax payers money.

Ducky's here said...

"Let's insulate a house instead of getting a job for the inhabitant?"

----------------------

DUH !!!

Who's doing the insulating?

Z said...

"As of right now, Dixon said his agency recently signed a contract for 10 percent of the funding, which will pay for staff training, advertising for subcontractors and “getting prepared,” which could take another four to six months."

So much for 'shovel ready'...my obvious point is people are starving in America and we're sealing their windows...except we're not. So they can't even starve in green warmth.

"WE'RE SHOVEL READY!" oops
Just Obama shovelin' again, huh?

heidianne jackson said...

this whole thing is mind-boggling.

what staff needs to be trained? surely there MUST be people in that area of north carolina who are experienced with rehabbing and insulating residences.

at our house in kc - 3800+ sf in three stories - we added full insulation to our house without doing any damage to the crown moulding or the beautiful lath and plaster walls. see the house was over 100 years old and there was no insulation - we didn't get a tax break either, always.

anywho, the whole thing cost us about $4000 plus another $12500 to replace the 38 windows plus another $10000 for a solar inline insulated roof. roughly $27000 for the whole shooting match. and we halved our electric bills in the summer and reduced our gas bills by about 25% in the winter.

now, i'm betting that the bulk of the houses they are proposing to insulate are not as large nor have as many windows as our kc house - nor will they be doing the inline solar roofing. however, just for grins and giggles lets say it's going to cost them, on average, one third of the $27k we spent - $9000 - even thought we know that with bulk purchases, etc. it should be way lower than that.

by my calculations that would allow them to transform 888 residences. why will they only be able to help an additional 600? oh i get it - that's more government efficiency at work, right?

one more thing. ducky the problem is that we will have more people on the government payroll and fewer people producing wealth. government does not create anything - it only takes from the producers to pay for itself.

Z said...

"on the gov't payroll... not producing wealth"..NOT SUSTAINABLE...good point Heidianne...this is UNSUSTAINABLE DISASTER

heidianne jackson said...

unfortunately, z, the disaster is quite sustainable - it's the policies that will drive us to the disaster that aren't...

Average American said...

Points in favor of program:

1. Dollars saved in heating costs can be used by homeowner to buy food.
2. Every gallon of oil saved is a gallon less that needs to be imported.

Points against program:

1. The government is running it.

2. The government is running it.

3. The government is running it.

4. The government is running it.

5. The government is running it.

6. The government is running it.


After reviewing the evidence, I have concluded that this was a BAD idea!