So successful was the TVA in developing the region’s economy that the Republican politicians who now dominate the region—and who usually dismiss government initiatives as “creeping socialism” or wasteful expenditures of public funds—have been among the sharpest critics of Obama’s overtures to privatize the TVA.
TVA gets all the notice but BPA (Bonneville Power Administration) was built at the same time and also had and has a provided a fantastic boost to the region it's in. One thing that most people don't realize is that TVA and BPA provided the massive amounts of power that were needed to produce the atomic bomb. I had an economic professor who was confusingly an ultra liberal, militant nationalist. He looked at the Manhattan project and the TVA/BPA as the ultimate expression of positive socialist militancy. "It was socialism that killed those goddamn fascisst, and don't you believe that capitalism is capable of the kind of slaughter that top down war time economy can achieve! Capitalism is great if you want to eat pizzas and have cars with too many features but if you want to kill Nazis, Italians or Japanese fascists you want socialism." He was really something.
Do you know if Obama has stated his reasoning for privatizing the TVA?Obama’s six years in the White House also remind me of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Like Carter, Obama proves quite willing to provide cost-free (in a budgetary sense) carrots to vital Democratic constituencies on such issues as gay rights and women’s equality. He endorses higher minimum wages and offers rhetorical support of unions and collective bargaining, which cost not a penny of federal funds, but balks at a well-financed public works project that employs workers at good wages but might affect the federal budget. He used his political capital to create a costly new health program for citizens, yet often defended it in terms of the Affordable Care Act’s positive impact on the federal budget.
This is well put. Obama has been great at being rhetorically liberal but when it comes to actions, not so much.
From Obama's proposed budget:TVA is a self-financing Government corporation, funding operations through electricity sales and bond financing. In order to meet its future capacity needs, fulfill its environmental responsibilities, and modernize its aging generation system, TVA’s current capital investment plan includes more than $25 billion of expenditures over the next 10 years. However, TVA’s anticipated capital needs are likely to quickly exceed the agency’s $30 billion statutory cap on indebtedness. Reducing or eliminating the Federal Government’s role in programs such as TVA, which have achieved their original objectives and no longer require Federal participation, can help put the Nation on a sustainable fiscal path. Given TVA’s debt constraints and the impact to the Federal deficit of its increasing capital expenditures, the Administration intends to undertake a strategic review of options for addressing TVA’s financial situation, including the possible divestiture of TVA, in part or as a whole.