RUSH: Albany, Georgia, and Mike. You’re next on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush. It’s an honor.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Following up on your discussion about this nonsense about carbon footprints and the other methane gas by-products, it seems to me that people like Algore’s Hollywood both on the West Coast and the East Coast were really concerned about the environment, they would actually do something about it. There was a news story on TV here last night about our city and county governments. They were in disagreement over who was going to pay the electric bill for the street lights at an interchange. Now, this may seem kind of weird but it really started to hit home when you think about it. It seemed that the electric —
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. I want to understand it. There’s an argument between the city of Albany and the state of Georgia?
CALLER: No, the county, the county that the city is in, over who’s going to pay the electric bill on the electric lights that illuminate one particular intersection.
RUSH: One intersection?
CALLER: Yeah. And the bill has been unpaid for three years. It’s over $50,000. Now, if you divide that out, it works out to about $1300 a month. That’s just one intersection. Now, the last time I looked —
RUSH: That’s what Algore pays.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Every month for his 10,000 square foot house.
CALLER: Well, this is just one intersection.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Now, the last time I looked, cars had headlights as standard equipment. So did trucks.
RUSH: Is this a stoplight intersection or stop sign?
CALLER: It’s not. It’s the street lights.
RUSH: But there’s no stoplights?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: It’s just stop signs?
CALLER: No. It’s an overpass.
RUSH: An overpass intersection?
CALLER: Yeah. Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: Visualize that.
CALLER: It’s a bypass that goes around the town and a main highway coming into it.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: The bypass goes over it, the road goes under it, and it’s illuminated with all these street lights.
RUSH: Gotcha.
CALLER: Now, cars and trucks have lights. Why do we need street lights?
RUSH: Well, because of the rapists and murderers and purse snatchers that are lurking — especially that hide under underpasses.
CALLER: Oh, yeah, right. But, you know, that works out to more than $1300 a month. Now, compared to my home electric bill, and I’m sure yours too, that’s kind of high. You multiply that by all the electrical intersections all over the US and then add to that the miles and miles of interstate that have street lights along it where there’s no intersection at all.
RUSH: And so your point is, if we’re going to start demanding cutbacks, why not demand cutbacks of city and county and state governments?
CALLER: It’s wasted electricity.
RUSH: Well, of course. But of course the government never does with less. I could tell you some of the funniest stories. Let me just very briefly. Republicans here in my home state of Florida have proposed cutting property taxes by 19%.
CALLER: I used to live there. I’m a recovering Floridian.
RUSH: Well, we wish you hadn’t left. You have a brain out there. But a 19% cut for some people in property taxes, to be off set by two things: A two and a half cents increase in the sales tax, up to eight and a half cents, and telling state and local governments, ?Get rid of some of the fluff.? And the state and local governments are having a cow! They are going, ?But what about services for the poor? What about services for the indigent? What about streets,? all of this stuff. It’s amazing. Folks, I’m going to tell you one thing. The idea that any government entity — a state, a city, feds — do not have enough money is something that is just absurd and ridiculous.
They are swimming in it. You have no idea how much they’ve got. You have no idea what they’re spending it on. How much of that spending is redundant. $2.9 trillion alone in the federal budget. You can’t even comprehend it and they still say it’s not enough and there are too many Draconian cuts. What do you think the job of elected officials is? It’s to spend money. They’re arguing over a three-year unpaid bill over one lighted intersection in Albany, Georgia, that comes to $50,000, over who should pay it. They both have it. They have it in droves. They have it in spades. They could split the bill. It’s actually an excellent point. Why don’t we go get the real big spenders and consumers of energy — i.e., governments — to cut back, if it means saving erf?