The Washington Post dialed up a hit piece on Rick Perry and Ron Paul today, Paul Kane reports:
Two Republican presidential candidates who have spoken out against federal subsidies for energy projects tried to obtain such benefits three years ago.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) pressed the energy secretary in 2008 to approve a federal loan guarantee to help an energy company hoping to expand a nuclear facility in Texas. NRG Energy was among the many firms vying for a slice of $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees set aside for nuclear production, according to letters obtained by The Washington Post. That led to a rush of appeals from Congress members and other elected officials, including Perry and Paul, hoping to win support for their projects.
In recent candidates debates, the two have criticized federal energy loan programs.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) pressed the energy secretary in 2008 to approve a federal loan guarantee to help an energy company hoping to expand a nuclear facility in Texas. NRG Energy was among the many firms vying for a slice of $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees set aside for nuclear production, according to letters obtained by The Washington Post. That led to a rush of appeals from Congress members and other elected officials, including Perry and Paul, hoping to win support for their projects.
In recent candidates debates, the two have criticized federal energy loan programs.
There is nothing hypocritical about trying to obtain benefits from a federal program you criticize, as long as you didn’t vote to create it. If The Post has evidence that Paul or Perry supported/voted for authorizing federal subsidies that is one thing. But all this article reports, is that once the federal loan guarantee existed, Perry and Paul fought for their states fair share. As Texas Senator Phil Gramm once explained:
If the Senate voted this afternoon on building a cheese factory on the Moon, I would no doubt vote against it. But if the Senate decided, in its collective lack of wisdom, to build a cheese factory on the Moon, I would want engineers from Texas to design that cheese factory. I would want a construction company from Texas, since we have the best construction companies in the world, to build that cheese factory. If we were going to use milk from earthly cows, I would want milk from Texas cows to be used to make the cheese in the factory on the Moon, and I would want the celestial headquarters for it in Texas. But am I for a cheese factory on the Moon? No.
