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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe NYC who wrote (174073)	8/18/2003 1:57:21 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1574326

The $350 billion was the size of the energy transmission bill voted down by Congress two years ago. That's about 25% of the budget. I am not sure why the taxpayers should foot the bill, rather than utility customers (including me). That was not meant for one year but over several years. The utes don't have the money. For varying reasons, many of them have little or no cash reserves left. Do you really think Niagara Mohawk or Con Ed are swimming in money? They can borrow money, and they can increase rates. But I think the utilities can do what's reqired for a fraction of $350B. Many utes can't borrow at all.....the best they can do is refi existing debt. The $500-600 billion is what the experts are now saying that Iraq will cost us en toto. What experts? There are many who are estimating similar amounts. The one I respect the most is Michael O'Hanlon. He's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. ted