Light bulbs–Squiggles are out… well, maybe

We’ve got florescent, incandescent, halogen, LCD, and glow sticks at Halloween. All of these light blubs have proven good within the sphere of usage. The florescent/energy conservant CFL bulb was supposed to be the best bulb ever to be invented. Hey it's cool to touch a lit bulb. It could last more than two years. 
But it is dangerous when it breaks. It is dim when first turned on. It sometimes doesn't last for even 6 months, much less as long as the package states, and the store won’t take them back or exchange them.


Regardless, the government chose this curvaceous, long-lasting bulb for us to use for everything from a reading light to a zapping shadows. That, is the point. Who is this Big Brother leaning over our shoulders demanding obedience in how to use energy? Good intentions to the side. We’ve got a huge gorilla in the middle of the room and someone needs to go sit on him.


The House of Representatives is trying to do just that. It is a thankless job, however. Reps. Joe Barton and Michael Burgess (I hope we’re related somewhere on the tree) have introduced a bill to save the old incandescent bulbs and to overturn the energy standards which will make them illegal in 2014. The old ones just misses the energy reduction mark.
The White House states these new bulbs and the energy standards will save $6 billion in 2015.


Really? Why isn’t the WH saving this much already? Saving who? Why is the gov’t so keen on energy savings when they can’t stop spending our hard-earned tax dollars? Why do they force us to buy health insurance and tell us which bulbs to buy and give us ultimatums on the kinds of electric plugs our houses can have (plugs that will regulate our energy usage)?
If this government wants us to believe it is interested in saving money in 2015, then it had better pass a balanced budget that has reasonable spending cuts, otherwise we’ll just have to quit feeding the gorilla.


WANTED: One fat lady to sing over the budget in Washington, D.C. 

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