After being repeatedly assured by Fox News that President Obama is a dedicated socialist, it came as a shock to me to read a report by the Knoxville, Tennessee, News-Sentinel:
In the 2014 budget submitted to Congress, the [Obama] administration says it “intends to undertake a strategic review of options for addressing [the Tennessee Valley Authority’s] financial situation, including the possible divestiture of TVA, in part or as a whole.”
Now if there’s one shining example of successful American socialism, it’s TVA.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is the nation’s largest public power provider and a corporation of the U.S. government. TVA was established by Congress in 1933 to address a wide range of environmental, economic, and technological issues, including the delivery of low-cost electricity and the management of natural resources. TVA’s power service territory includes most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia, covering 80,000 square miles and serving more than 9 million people. TVA sells electricity to 155 power distributor customers and 56 directly served industries and federal facilities.
Initially, federal appropriations funded all TVA operations. Appropriations for the TVA power program ended in 1959, and appropriations for TVA’s environmental stewardship and economic development activities were phased out by 1999. TVA is now fully self-financing, funding operations primarily through electricity sales and power system financings.
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Even by Depression standards, the Tennessee Valley was in sad shape in 1933. Much of the land had been farmed too hard for too long, eroding and depleting the soil. Crop yields had fallen along with farm incomes. The best timber had been cut. TVA built dams to harness the region’s rivers. The dams controlled floods, improved navigation and generated electricity. TVA developed fertilizers, taught farmers how to improve crop yields and helped replant forests, control forest fires, and improve habitat for wildlife and fish. The most dramatic change in Valley life came from the electricity generated by TVA dams. Electric lights and modern appliances made life easier and farms more productive. Electricity also drew industries into the region, providing desperately needed jobs.
In other words TVA did, and still does, exactly what a government program should do.
It is yet another sign of how far the political center of gravity has shifted to the right that when Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater advocated privatizing TVA in 1964, it was generally regarded as an example of the loony extremism which caused him to lose to Lyndon Johnson in a landslide.
So I want to give credit to Tennessee’s Republican Senator Lamar Alexander for denouncing the Obama administration’s proposal on what appear to be socialist grounds:
“This is one more bad idea in a budget full of bad ideas,” Alexander said. “There is today no federal taxpayer subsidy for TVA, period. There is by law no federal taxpayer liability for TVA debt. And after deducting its debt, selling TVA would probably cost taxpayers money.”
The administration’s budget proposal says “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.”
Alexander countered by saying that selling TVA to a for-profit company would not guarantee reduced electric bills in the Tennessee Valley, “which should be the overriding objective — and it could lead to higher electricity rates.”
People before profits? I’m with Lamar on this all the way.
(Hat tip: Andrew Murphy)