https://subium.com/profile/kenklippenstein.bsky.social/post/3lezjevkgc22u

  • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    3 days ago

    The main hole in their plan is if they want to grab "moderate" republicans (I'll just assume they mean "guy who religiously votes Republican but not for any articulable reasons.") besides already being a flawed strategy when the pool of non-voters is so huge, is that they absolutely refuse to do anything positive for basically anyone who isn't in the petit bourgeois (or obviously the mega rich capitalists).

    Passing what amount to tax credits (as opposed to refunds or just "free") which are heavily means tested... appeals to absolutely fucking no one. Most people don't even understand how it works, for one, (by design, btw) and for those who do we can see "Oh, this is just a way to pretend you did something while not doing anything really and wrapping it all in multiple layers of lies and bullshit. And you wonder why everyone hates you?"

    If they want people to think "Wow! That Chuck guy! He helped me!" you just give people a free fucking heat pump for their home. (Referring to that IRA bill). You don't delay it for 3 fucking years either and let states putz around. You pass the bill, once it's signed into law, you get shit going immediately. You don't means test and act annoying with the money as if there is a shortage of fucking monopoly money. You just give people the shit. The guy in the suburbs who voted for Trump will remember "Well, Trump sure owned the libs, but Chuck and his party gave me a free fridge, water heater, heat pump..."

    And obviously I'm using these examples to appeal to who Chuck wants to have vote for him. There's a lot of other easy ways to get people to suck off the democrats until they die but all of it requires making an absolute minimum effort to increase people's material conditions. The first party who bothers to do that instead of only focusing on sending another $8B to Israel will lock shit down forever. People celebrated those less-than-crumbs covid checks. Those checks which should've been per person, per month for like two years. But people still were so goddamn happy to get them. You'd think if a party gave half of an ounce of shit about winning... they'd just shove checks up everyone's asses in Aug, Sept, Oct, and you vote in Nov. I guess ol' Chucky just doesn't like winning. He sure loves whining though.

    • Des [she/her, they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      i literally didn't even know about the heat pump thing.

      explains why my neighbors suddenly had theirs replaced and their hot water heater recently replaced as well

      they are farmers and likely pretty plugged into the federal program sphere. i am not. great advertising, dems

      • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        2 days ago

        It depends on the state (because stupid country), but you can go to this site and type in your zip code or scroll down and select a state to see what rebates/credits/whatever else are available in your state. It has info about the various incentives/programs, who it targets, when it started/renewed, funding behind it, what is covered and such.

        https://www.dsireusa.org/

        So if you're getting any major appliances, I'd suggest checking that first or maybe second after your state's relevant department for such things. Probably Department of Energy or something like that.

        Spoiler: Most of the shit is credits for small businesses. It's all means tested as well. So if you make more money than most people in your area, you may not qualify for much. If you are relatively poor for the area (or disabled/retired, etc.) you may qualify for all of the stuff. Just gotta read through the fine print to see where any catches might be. They could've made it so every home in the country is qualified for free new, efficient ovens, heat pumps, etc., but that would actually accomplish the goal of reducing reliance on fossil fuels and setting the US up for full conversion to electric only using renewable energy like solar. We can't have that! But still, I try to remind people to take advantage of the crumbs they offered. It's only almost nothing.

        • goferking (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
          ·
          2 days ago

          Thanks for that site. Need new stove at some point but of course that's not a part of anything in my state.

          I just hate it's all tax credits and not actual rebates or discounts.

          • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            2 days ago

            Some of it will be rebates, just not the bulk of it.

            Solar panels are credits. 30% of the total cost of the solar installation* can be claimed as a tax credit. Which could be substantial if you consider spending $20K on solar isn't that hard. Could be much higher. Of course it should be a fucking rebate, but credits make sure to eliminate... disabled and retired people. Great country!

            Stuff like ovens/stoves will be rebates.

            That website only lists what is available. If you want to know what is planned** then you need to dig around on your state's DoE website (or whatever they call it).

            Here is PA's as an example: Link

            They even made this site I assume because people (me) kept sending them emails weekly like "Dear Govna', It's been [X] weeks since this bill was signed into law allocating funding for rebates. I need a new oven. Where is my oven, Mr. Shapiro? Thank you."

            https://www.pennenergysavers.com/

            * not sure if labor cost counts towards credit (we all know it likely doesn't)

            ** heavy emphasis on planned. Big chance this shit gets scrapped silently by Trump's Suicide Squad of inbreds and rejects

            (I still do not have an oven, as you can see from their "plans." My personal conspiracy theory is they are dragging it out (it's been over 2.5 years!) precisely so Trump's inbred crew can find a way to delay it forever or just ignore that it's supposed to happen. It's not like anyone besides me and three other naïve hopefuls are waiting for this. Btw, the governor has been pushing this back by six months at a time for that entire 2.5 years until last year he shoved it ahead one year until early 2025 (hey, what year is it...? Hmm). It just feeds my theory since if they needed a "budget" for the funds, I could cobble some BS together in an afternoon. Ain't no way it took the PA DOE 2.5 years. Now oven prices are up at least whatever inflation has been since 2022-Dec 2024, and since rebates are moronically set a firm dollar amount, not percentage, this entire rebate has been devalued like 20%. We all know that $1000 oven in summer 2022 is at least $1200 now if not more. Thus, my conspiracy theory grows)

            • goferking (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
              ·
              2 days ago

              Yeah the solar panel and heating are what I was most interested in years ago until pricing it out along with required loans.

              Didn't help half the companies pushing the solar setup and installs ended up disappointing those that got it and disappearing