Congress Passes Energy Efficient Server Initiative

Krishna Dagli writes to mention a News.com article about a just-passed Congressional initiative. On Wednesday the House passed legislation instructing Americans to make energy efficiency a priority when purchasing computer servers. From the article: "Washington politicians voted 417-4 on Wednesday to tell American purchasing managers that it's in their 'best interests' to pay attention to energy conservation. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, also directs the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a three-month study 'of the growth trends associated with data centers and the utilization of servers in the federal government and private sector.'" Well, at least if they're doing this they're not passing 'real' laws, right?

Comments

waste

[bigpat]

I'd like to pass a resolution telling Congress to stop wasting our money. Oh right, but our national debts aren't piling up nearly as fast as they were last year, so everything is going to be just fine? I mean every household only owes about $400,000 in government debt which I'm sure is sustainable.

Great. I think it is about time to start printing more money.

Re:waste

[scheming daemons]

I mean every household only owes about $400,000 in government debt which I'm sure is sustainable.

That number looked really wrong to me so I looked it up: Debt = 8.4 trillion Households = 110 million Population = 295 million

So we owe $28,000 per person, and about $76,000 per household.

Whew.... Now I feel better. Knowing that my share of the debt is only $76k puts my mind at ease. Go Bush!

Isn't it interesting that....

FY 1993 (the last Poppy Bush budget) = deficit was $290 billion
FY 1994 (the first Clinton budget) = deficit was $150 billion
FY 1995 = deficit was $70 billion
FY 1996 thru 2001 (Clinton's last six budgets) = SURPLUS!
FY 2002 thru 2006 (Junior's first five budgets) = Deficits... highest around $400 billion, currently $296 billion

In the last 25 years, we've had 19 years of deficit and 6 years of surplus. The Republican administrations in that time are 17 for 17 in producing deficits. The Democratic administration during that time is 6 for 8 in producing surpluses.

Yet.. the Democrats are the "tax and spend" party that is fiscally irresponsible.

Facts are funny things... but NON-military spending, spending NOT related to Bush's "war on Tara" (using his pronunciation), is up an average of 9% per year during the current administration's term.

Under Clinton, the ENTIRE budget (military and non alike) averaged an increase of 4% per year.

The bottom line is... the Democrats are more fiscally sound at managing government than the Republicans.

There is more pork under the current regime than the last. The current President has never vetoed a single spending bill. The Republicans are the party of "borrow and spend" and they are borrowing the money from your kids.

But they're against flag burning.. so let's keep 'em!!! Yeeha!

Re:waste

[scheming daemons]

agree to some extent that Clinton was a much better Republican than Bush is. I do not agree, really, with your implied conclusion that "debt = bad". I'm pretty sure that is incorrect. I am not an economist, but I've always believed that most economists feel that governments being indebted to their people is finicially sound, to some extent. A 0-debt country runs major inflation risks. Let me restate that I am not an economist. I don't know what is and is not a healthy amount of debt. I don't pretend to know. I have no other option but to trust economists (not politicians) to tell me what is and is not a healthy amount of debt.

So in conclusion, I think jumping up and down and screaming about the national debt isn't very productive for anything other than fearmongering. Getting a straight answer from economists is basically impossible, however. The problem is that the government is NOT in debt to its people. Most of the T-bill's that make up the debt are held by international entities.

A very large percentage of the debt is in T-bills bought by the Chinese, Japanese, Germans, etc.

The Government isn't in debt to us... their in debt to outside interests. And that is NOT A GOOD THING (tm).

A government that balances is books is ALWAYS better off and better able to handle impending crises. What works for your budget at home is also what works on the large scale. Your books have to be balanced, or show the prospect of being balanced in the future. You can't run up personal debt forever without eventually going bankrupt. Neither can the USA.

Re:I'm all for being an earth concious consumer...

[tehcyder]

Here in FL, most solar installs are not to heat domestic water, but to heat the pools

Go on, rub it in for us poor Brits.

Mismanagement?

[Kouroth]

I was under the impression that management was what CAUSED the problem in the first place. If everyone left the Arabs alone instead of always poking there noses in there business it might never have been a problem. No I'm not talking about just today or even 10 years ago. Those people have had outsiders constantly badgering them in one way or another from the crusades to oil now days.* No wonder they are pissed off! The US took over where others left off so now they are the bad guys. It is probably too late to change anything or the direction things are heading now; but it would be good to at least look at some reasons why they hate so much.