Pun Salad

Now! Hampshire notes a recent story in my local newspaper, Foster's Daily Democrat. It detailed the reaction of one Frank Alix, an attendee at President Obama's recent "Jobs Summit". Alix was wowed! Among his other fawning quotes:

"We all can be skeptical of government at times ... but I came away quite impressed. There seems to be really strong engagement in areas that will help our country," said Alix.

Now! Hampshire points out that Alix is hardly predisposed to be skeptical of government: he kicked in $1500 to Democrat Jeanne Shaheen's successful bid to replace John E. Sununu in the US Senate. That tidbit didn't appear in the Foster's article.

But Foster's—good for them—did go out of their way to make a related point: Alix's company, Powerspan, makes "carbon capture and sequestration" technology for coal plants. And:

Alix said his own comments during the green jobs session focused on urging support for a comprehensive climate bill.

Its passage could mean the start of more projects by utility companies that will need Powerspan technology installed in coal-fired power plants.

Ah, bingo. Why bother yourself making products that customers might voluntarily want to purchase with their own money? Politicians are cheap to buy, and they are only too happy to return the favor by passing legislation that will compel customers to buy your product.

(Note that this is not a partisan issue: here's a post from a few months back discussing the corporate welfare recently dispensed to a local GOP stalwart.)