Martin Sabo: “The proposal before us has been promoted as family-friendly and fiscally responsible. Let us focus on just one provision…”

“The proposal before us has been promoted as family-friendly and fiscally responsible. Let us focus on just one provision that puts the lie to those claims. This proposal would charge market rates for the power supplied by three of the Federal Government's power marketing administrations. Republicans estimate that charging these rates would increase revenues by $1.2 billion a year beginning in 1996. Sounds great. The problem is that $1.2 billion in electric rate increases, not a penny to the Federal Government because you do not change the term of the repayment. You will raise the electric rates. But the money will rest with those utilities, those power marketing administrations. Beyond that, there would be a net loss to the Treasury. We have electric rates of 25 to 60 percent across 13 Western States, which would trigger a series of business collapses, job losses, and all to make the deficit look better on paper; for millions of ratepayers, workers, and small business owners in the States of northern California, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Arkansas.”