It’s about more than just light bulbs

Listen to Dave Ross Commentary: It’s about more than just light bulbs

Back in 2007, Congress approved phasing out inefficient, incandescent light bulbs.

That bugs Republicans like Mike Burgess of Texas.

“Those of us of a certain age, under a compact florescent bulb, we don’t look as good as we do under an incandescent bulb.”

Think how much corrective tanning that would require.

As for Democrats, like Rush Holt of New Jersey. “Yeah, this costs a few dimes more. But let me tell you, you start saving dimes as soon as you screw this into the sockets,” he said.

See Democrats don’t care how they look, just as long as they can make Republicans look pasty.

But this isn’t about the light bulbs, this is about freedom. We Americans don’t like the government telling us what to do, even if it’s for our own good, especially if it’s for our own good.

If the new swirly bulbs are truly better than the old doorknob bulbs, if they’re cheaper in the long run, and don’t make our members of congress look too pasty, we’ll buy them by choice. But if we want to waste electricity we should have that right.

The thing is, the bulb ban is probably going to stick, so what do we do to enforce our right to waste electricity? That’s easy just crank up the electric heater to the scald setting, replace this radio with a 1928 vacuum tube Atwater-Kent, and leave the air conditioner on all day and your power bill will stay right where it is.

“We don’t look as good as we do under an incandescent bulb,” says Burgess.

I know, I know. We’ll photoshop you.

Subscribe to The Ross and Burbank podcast