July 17, 2001

5:30 AM

He's GOT to be kidding-- Citing "the fluctuating and unpredictable nature of utility costs," Cheney lobbies for the Navy to foot his power bills. This from the same guy who's been, shall we say, less than sympathetic to those of us who've been dealing with the exact same problem.
posted by shauna (25 comments total)

{sarcasm} A true servant of the people. {/sarcasm}
posted by nofundy at 5:59 AM on July 17, 2001

Wouldn't strapping him in to a power generating treadmill do him some cardiovascular good? Win win!
posted by machaus at 6:00 AM on July 17, 2001

A Navy spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the issue.

A completely fabricated look inside the mind of a Navy spokeswoman.

On the one hand, he wants to give us billions of dollars to shoot missiles at other missiles and violate our treaty obligations. (Granted, violating our treaties is an old American pastime, but still.)

On the other hand, he's being a prick about this whole house thing.

Hey, we'll just divert some of the money from the Missile Shield. Problem solved!
posted by Ezrael at 6:01 AM on July 17, 2001

I am bothered not only by his greed but that he needs, deserves so large a place (taxpayer's expense). It is such agfrandizement that makes our "leaders" so distant from the ordinary citizens of this country.
posted by Postroad at 6:03 AM on July 17, 2001

Postroad, would you want anything less for the President of the United States?
posted by machaus at 6:07 AM on July 17, 2001

Quote from the article: "If you want to leave all the lights on in your house, you can," Mr. Cheney said. "There's no law against it. But you will pay for it."
posted by panopticon at 6:35 AM on July 17, 2001

The government has always paid the utilities for the veep's residence. All he is trying to do is transfer this item to the navy's budget.
posted by Oxydude at 7:08 AM on July 17, 2001

"Postroad, would you want anything less for the President of the United States?"

I can't speak for Postroad, but yeah, this country would be in much better shape if the people running it had more of a realistic perspective on everyday life for average people.
posted by dong_resin at 7:20 AM on July 17, 2001

given Cheney's personal wealth, maybe he should be paying the bill himself.
posted by tolkhan at 7:34 AM on July 17, 2001

All he is trying to do is transfer this item to the navy's budget. Even so, that leaves HIS budget with ~$186,000 to spend as he likes that he wouldn't have available otherwise - do I have that correct?
posted by thunder at 8:05 AM on July 17, 2001

I don't think it's the whole $186k -- if I remember right, the Navy already covers a hefty percentage because the VP's crib is on Navy property. Cheney wants them to cover the rest of it.
posted by shauna at 8:29 AM on July 17, 2001

Did anybody note the line in the article which pointed out that this has been a budgetary move in the works since the sainted Al Gore lived in that house? This wasn't Cheney's idea, folks.
posted by Dreama at 8:30 AM on July 17, 2001

Dreama: I'm glad that you actually read the whole article - thanks.

I've lived in military housing many times over the years - and when you live in military housing, the government pays your utility bills. This incident with the VP's residence sounds a lot more like "creative accounting" and bickering among several governmental entities over which entity will pay for the VP's light bill. Cheney has little, if anything, to do with this.

On a related note, do you actually think that the President pays the electricity bill for the White House? So why should the VP be any different?
posted by davidmsc at 8:44 AM on July 17, 2001

I don't think it matters who pays the bills. I just find it hard to believe that any house, no matter how large, need rack up an energy bill of that magnitude. You'd figure Dick could turn the lights out when he left the room every now and again.
posted by dogmatic at 8:52 AM on July 17, 2001

I wish the article said how much the vp's budget is, so we'd know whether this is half or 1/100 of his budget we're looking at.
posted by rebeccablood at 9:01 AM on July 17, 2001

I imagine that the "house" is more than a house. It probably contains offices and scores of employees, much like the White House. Not to mention regular state events. So $186,000 is a lot but not unimaginable.
posted by daveadams at 9:20 AM on July 17, 2001

Dreama: I'm glad that you actually read the whole article - thanks.

Uh, David, I read the whole article. You're missing the point. I don't care if the Navy pays a utility bill -- it's who's doing the asking that bothers me. Regardless of whose idea it was in the first place, it's terribly galling that the same guy who basically told us Californians to "suck it up" is now whining about his power bills. Even if Gore was the one to put this in motion two years ago, Cheney should have "sucked it up" himself and not pushed for it to go through. At best he now looks like a hypocrite.

If he hadn't mocked California's power problem a few months ago, I wouldn't give a damn about this -- in fact, I doubt it even would have made the news.
posted by shauna at 9:23 AM on July 17, 2001

Cheney: "Do as I say, not as I do."

Fes: "Dad?"
posted by UncleFes at 9:50 AM on July 17, 2001

Plus there's the fact that for some "mysterious reason" the electrical bill is going up and up...but only in Cheney's house. No one and nothing around it. Also, while sainted Al Gore lived there, the bills dropped.

But hey, why quibble? It doesn't matter if Cheney is expected to live by his own rhetoric or not, right? It's not an issue of us paying any more or less...we will be paying for it one way or another...it's an issue of him not looking like he doesn't give a rats ass for us, the people he is supposedly representing.
posted by Ezrael at 10:26 AM on July 17, 2001

actually, ezrael, while the bill was lower when gore lived there, consumption was higher:

"She said it was unclear why electricity bills were rising so sharply this year at the mansion since Mr. Cheney and his wife, Lynne, had done their best to hold down energy use.
Electricity use in the mansion was down by about a third this year over the same period last year, when the residence was occupied by Vice President Al Gore."
posted by rebeccablood at 11:44 AM on July 17, 2001

hey peter give me 186,000$
posted by clavdivs at 12:44 PM on July 17, 2001

Quote from the article:
"Electricity costs at the residence have jumped in recent years, more than doubling in the three years since a meter was installed on the property."

*blink* *blink*

Well, I should say so.
posted by bshort at 12:58 PM on July 17, 2001

do you actually think that the President pays the electricity bill for the White House? So why should the VP be any different?

given Bush's personal wealth, maybe he should be paying the bill himself.
posted by tolkhan at 2:09 PM on July 17, 2001

"On a related note, do you actually think that the President pays the electricity bill for the White House? So why should the VP be any different?"

They are both given budgets for maintaining their residencies. Why should Cheney not pay from the money provided for that purpose? I read the entire article. If the budget is insufficient he should ammend his next budget request instead of trying to play an accounting trick that lets him look as if he is under budget.
posted by Sqwerty at 5:38 PM on July 17, 2001

Quote: "Electricity use in the mansion was down by about a third this year over the same period last year, when the residence was occupied by Vice President Al Gore."
posted by tdstone at 2:51 PM on July 18, 2001