The difference between the House vote and the Senate vote is simple: one side faces the voter in less than a month, and the other side would rather keep an issue alive than solve it for the ordinary American.
In our grandparents’ day, public service meant working in the government for the common good of all Americans. Even the cynical cases made an effort of making it seem that was their ultimate motivator. But today, politicians have become so shameless that they aren’t even embarrassed about using any lever they can possibly grab to claw their way into power. The public are just the means to that end.
Look at the handling of cost-of-living concerns and AI. Someone on the left has figured out that these are the weak links in the chain they can hit the voters with in November… especially if they can whip up fear.
With only a month to go, that creates a problem. We’ve got legislators on both sides of the aisle responding to growing public pressure to find a solution to the growing angst that has been whipped up with concerns about electricity and water consumption of the data centres on which AI (or are we calling it ‘SI’ now?) depends.
Of course, ChatGPT isn’t the ONLY thing that keeps those data centres humming. Streaming sites, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch (not to mention the insane data processing demands of OnlyFans and all the other seedy content sites out there) are consumption heavy too. But since those tools don’t threaten CCPs attempts at hegemony, those never seem to find their way into public debate somehow. Isn’t that curious.
But concerns were raised, and for once, legislator responded. House Democrats and Republicans both — motivated by a healthy fear of an impatient electorate — crafted legislation they could BOTH support, passing the Ratepayer Protection Act with a 417-3 vote on September 16th.
Until Chuck Schumer saw an opportunity to weaponize the issue against the GOP, whipping the ‘no’ vote instead of passing something that his own party had almost universally supported in the other chamber.
The US Senate on Wednesday blocked legislation requiring state utility regulators to consider whether large electricity users, including data centers, should bear the incremental costs of power infrastructure built to serve them and thus ease the burden on households.
Senators voted 57-43 to advance the Ratepayer Protection Act, with only four Democrats voting for it. The measure needed at least 60 affirmative votes to clear a Senate procedural hurdle.
Senate Republicans had aimed to improve their prospects in the November mid-term elections by voting on the legislation, the first to address the economic concerns linked to the expansion of data centers that support artificial intelligence. — NYPost
Rather than give the ratepayers legislation that would serve their interests and quiet their concerns, Schumer chose to BLOCK that legislation so he could continue using it to stoke voter fears and motivate turnout.
It’s not the only vote the Senate made yesterday, either. Remember all that talk from Democrats about getting money out of politics?
Clearly they did NOT intend that to be understood as meaning getting the politicians out of money:
