America's consumption problem reached new heights today when Congress had to re-up our supply of helium, the second-most common substance in the universe. Rep. Hank Johnson delivered a heartfelt defense of the element, which could be put in balloons and used to keep Guam from capsizing. And Max Baucus wrote that the whisper of "the elk resting in a meadow east of the Bridger Mountains" convinced him to retire and return to Montana. Our money says the whispers of Arent Fox LLP will ultimately prove more convincing. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, April 26th, 2013:
FAA FURLOUGH BILL PASSES, GRANDMA STILL STARVING - America's poor preschoolers might still have to pawn their Thomas the Tank Engine backpack to eat because Head Start funding is down, but don't worry! You'll soon have to spend thirty fewer minutes in the Fox Sports Bar and Grill while waiting for your connection in Charlotte. Mike McAuliff: "Lawmakers passed a bill Friday to ease air traffic delays before catching their own flights home for a week off, leaving unchanged other painful effects of the across-the-board spending cuts mandated by Congress' sequestration law...cuts that are harming care for cancer patients, closing children out of preschool and ending food programs for the elderly remain in place. The $85 billion in mandatory cuts this year are a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which Congress passed after its standoff over raising the nation's debt limit... The theory [was] that sequestration would be so painful that Congress wouldn't let it happen. But Congress and the 'super committee; tasked with the budget-cutting job failed anyway..faced with an outcry from the flying public over delays caused by sequester-related furloughs at the Federal Aviation Administration, the Senate acted Thursday night and the House followed suit Friday, voting 361 to 41 to give the FAA budget flexibility otherwise barred by the sequester law." [HuffPost]
POLITICIAN SAYS ONE THING, DOES ANOTHER - Pork nom nom nom nom nom nom nom. Lucia Graves: "Republicans on Wednesday attacked the Department of Energy for its investment in struggling electric car company Fisker Automotive. Fisker laid off a majority of its workers this month after receiving $192 million in federal aid as part of the Obama administration's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program, designed to aid car companies pursuing energy efficiency. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Oversight Committee's economic growth, job creation and regulatory affairs subcommittee, said at Wednesday's hearing that the department should never have given California-based Fisker a loan in the first place... 'It was rated triple-C plus. It was a junk-grade investment.' Fisker is yet another car manufacturer that finds itself struggling after applying for money from the department's ATVM program, alongside Coda Automotive. That company, based in Ohio, had also sought a loan from Energy, and among the lawmakers who pushed for that loan was Jordan....Jordan was also among the Ohio lawmakers to request a loan guarantee for the commercialization of the American Centrifuge Plant, a uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. With its rating of triple-C, the plant represents a riskier investment than Fisker did with a rating of triple-C plus." [HuffPost]
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