Yup, you read that right. www.theguardian.com/…

A Trump administration plan to subsidize coal and nuclear energy would cost US taxpayers about $10.6bn a year and prop up some of the oldest and dirtiest power plants in the country, a new analysis has found. The Department of Energy has proposed that coal and nuclear plants be compensated not only for the electricity they produce but also for the reliability they provide to the grid. The new rule would provide payments to facilities that store fuel on-site for 90 days or more because they are “indispensable for our economic and national security”. Trump’s plan to bail out failing fossil fuels with taxpayer subsidies is perverse Rick Perry, the energy secretary, said the subsidies were needed to avoid power outages “in times of supply stress such as recent natural disasters”. The plan would provide a lifeline to many aging coal and nuclear plants that would otherwise go out of business, primarily due to the abundance of cheap natural gas and the plummeting cost of renewables.

So there you have it, plain and blunt as a sledge hammer: Trump’s pledge to restore jobs for coal miners, achieved by shelling out $10 billion plus PER YEAR to the nuclear and coal industry. This as several major nuclear projects here in the U.S. have been brought to a halt because of massive delays and cost over runs. And this as evidence of global warming and its damage to our world and the economy, much of it due to burning of coal, continues to mount.

And boy howdy, can Rick Perry earn his keep as Energy Secretary? The guy who took on the job unaware that it included stewardship of our nuclear weapons arsenal. The guy who couldn’t remember one of the three federal agencies he wanted to eliminate if he were president (actually it was energy). And now he justifies this travesty by claiming it will “avoid power outages in times of supply stress such as recent natural disasters.” Just how that would happen, given that natural disasters can be as damaging to coal and nuclear plants as it can to oil and gas fired plants, is not explained. But with Rick, being unable to explain is a feature, not a flaw.

And there you have it: A GOP that came within a single vote, TWICE, of passing healthcare legislation so truly awful it was opposed by a vast majority of the voters and every major national health organization.

Q GOP that I am sure will welcome THIS initiative with open arms, even as they go along with Trump’s gutting of subsidies for Obamacare in an effort to kill the plan because….”Obama.”

And while you were looking elsewhere, the Guardian article notes:

The aggressively pro-fossil fuels stance of the Trump administration has been advanced elsewhere this week, with the House of Representatives approving a budget plan that would open the way for oil drilling in a vast Arctic wildlife refuge in Alaska. Meanwhile, the interior department has released a plan to sweep away the regulatory “burdens” that slow down or prevent mining and drilling on public lands.

Also the party where even that pure defender of free market orthodoxy Jeff Flake joined his GOP colleagues to repeal consumer protections allowing class action lawsuits against big banks, credit card companies, payday lenders, mortgage lenders and healthcare providers and reverting to the mandatory imposition of “arbitration panels” that evidence has shown, invariably find for the companies rather than the consumer.

I repeat again….this is an ENTIRE national political party, absolutely wed to nothing more than greed, power and corruption. They have no real plan to help people. It is also increasingly clear that the vast majority of them are stuck like glue to their leader, even as he steadily destroys the nation, our democracy and our environment, economy, healthcare, education system, courts, and infrastructure. This is a party that needs to be voted out of office in its entirety.