Obama proposes $3,000 home energy rebates (A $6 BILLION CASH FOR CAULKERS PROGRAM)

From the White House Blog:
Earlier today, after touring Savannah Tech, President Obama announced the initiatives for HOMESTAR, a program that offers incentives for people to make their homes more energy-efficient.

The President explained that the new program will save families several hundred of dollars on utilities, make the economy less dependent on fossil fuels, create work for small businesses and contractors, and bring back construction jobs.

Here's one of the best things about energy efficiency - it turns out that energy-efficient windows or insulation, those things are products that are almost exclusively manufactured right here in the United States of America. It's very hard to ship windows from China. So a lot of these materials are made right here in America.

Through the HOMESTAR Program, homeowners who make investments for energy-efficiency in their homes will be eligible to receive:
• Direct rebates for energy-saving investments
• 50 percent rebates for the cost of each upgrade up to $1500
• Rebates up to $3000 for those who choose to retrofit their whole homes
• Guaranteed quality installations through quality assurance providers who would conduct field audits after work is completed
• Support for financing through State and local governments

Just like a responsible homeowner will invest in their homes in the near term to fortify their economic security in the long term, we’ve got to do the same as a country. It will have some costs on the front end -- you buy a new boiler, or you get some insulation, or you get some new windows, that's going to have an initial cost, and the same is true from a government perspective. And it’s going to be politically difficult to do some of this, but it’s what’s right to plan for our future.

Grandpa:

Dear Mr. President,
Another $6 billion program! What about the 3 year discretionary spending freeze? Granted, you stated your freeze would commence in 2011 however at your desired rate of spending, Rome will already be burnt to the ground. One reason for “burnt to the ground” will be when the 9-1-1 call is made, we will find out just how many firefighter jobs were saved or created. I for one prefer to rely on my own bucket.

Your administration and the congressional clowns have already placed a tremendous financial burden on our children and grandchildren. Mr. President, you need to have more than your cholesterol checked; might I suggest an eye exam. In order to observe the impact your policies have on our grandchildren, corrective lenses would be indispensable.

If one can not afford a new vehicle, they simply do not buy it and it remains on the lot. If one can not afford to purchase a home, it remains on the market and one rents. Rent is not a “four letter word”. If one has a draft around a window, caulk it yourself. Guess what, if one can not afford to maintain their home, then maybe, just maybe, they should not own one. Not owning a home does not equate to the rank of a second class citizen Mr. President. Guess what, we are paying for your home!

This may come as a shock Mr. Obama, but we old school folks put on our own boots. We did not have a government sponsored program to assure that our shoes were properly tied. We also mowed our own lawn, spread the fertilizer and plucked weeds.

Our grandchildren must not incur any burden from this and/or prior generations' greed, irresponsibility and overall stupidity!

I am honored to have George Washington to make grandpa’s closing point:
George Washington sent a letter to James Madison in 1789 and included the following in his correspondence: “no generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence”.

Feel free to pass this around the Whitehouse as your administration could use some "old school" enlightenment.