Tennessee Valley Authority Privatization Act

[Emsworth]

Well. what's wrong with it is that there is no telling who will buy, and what they will do with it.  I am all for privatizing it, but only on the condition that we are responsable for who ends up with it, and that determination is made by a seletion process that assures certain standards of quality, rather than just giving it away to Joe Billionaire.

Why would anyone spend billions of dollars to buy the TVA, and then intentionally misuse it? Such an eventuality is extremely remote and unlikely.

Remember that this authority will end up costing about $50 billion. No single person will be able to purchase it. Rather, it will be sold (auctioned) to a group of investors. This is no different from a company's Initial Public Offering (IPO).

[Emsworth]

If one of these dams breaks, and 50,000 people are dead, and Chattanooga is under 20 ft of water, I don't think too man people are going to care about who gets to sue whom.

With all due respect, that seems like a rather irrational fear. Why will selling the TVA to anyone lead to the destruction of a dam? Frankly, the likelihood that a private company will waste billions of dollars is much lower than the likelihood that the government will waste billions of dollars.

[Emsworth]

Aye to both, I guess.  I'd still be up in the air about this bill either way.  I would really like to know who might be interested in buying it before voting for something that would require us to sell it.

Why the magic of the free market will find a magic buyer...

Nothing in the bill suggests that there should only be a single buyer. As far as I can tell, the text of the bill (at present) allows shares in the TVA to be sold to private investors, in the same fashion as shares of any normal company.

[Emsworth]

4. Are you aware of anyone (individual, corporation, whatever) who would be interested in buying the TVA for what it is worth, and who would actually be able to run it on a sound financial footing?

Why does it have to be a single person or corporation? The privatization of the TVA could be like the initial public offering of any company: shares would be put up for sale to the general public.

[Emsworth]

Well if this is making $800 million dollars for the Federal Government every year I see now need as of now to privatize it unless someone can give me a convincing argument otherwise.

Instead of making $800 million next year by keeping the TVA, we can make up to $100 billion by selling it. That would wipe out a quarter of the federal budget deficit, and free up money that can be used for a variety of other programs.

Furthermore, privatization of other agencies like the TVA has been performed before, and with great success (as Supersoulty previously indicated).

Finally, in general, private individuals should be running businesses, not the government.

[Emsworth]

If so, how will it "put a dent in the deficit"?  Won't it just do so for one single year and then actually raise the deficit in later years since we won't have the $800 million in revenue from the TVA?

The $50-$100 billion could be used for a number of purposes, like paying down the national debt (thereby reducing our interest payments).