When Conservatives Love Subsidies

Conservative talk show hosts and other righty pundits never tire of telling us how much they hate subsidies - - their talking points endlessly complain about "entitlements," "picking winners and losers" or "getting free stuff" - - but our friends at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce want a government-guaranteed situational exception so some of their biggest members can enjoy a subsidized status quo.

Seems that utility rates paid by regular ol' We Energies electrical residential customers subsidize the rates paid by large, downtown Milwaukee steam-power customers, and a citizens utility group is petitioning the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to ease the big users off their easy-street business-as-usual practice.

Citizens utility group wants state PSC to phase out subsidies is the headline on the lead story in today's Journal Sentinel business section.

Horrors!

The MMAC came down squarely against the proposed five-year subsidy-phase out.

The utility said the citizen's group proposal was unfair.

No one in the story objected to the use of the term "subsidy."