Illuminating comparison

So, how many U.S. Representatives and Senators does it take to change a lightbulb?  I can’t believe (actually, I can) that light bulbs are a political issue in the United States.  Rather than deal with something like their aggressive wars against other countries (and the trillions of dollars its cost them), unemployment, anemic stimulus packages, their out of control narcotics habit, or even the federal debt, the U.S. Congress would much rather spend their time fussing about light bulbs.

Do people in the U.S. have nothing better to do than come up with philosophical rationales for not changing their lightbulbs?  From what I can tell, the anti-lightbulb lobby — mostly Republicans, but I guess they can be called “Dim-ocrats” — oppose more energy efficient lightbulb standareds on the theory that it limits consumer choice.  Or, having already passed a bill changing the light-bulb standards back during the Bush administration, the Congress just needs to find something to distract itself from more serious business.

Or is it a question of cost… while all that nonsense was going on north of the border, here in Mexico, where it’s estimated that a quarter of electrical use is for lighting... the government just went out an bought 22.9 million lightbulbs, which it will trade for the old incandescent bulbs, though you have to screw them in yourselves.