“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”
― Thomas Paine
“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.”
― Jonathan Swift
“The truth only hurts when you want to believe a lie.”
― Jennifer McVey
“We can’t see the true characters of those who lurk in the shade until they are exposed to the light…”
― Nanette L. Avery,
source for the quotes above are per GoodReads.
“In cognitive psychology and decision theory, loss aversion refers to
people’s tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains.”
Per Wikipedia, with underlying added for emphasis.
The 2020 election cycle prepares to shift into the primary season with the Iowa Caucuses only 3 weeks out. So, it is time for that closer look at the candidate’s various positions on issues that directly or indirectly relate to manufactured homes or affordable housing.
Notice to new readers. As longtime readers of MHProNews already know, every aspect of the headline topics will be covered, but not always in the headline’s sequence. Given the common modern concerns about accuracy in media, this publication carefully cites sources accurately in a manner that can be readily double-checked. Analysis and commentary are often added that utilize industry expertise and decades of insights, but that too is labeled and thus disclosed for reader discernment.
The chronology for this report will be as follows.
Stating the obvious for clarity. Accurately quoting a person or source, as in the examples above, may shed light on a specific issue. But a quote should not be construed as a blanket endorsement of all that a person or organization has said or done. There is wheat and chaff that must be discerned and carefully separated with each person or operation of whatever kind.
First some facts on this evening’s competing GOP and Democratic events, in reverse order, and then our focus on Senator Bernie Sanders surging campaign elements and what it could mean to the manufactured housing industry. That will include analysis by MHProNews.
With that game plan, let’s dive in.
Part I:
Tonight, there will be competing political events by the presidential front runners among the Democrats and the sitting 45th President of the United States (POTUS), Donald J. Trump.
A) Per CNN:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will be to the left of Biden, and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg will be to the right of Sanders. Businessman Tom Steyer will stand next to Warren, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota will be next to Buttigieg.
The debate, which will air on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET exclusively on CNN, is the final face-to-face gathering of the candidates before the February 3 Iowa caucuses. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Abby Phillip, as well as The Des Moines Register’s Brianne Pfannenstiel, will moderate the debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.”
MHProNews has watched every Democratic debate start to finish.
B) “Donald J Trump’s Milwaukee rally is set to take place Tuesday evening at the UW Milwaukee Panther Arena in downtown Milwaukee. That event begins at 7 PM,” said WSAU, in a report entitled “The Trumps take over Wisconsin this week,” which added the following.
“Last week Democratic Governor Tony Evers said he welcomes any sitting President to visit Wisconsin, but he stopped short of rolling out the red carpet for the Republican Commander-in-Chief.
I always welcome the President, no matter who he or she is, whichever party. It is what it is. National politics are sometimes a circus, and this may be part of that circus. I’m not sure, we’ll see.”
C) Rallies | Donald J. Trump for President
Rally in. Milwaukee, WI. Tue, January 14, 2020 07:00 pm (CST).
MHProNews has viewed several Trump 2020 rallies.
D) One of the CSPAN channels typically carries Trump Rallies live. But if you go to YouTube and search for a Trump rally by location name and date, there are routinely several networks and other outlets that prove a live stream of the event. As CNN noted, they will exclusively carry the Democratic debate. Politico noted today that one of the richest billionaires in the world, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg campaign staff has swelled to over 1,000. They are banking on Super Tuesday. With some estimating that already $200 million spent on the campaign and TV ads already, Bloomberg is poised to spend a billion dollars in 2020. For more on that, see last night’s report linked below.
Part II. Senator Bernie Sanders (VT-I, self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist who caucuses with Senate Democrats) and his various stances on manufactured housing.
On August 22, 2019 with the Camp Fire devastated Holly Hills manufactured home community in the background, Senator Sanders made campaign statements about his $16.3 trillion dollar climate change plan, per the Los Angeles Times.
Let’s stress anew that by citing the following from the Sanders’ Campaign website that it should not be construed at this time as either being for or against the candidate and his views, rather, these are an accurate reflection of positions of the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist.
The quote immediately below is pulled in the broader context of the Sander’s campaign plans focus on climate change and housing.
“Because our mobile home stock is leaky and often very old,
we plan to replace all mobile homes with zero-energy modular homes.”
– Sanders Campaign website.
Here is that Senator Sanders presidential campaign comment in context. The highlighting in yellow below was added by MHProNews.
From the Sanders Campaign Website, as part of his Green New Deal:
◦ Making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies.
◦ Generating revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Authorities. Revenues will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs.
◦ Scaling back military spending on maintaining global oil dependence.
◦ Collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan.
◦ Reduced need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.
◦ Making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.
The cost of inaction is unacceptable. Economists estimate that if we do not take action, we will lose $34.5 trillion in economic activity by the end of the century. And the benefits are enormous: by taking bold and decisive action, we will save $2.9 trillion over 10 years, $21 trillion over 30 years, and $70.4 trillion over 80 years.
We cannot accomplish any of these goals without taking on the fossil fuel billionaires whose greed lies at the very heart of the climate crisis. These executives have spent hundreds of millions of dollars protecting their profits at the expense of our future, and they will do whatever it takes to squeeze every last penny out of the Earth. Bernie promises to go further than any other presidential candidate in history to end the fossil fuel industry’s greed, including by making the industry pay for its pollution and prosecuting it for the damage it has caused.
And most importantly, we must build an unprecedented grassroots movement that is powerful enough to take them on, and win. Young people, advocates, tribes, cities and states all over this country have already begun this important work, and we will continue to follow their lead.
1) Transform Our Energy System to 100 Percent Renewable Energy and Create 20 Million Jobs
There is no reason the United States, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, cannot transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewable energy, like wind, solar, and geothermal. We have more than enough capacity to produce ample reliable, affordable electricity from sustainable resources. We must pass a Green New Deal to achieve 100 percent sustainable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and to fully decarbonize the economy by 2050 at the latest.
The federal government electrified America as part of the New Deal. The United States of America put people on the moon 50 years ago. We can sure as hell transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewables today and create millions of jobs in the process.
When Bernie is president, we will act immediately to address our climate crisis. Together, we will reduce US carbon pollution emissions by 71 percent and emissions among less industrialized countries by 36 percent from 2017 levels by 2030, consistent with meeting our fair share of emissions reductions under the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recommendations. These emissions reductions represent the equivalent of reducing US emissions by 161 percent. This effort will be enforced by an interagency council led by Environmental Protection Agency.
As president, Bernie will:
- Transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100 percent energy efficiency and sustainable energy by 2030 at the latest. The New Deal provided inexpensive electricity to America through efforts like the Rural Electrification Administration and the Federal Power Marketing Administrations. If the federal government was able to electrify America under FDR without computers or any of the modern technologies we have available to us today, think of what we can do today. Municipal and cooperative electric utilities still provide some of the least expensive electricity in the country today. As part of the Green New Deal, we will expand on that success.
- Build enough renewable energy generation capacity for the nation’s growing needs. Currently, four federal Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) and the Tennessee Valley Authority generate and transmit power to distribution utilities in 33 states.We will create one more PMA to cover the remaining states and territories and expand the existing PMAs to build more than enough wind, solar, energy storage and geothermal power plants. We will spend $1.52 trillion on renewable energy and $852 billion to build energy storage capacity. Together, with an EPA federal renewable energy standard, this will fully drive out non-sustainable generation sources.
- We will end greed in our energy system. The renewable energy generated by the Green New Deal will be publicly owned, managed by the Federal Power Marketing Administrations, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Tennessee Valley Authority and sold to distribution utilities with a preference for public power districts, municipally- and cooperatively-owned utilities with democratic, public ownership, and other existing utilities that demonstrate a commitment to the public interest. The Department of Energy will provide technical assistance to states and municipalities that would like to establish publicly owned distribution utilities or community choice aggregation programs in their communities. Electricity will be sold at current rates to keep the cost of electricity stable during this transition.
- Build a modern smart grid. A smart grid means a resilient, secure, and intelligent electric grid system that is capable of managing high amounts of renewable energy, charging electric vehicles quickly, and maximizing efficiency. We will spend $526 billion on a modern, high-volt, underground, renewable, direct current, smart, electric transmission and distribution grid will ensure our transition to 100 percent sustainable energy is safe and smooth.
- Weatherize homes and businesses to perform energy efficiency upgrades to make buildings more energy efficient and lower energy bills. We will provide $2.18 trillion for sliding-scale grants for low- and moderate-income families and small businesses to invest in weatherizing and retrofitting their homes and businesses. Low and moderate-income families and small businesses will be able to fully electrify heating and other current uses of fossil fuels in buildings through federal funding. We must fully end all fossil fuel use in buildings by 2030. Deep weatherization retrofits will reduce residential energy consumption by 30 percent. Because our mobile home stock is leaky and often very old, we plan to replace all mobile homes with zero-energy modular homes. As we move forward with energy efficiency efforts, we will prioritize the oldest, leakiest and least energy efficient homes and the homes of seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families first. A federal mandate through the Department of Energy will ensure that new and existing commercial buildings and wealthy homeowners meet our energy retrofit goals.
- Electrify homes and businesses. One of the best ways to ensure that everyone is comfortable in their homes on the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter is to bring all
End of extended quote from the source shown. non-electric uses of energy onto the electric grid. For example, so many of our homes still use dirty oil, propane, and fracked natural gas for heating and cooling. We plan to provide $964 billion for sliding-scale grants for low- and moderate-income families and small businesses to invest in cheaper electricity for these needs. A federal mandate through the Department of Energy will ensure that all new construction, existing big business commercial buildings, and wealthy homeowners meet our electrification goals…”
MHProNews Analysis and Commentary on Sanders’ Plan:
As the saying goes, the devil is always in the details.
Manufactured housing professionals who have been in the industry for 10 to 20+ years and have an eye on what follows legislation’s enactment know first-hand that laws can go into effect that fail to be implemented, or whose implementation is seemingly different than it was promised. Two examples will be given:
- Implementation of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA).
- Implementation of the Duty to Serve (DTS) manufactured housing, rural and affordable housing preservation provisions of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA).
Those are also sufficient to make this point. There are a growing number of politicians on both sides of the two major party aisle that are taking a renewed interest in antitrust or ‘anti-monopoly’ laws that aimed to curb the power of corporate giants about a century or more ago. More on that is found in the report linked below.
- There are industry professionals and consumers that may agree on paper with some of Sanders’ concerns but would argue against his proposals. It is up to the campaign to make their own case.
- Others who may be open to the concepts would want to know more details about just how those huge sums Sanders proposes to spend for replacing “mobile homes” with “modular” homes would work.
- Also, how much if any of Sanders’ campaign trillions on housing spending would be invested in manufactured housing or other forms of factory housing?
- Finally, why is it that the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), their toady bloggers or others in the industry’s trade media, have failed to raise these issues? At what point will the industry’s self-proclaimed umbrella and post-production trade association engage with Senator Sanders office or his campaign to discern the potential impact of these bold proposals?
Candidates of all stripes make statements that may be merely posturing. Other candidates are sincere in their postures. Sanders’ is credited with more consistency than some of his rivals. He’s rising in polling.
- With 22 million Americans living in mobile or manufactured homes, and with
- some 111 million Americans, per the Apartment List in 2019,
- with over 500,000 homeless and rising nationally,
- with HUD and the White House Council on Affordable Housing data showing a strong need for affordable housing,
the time for an authentic discussion is now.
We plan to reach out to the Sanders’ camp and see what they have to say about our questions and concerns. Stay tuned. The final quote below the feature image touched on the topic of fear of loss being greater for some than the desire to gain. That’s true for numbers, but not for all. Some believe that they have nothing to lose, and thus think they have everything to gain by upending the economic and political structure of America. Senator Sanders is not shy about saying he is calling for a revolution. That revolution will tend to appeal more to those who have little to lose. Is it a majority? He thinks so.
Regular readers know we strive to be fair and accurate. It may hurt the feelings of some that we question the ethics of MHI. Similarly, our view is that it is Sanders’ campaign will have to prove the merits of this plan, which certainly has numerous questions marks hanging over it.
That said, MHI is correct about this. There is large upside potential in affordable housing and manufactured homes. But the facts demonstrate time and again that they are not tapping into that potential. See the related reports, below the byline and notices.
As usual, there is always more information and insights ahead. That’s all she wrote for this installment of manufactured housing “Industry News, Tips and Views Pros Can Use“ © – MHVille’s runaway #1 news source, where “We Provide, You Decide.” © (News, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary.) Notice: all third party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media. 
Submitted by Soheyla Kovach for MHProNews.com.Soheyla is a co-founder and managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. Connect with us on LinkedIn here and here.
Related References:
The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.
MHI CEO Dick Jennison’s Pledge – 500,000 New Manufactured Home Shipments
