By Mike Mulvihill

…married with a lack of vision.” Ah, I often recall these lyrics from popular Tears for Fear song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World (1985) when I think of government

In last Tuesday’s Buzz Bin, I lamented that Congress was likely to gut the Obama administration budget that contained more than $3 billion to fund alternative and renewable energy technology development.

Sure enough, the Republican-controlled House passed a budget resolution that would have a significant impact on U.S. energy and environmental policies and programs if enacted into law. The budget resolution cuts more than one-third of the budget for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs administered by the DOE. This action will ensure less technology development that would create badly needed jobs, and help make it practical and affordable for us to switch over from traditional fuels sources to alternative sources. (Rather than simply subsidize alternative energy purchase costs — not production cost — with tax dollars, thereby providing no long term benefit.)

And not only will this budget move slacken development of a green energy economy, a report by Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi says if the Republican plan to cut federal spending by $61 billion this year were to carry the day, it would destroy 700,000 jobs through 2012. Zandi’s report comes on the heels of a Goldman Sachs report which concludes that the proposed cuts would slow economic growth by two percent in the second and third quarters of this year. The report isn’t all ammunition for Democrats, though. Zandi also says that even a thriving economy won’t be enough to balance the budget without “significant government spending restraint.”

Granted, our debt is getting out of hand. The U.S. government is expected to reach its statutory debt limit (the point at which the government can no longer legally borrow) of $14.3 trillion no later than May. The U.S. has raised its debt ceiling 75 times since 1962, an average of 1.5 times every year. Congress last increased the debt limit in early 2010 and is now faced with doing so again. Three options are on the table: pass a straightforward increase in the debt limit; refuse to pass an increase in the debt limit and insist lawmakers cut spending enough to ensure the U.S. doesn’t reach the limit; or pass an increase that include cuts to future spending. One and three make sense – two would be disastrous to a fragile, recovering economy.

Yes, we need to spend less overall. But we need to spend more on the right things – things that create new energy technologies, jobs and stability in our energy policies to encourage the billions of private capital standing on the sideline to get in the game. Come guys, game on!