Debbie’s big week

What did you do this week?  Whatever it was, I bet that you weren’t as busy as my Senator, Debbie Stabenow:

Stabenow proposes new incentives for electric cars

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow unveiled a legislative proposal today to boost electric vehicles sales by letting buyers claim tax credits at the time of purchase…

The Lansing Democrat unveiled the Charging America Forward Act — a bill that would authorize the U.S. Energy Department to award another $2 billion in grants "for the manufacturing of advanced batteries and components, and provide facility funding awards" for vehicle batteries, hybrid electrical systems and components…

Stabenow's proposal would allow purchasers to get the $7,500 as a rebate at the time of purchase — such as at a car dealership. It would also extend and expand a tax credit for purchasing medium or heavy-duty plug-in hybrid trucks until 2014. The tax credit would be worth between $15,000 and $100,000, depending on the truck's size.

Electric cars:  They’re so awesome, we have to pay you to buy them!

And she wasn’t done:

Ag committee chair Stabenow backs bill to benefit growers, processors

…All told, Congress' farm bills touch every step in the modern human nutrition chain from farm to fork, enacting a wide swath of policies including crop subsidies and price supports, insurance, food stamps and even land conservation. And Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, now chairwoman of the Senate's Agriculture Committee, said the next bill is likely to go further than its predecessor, pushing beyond food to tackle energy needs, hopefully with increased support for biomass fuel producers.

But the road ahead is likely to be rough, if history is any indication. The last farm bill, enacted in 2008, cost $288 billion over five years and included billions in crop subsidies and other price supports that were flashpoints for tea party rhetoric leading up to last year's elections.

Granted, Senator Stabenow’s father owned a car dealership and she graduated from MSU, so if anybody is gonna drop a couple hundred billion dollars on cars and farms, she’s qualified.