They're Coming for Your Dryer Next: DOE Government Overreach into Your Home

Today's hot topic is frankly one that's got my hair on fire because I am so sick and tired of how government agencies and bureaucracies are clamping down on average working people minute by minute. And if you're the person who doesn't like politics, don't turn this off yet because you need to know what's been going on. I am highly concerned about what's happening in the homeownership space for a lot of reasons. But in specific, did you know there's a war on your home appliances right now? Now, some of y'all remember, it was several months ago, there were rumors that gas appliances were going to be banned. Those weren't rumors, y'all. Even though the mainstream media played it out as something that was no big deal and being made up, it was totally true. And in fact, 110 different appliance regulations have been progressively chased in 2023 and now into 2024, the latest of which is your light bulbs. Mm, do y'all remember good light bulbs? I do, when you could take it out and shake it and hear the filament and that would tell you if it was still good or if your power was messed up. And now we have all these LEDs, which are wildly expensive, and sometimes they last for a while and sometimes they don't. Because we've often been told that things are different than they are, but 'But it's okay, it's good for you in the long term.' Well, don't tell me what's good for me. Let me decide what's good for me. And sometimes cheaper and faster is better. One of the new regulations that's come out here, and by the way, I'll include the link for you if you think I'm being a fearmonger here, I'm not. One of the new rules here has to do with the cycle on your dryer. We now have an administration that wants the cycle to be longer because they say a short cycle on a dryer uses more energy than a long cycle, and we're just going to have to have a math discussion at some point about how we just can't seem to make things work anymore. But let's just be honest, if you make it a long inefficient cycle— I'm a mother of 2 teenagers and I have a husband in my house. I have to run the dryer 3 times if I have a long inefficient dry cycle. But on my old dryer, that one on the old stacker that I have, mm-hmm, that thing will go hot and fast and I'm done in 1 cycle. I'm not a mathematician. I'm pretty sure that one short cycle is always better than three long cycles. And if you're the parent out there who knows what I'm talking about on your dryer, you should give me an amen in the comments right now, because this is crazy to me that there is a push to make our appliances less efficient and make them more expensive. In fact, it's been said the purpose of these 110 new Department of Energy regulations is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Um, not necessarily, because you've not proven any of this. You're just taking away choices from the consumer in order to say it's less expensive and to say it's improving the environment when there's zero fact around that, zero proof. I'm just tired of people talking to me like I'm at the kids' table. Why don't we talk like we're at the grown-ups' table at Thanksgiving, where all the real conversations happen? The administration also says that all of these new appliances are going to result in financial benefits to households, and you'll save $100 over time. All right, I can tell you what's going to happen. These new appliances that are being forced on us are going to cost a heck of a lot more than $100. And so the numbers don't add up, just like they don't add up on these new electric vehicles and the amount of money that's been spent to build charging stations that have not materialized. And yes, I have a link for that too. But let's just talk about what else is going on with these appliances. They have said right here In addition to your dryer cycle times, they're also going to go back to your dishwasher having longer cycle times. Seriously, stop messing with my appliances. They admit right here in these DOE rules that this will eliminate cheaper appliances. I'm in favor of having cheap options in a market. Look at real estate, y'all. One of the best things about a real estate market when it's working efficiently in a free market style, you have a wide diversity of price points. You have a A single-wide trailer out in the country is far less expensive than a luxury penthouse condo in the middle of town, and that's good 'cause it gives consumers options and they can pick and choose what matters to them. Same thing should apply on appliances. But since I mentioned the housing diversity that we need for price points and styles, we should also acknowledge that housing is historically expensive right now. Making all the appliances more expensive is going to continue to drive up cost because every house has appliances. In fact, to get a lot of your different loan types,— you have to have certain appliances. Go look at your FHA, VA, and USDA rules if you want to be confirmed about the different loan types that require appliances. Well, if you're going to require more expensive appliances, it's going to drive the cost up, thereby pushing some people out of homeownership. And I'm not okay with that. I want to increase pathways to homeownership and give more people options to build a financial future through real estate, because that's where they get to experience what they want and have their own choices, is supposed to be the foundation of America. Yes, appliances take us back to the foundation of what this country should exist on, and that is liberty and freedom of choice. Now, if you want to know what the long-term ramifications are, take a look at what happened in the used car market. Put yourself in the Wayback Machine and go back to the beginning of the Great Recession. Do y'all remember that program called Cash for Clunkers? You remember that? The Obama era plan to get rid of clunker cars, which if you were ever a teenager, that's supposed to be a teenager's first car, is some big old hoopty clunker that eats gas and eats oil and keeps that child from driving around all over creation till all hours because they need to be hunting for gas money in the couch cushions. Do you remember those days? Those cars are gone. Because if you remember the Cash for Clunkers program, you turned in your clunker, your old inefficient used car, and they were no longer for sale. Gone, crushed and destroyed and put back into the steel bin to never be seen again. And since 2009, have you noticed how hard it is to find an inexpensive used car? Do you know who needs inexpensive used car besides teenagers? How about single parents? How about working folks? How about hourly workers? How about somebody who's coming back into the workforce? How about somebody who's been kicked in the teeth by a job layoff and now they need a car to get to work and they can't afford anything? This isn't good, y'all. Removing inexpensive options from the marketplace just restricts the marketplace, which makes everything more expensive. Why am I talking about this on a real estate hot take? Because first of all, you have to be paying attention to politics. I don't care what your personal beliefs are with politics. You better be paying attention to it because this is the kind of stuff that's happening under this administration right now. Now, let's just say you don't like any of this and you're irritated about it. What are you supposed to do? You're supposed to elect people that will listen to you. Right now, we need somebody from real estate in the Congress to help make better decisions and stop some of this foolishness. You have that chance to support somebody. You could be the person that says, "I might disagree with you on some things, Leigh Brown, but I agree with you on freedom of choice and free and efficient markets. I want to support you. I will tell you how you can support me." there is a Google link. I need you to click on that Google link and sign up to come help, help me go reach more neighbors so they too can have a voice in DC. This should be a time when we decide that the elites don't know what's best for all of us. It's time to make sure that we have more regular working people making these decisions, or at least being asked, 'cause I don't know that they asked any of you or me about these 110 new appliance rules that affect ultimately everything downstream. And why do I say it affects us downstream? Go back to that Cash for Clunkers issue. That was 2009. This is 2024. We are 15 years later, and the used car market has never gone back to something that had something for everyone. That's not what I want to see for housing, y'all. I want to make sure there is something for everyone should they decide to pursue the pathway of homeownership, that they have a pathway. And that pathway gets restricted when we start increasing costs on things like appliances. And especially when we start putting additional strain on the electric grid that it's not been updated to handle. We're going to have to make some big decisions when it comes to spending. We're going to have to get smarter when it comes to infrastructure and smarter when it comes to how we work together. And when we decide to tell these agencies, You weren't elected. You don't get to tell all of us how to live. It's time for us as the people, as the governed, as the citizens to take our power back. And it starts with something like this. So I'm going to give you some links. I want you to go follow through and I want you to reach out to your representatives right now and tell them that they need to go in and fight these rules. And this should have nothing to do with their political persuasion and everything to do with that they should be listening to the people who live in this great country, who maybe can't afford a few hundred extra dollars just because some bureaucrat told them they should. Now, if you disagree with me, that's fine. I still say I'm right, and that's where this argument ends. But it's time to go fight back and tell the agencies, we're not going to abide by your rules. And if they're going to push this on us, and I guess the only option left is for you to go stock up on the cheap appliances and create a black market, but that's not an efficient marketplace. We should have efficient, transparent, competitive marketplaces that offer all kinds of options for all kinds of people. That's what we've always done in real estate, and it's worked very well. So let's don't tear it up to satisfy somebody's agenda somewhere else that doesn't understand the regular citizen. That's today's hot take. I'll give you some links, do some research. And if you want to support a real estate champion going to work for everybody, that's this girl. Let me go work for you.