Obama’s $1,300 car tax
Nobody in the White House is going to call the president’s “mileage and pollution” plan what it is.
It’s a $1,300 car tax. On the working class. On the middle class. On everyone who has responded to the government’s consumption-mania incentives — loosened credit, tax deductions — and bought/planned to buy a new car without taking into account these unanticipated costs:
President Barack Obama wants drivers to go farther on a gallon of gas and cause less damage to the environment — and be willing to pick up the tab.
Obama on Tuesday planned to announce the first-ever national emissions limits for cars and trucks, as well as require a 35.5 miles per gallon standard. Consumers should expect to pay an extra $1,300 per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016, officials said…
…Administration officials said consumers were going to pay an extra $700 for mileage standards that had already been approved. The comprehensive Obama plan would add another $600 to the price of a vehicle, a senior administration official said.
The extra miles would come at roughly a 5 percent increase each year. By the time the plan takes full effect, at the end of 2016, new vehicles would cost an extra $1,300.
That official said the cost would be recovered through savings at the pump for consumers who choose a standard 60-month car loan and if gas prices follow government projections.
Let’s all deliver a collective snort in response to yet another self-delusional bureaucrat’s promise that yet another massive government intervention will produce cost savings:
“[T]he cost would be recovered through savings at the pump for consumers who choose a standard 60-month car loan and if gas prices follow government projections.”
All together now: SNORT.
Totally missing from today’s discussion of imposing stricter mileage standards: the potentially lethal impact. For years, free-market analysts and government statisticians have warned of the deadly effect of increasing corporate auto fuel economy standards.
Sam Kazman at CEI explained in 2002: “[T]he evidence on this issue comes from no less a body than the National Academy of Sciences, which issued a report last August finding that CAFE contributes to between 1,300 and 2,600 traffic deaths per year. Given that this program has been in effect for more than two decades, its cumulative toll is staggering. CAFE has this impact on safety because it restricts the production of large cars. Large cars are less fuel efficient than smaller, similarly equipped vehicles, but they are also more crashworthy in practically every type of accident. The first major analysis of this issue came in a 1989 report from researchers at Harvard and the Brookings Institution; since then, a number of other analyses, by government and private researchers, have confirmed the conclusion that CAFE kills.”
Attention, House Republicans: Demand that Obama own up to tradeoffs. Demand that his administration make those costs transparent.
Let’s have some Cheerios-level truth-in-labeling on President Obama’s risky $1,300 car tax, shall we?
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Trackbacks
- The Other McCain: They Can Have My Gas Guzzler When They Pry It From My Cold Dead Fingers!
- Obama To Raise Price Of Cars « Beltway Snark
- Obama To Announce Plans To Drastically Increase Auto Costs : Stop The ACLU
- Right Wing News
- Obama To Announce Plans To Drastically Increase Auto Costs » Pirate’s Cove
- In Berry’s World Four Years Hence: China Will Be the Only Thriving Superpower « Peace and Freedom Promises
- Obama administration using distractions to hide true mission | Radio Vice Online
- Hyscience
- Obama's "Mileage & Pollution Plan" = $1,300 Car Tax - XDTalk Forums - Your HS2000/SA-XD Information Source!
- Obama Car: $1,300 More and 1,000’s Dead | Obama Exposure
- Auto Mileage and Cost Savings? « Finding Ponies in Piles of Poop
- Goodbye to Another Promise: Obama’s New $1,300 Car Tax Hits Low Income Families Hardest, New CAFE Standards Kill More People « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Just The Stimulus Our Economy Needs Right Now « Tai-Chi Policy
- I Guess Global Warming Really is Going to Cost Us. : The Sundries Shack
- KFZ-Steuererhöhung « Obama Erklärt
- Incrementalism For Taxes | NEOAVATARA
- The Greenroom » Forum Archive » Obama raising car prices and killing people is just for starters
- Why would Notre Dame grant Obama an honorary degree? The text. « Jim Blazsik
- Get ready to pay at least $1,300 more per car thanks to Obama’s CAFE standards | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- It may cost lives, bbbut if it will help ’save’ the environment … « Sister Toldjah
- Obama to announce auto mileage, emissions standards - Jesse's Hunting & Outdoors Forum
- Who Doesn’t Want Fuel Efficient Cars? « Appeal To Heaven
- Obama escalates his war on the American people | BitsBlog
- It’s not your father’s Obamobile - Josh_Painter’s blog - RedState
- It’s not your father’s Obamobile - Josh_Painter’s blog - RedState
- Obama’s Cars | Adam's Blog
- Michelle Malkin » bObama#39;s/b $1300 car tax | Barack Obama News
- Who has the better economy? Canada or the USA? « Wintery Knight Blog
- It’s not your father’s Obamobile | Social Debate: Barack and American Politics
- The Death of the American car. - The Angry White Guy
- President Obama Breaks Another Campaign Promise | Sparty
- QUICK NEWS: Killing our cars « FactReal
- Who is ready to pay more for a car? « The Daley Gator
- Is Obama Forcing MPG Change a Good Thing, But Done the Wrong Way? | THE WEEKLY POINT
- Obama won’t raise your taxes? | Jason Hayes - Musing
- Next Tea Party Target: Waxman’s Wrong-Headed Cap and Trade Bill « Temple of Mut
- Community Blog
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- Pay Now or Pay Later | The Stimulist
- Patterico’s Pontifications » Obama raising car prices and killing people is just for starters
- Cash for Clunkers Dealers Must Destroy Engines to Prevent Fraud « POLITISITE: Politics from the RIGHT Side of the WEB
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Categories: Enviro-nitwits
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forest #22, I saw that too, and the first thing that left my mouth was “BULL$*T, if that were true, explain why so many of us buy huge SUV’s & trucks?”
[Can't help the 'language', I spent too many years married to a former Marine!
]
I wonder what interest rate they used in that calculation? 19% or 20% like what’s coming when our government debt instruments get downgraded to “junk”?
On considering it, I think the real agenda is clear: we’re supposed to ride bicycles like good peasants do.
The US Government had their chance back in 1974 when OPEC put an embargo on oil to develop a national energy policy. Both Dems and GOPs dropped the ball. Probably because of all the kick backs from big oil and detroit. The US Gov’t was blindsided and after 7 presidents later we have to put up with this dictator who is forcing it down our throats. I am not going to make this a priority when the gov’t had their chance 35 years ago.
There is no way in he@# I will allow my children and grandchildren to ride in one of those death traps on the highways! NO WAY! There is no protection in those tin cups. My daughter rides a motor scooter to work in the summer. She lives in a small town and can take back roads to work. The scooter only goes 35 mph and is not allowed on the highway. That is saving her a lot on gas. But in the winter, and when family needs to be transported, she drives a van. With kids and a dog…you need a big vehicle!!
Kinda funny, when you think of it. China is becoming more capitalist and is making and buying cars, and we’re on our way back to bicycles. I guess we’ll just import all of the bikes the Chinese aren’t riding anymore.
lgm; I couldn’t care less that you think I’m a ‘pessimist’, but I will never let someone else determine what has value for me.
I will make those choices myself and you can ride your bus to Gehenna for all I care.
You will have no choice but to buy a small car (if you can) when gas is taxed above $5 a gallon. He will econoically force us into whatever he wants.
i am bad – economically
The combination of new CAFE standards and already outrageously high insurance rates spell the end of the road for the American muscle car and V8 engine, and that’s a crying shame.
Boldly designed cars with V8 engines, both sedans and sports coupes, have been a part of the American culture and landscape since the beginning of the twentieth century; they’re empowering and quintessentially American. The rush of a V8 engine under one’s foot is both exhilarating and inspiring: they are the stuff dreams are made of for young and old motorists alike, creating aspirations for the former and reminiscences for the latter.
They create a sense of invincibility tempered with a greater sense of responsibility and safe driving, and afford confidence to those who need it most.
These cars speak to our freedom to travel whenever and wherever we want, safely and comfortably, and to the vastness of the American landscape. They are representative of the self-determination and individualism that helped transform this nation, linking us closer together, and that is uniquely American. One has to but look at the fins on a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado to know this is true.
The loss of the V8 engine is the loss of another piece of that part of our culture that separates us from Europe. It is the emasculation of the American driver and a loss of choice in what he or she drives. And that’s a shame.
That’s why I still drive my 6-litre, 8-cylinder Cadillac.
Do you remember the cars that came out as a result of the embargo? Totally forgetable, if Detroit was kicking something back they sure didn’t get their money’s worth. And don’t forget, Jimmy Carter created the Dept. of Energy to lessen our dependance on foriegn oil. We were producing 30% of our own oil then, 15,000 employees and 30 years later we are producing 3% of our own oil. I’d say big oil kickbacks didn’t help them much either, not in the US anyways.
You can get better mileage if you build your clown car out of tinfoil.
Another question: what will trillions of dollars of Obama government spending do to the price of these vehicles by 2016? Can you say “inflation”? I would say that some savvy politician is going to steamroll into power in the next decade on a “roll-back Obama” platform.
Like most of what you post that makes no sense. The well known quote by Oscar Wilde is
“A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
And believe me, the Dems give plenty of reason to be cynical about the value of their lunatic ideas.
So much for those road trips my husband and I love to take! We have a very comfortable mini-van and love to travel. When that van goes, so does our travel. So sad. We do plan to buy another van before they are obsolete, and perhaps, at our age, that will last us the rest of our lives. Who knows? I am just afraid that the libs will make it financially impossible to drive at all.
By the way, Obama is about to go on TV, yet again, to make another announcement….about the very subject of this thread. I already know what he is going to say. So why the TV announcement? He is quite transparent…his ego requires daily appearances on national TV. I really despise that creature.
I envy you – my late dad’s Cadillac had a 425 engine that couldn’t be beat and was a treat to drive.
Enjoy yours while it’s yours to enjoy; there’s talk of a bill to “encourage” certain car owners (those w/ V8 engines) to trade them in for more “mileage-friendly” models (re: enviro-friendly models).
Aha! I always believed that quote was about accountants. Learn something every day…
Why are more people not understanding that Obama is blatantly trying to destroy U.S. business and take every penny possible for the U.S. taxpayer? Complete bankruptcy and total government control are his goal.
Want to know what the GM (Government Motors) cars will look like?
We went to Aruba a few weeks ago. The delivery vans are about the size of a Volkswagon. The delivery vans!!
The cars are so small it amazed us to see them get more than one person into them.
The one or two regular sized vehicles we saw were so much larger than the “normal” cars down there that it was an acrobatic feat for them to pull in and out of the parking spaces in the lots.
I can’t imaging the fatalities if Obama gets his clown car legislation passed and forced down our throats.
Ok that is on new vehicles, but what about the cost of retrofitting old vehicles to meet the “California” emission standards? I know when I used to live in California back in the 90’s if you brought a car from out of state you had to pay a fee , I believe it was around $500, if your car did not meet California’s emmision standards to get your car retrofitted. So is there going to be forced retrofit to meet the testing standards?
Well, sure. Did you not get the memo?
america needs and wants larger cars and trucks. europe has the answer today. diesel engines. the vw jetta tdi is a small car for those liking small cars with 40 – 50 mpg on the highway and 39 mpg in town. the bug also comes in a tdi for the girls and perez. mercedes makes a v6 diesel which in an suv the same size and weight as the ford explorer gets 25mpg and 30+ on the highway. honda was supposed to bring out it’s accord diesel this year getting 50 mpg but it fell short of the california emmissions board nazis in soot emmissions. as with the cubs, wait til next year. but a few other mileage saving pollution lessening ideas, stagger work and school times to cut down on traffic jams, get rid of stop signs, and use coordinated stop lights, have big institutions ie medical centers, courthouse/government centers provide adequate parking for the anticipated usage to keep people from driving around the block looking for parking space. stuck in traffic is 0 mpg in a hummer or a prius.
If memory serves, that’s to retrofit out-of-state cars to the California standards in effect the year of manufacture, not to the current standards. Of course, we can’t put it past the Obama EPA to pull that stunt to force everybody into Government Motors/UAW Motors vehicles.
The problem with libs is that in their desire to “fix” everything, the only tangible they deliver is totalitarianism.
Consider the following quotes from Herbert Hoover (courtesy of the Heritage Society by way of http://www.rightwingnews.com):
Political and economic liberty vs. government power is a zero sum gain: there’s no compromise, when one side gets stronger the other becomes weaker. Libs will never be able to grasp this, which is why they go on stealing your freedoms from you, one at a time, right out from under your nose, until all that’s left is their version of Utopia: “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Punitive Liberalism in the guise of “Nanny 911″ isn’t coming to America; it’s already here.
That’s the new jobs program, job training for unemployed persons to do emissions retrofitting….
That’s right! Like all the jobs created for the change from freon to whatever the heck they use now. And incandescent bulbs to whatever the heck they use now…
It seems that each day we grow closer to seeing a much bigger picture to which Obama is setting the stage. First we had the mortgage and bank bailouts, which he is now using to attempt to take control of the banking industry by converting the loans into stock (which would make pretty much give the governemnt controlling interest). Then you have the auto bailouts that were nothing more than a setup to bring the auto industry in line with his “eco” ideals (of course it does make one wonder if the real plan is to raise car prices so high to get more cars off the road so he can claim he killed two birds with on stone, the traffic congestion issues and the so called global warming issue). Now Obama is trying to push through a universal health care system. It makes me wonder if his ObamaCare program is a way to hold the taxpayer hostage.
Pass a health care plan that promises outrages things (like free house calls by the doc or what not) then make sure the law pretty much puts private insurance companies out of business (he could create some sort of diversity panel like he has to stifle talk radio). Once people have no choice he can tell them well I need 100% in taxes to cover all the benefits and if we dont comply our helath care will be no more, but not to worry cause the government will provide you with a place to live, and food and public transportation in this new Obamatopia.
$1300 is generous. A hybrid costs much more than that. Moreover, the cost of auto insurance premiums will rise also. Imagine what that will add up to if you have 3 cars at home – one for husband, wife, and teenage driving child.
Auto manufacturers produce products the consumer wants. Obama is targeting the wrong thing. He should be demanding that consumers purchase fuel efficient cars. Once the demand for them goes up, the auto manufacturer’s will quit producing gas guzzlers and start producing the high mileage cars.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? The trouble is, consumers don’t want what Obama and the environitwits want. They want their larger, more comfortable vehicles. Those who want greater fuel efficiency will purchase the Prius’s and such.
With California setting it’s own emissions standards, I’ve always wondered why the auto manufacturers even sold cars in California. Let Californians cross over to the bordering states and buy the same cars the rest of the country buys.
BIG BRO is predicting all kinds of savings in oil consumption.
Anyone remember that our oil consumption has done nothing but increase, even after CAFE was imposed…?
We drive more in our more efficient cars. In conformity with the laws of economics.
http://townhall.com/cartoons/2009/05/19/5c102390-320a-4c8b-a16d-10483e35d4c1
This says it all….
It was pointed out earlier that when you went to register your car and it wasn’t a Cali car you were forced to pay to fit it to Cali standards.
Even here the Prius has an advantage. It’s gas engine automatically shuts off, burning 0 gas, while the Hummer continues to guzzle unless the driver turns the engine off, something a Hummer driver probably isn’t going to do.
It official, we now live in a fascist police state where the Federal Government now dictates to “private” industry what they can manufacture and sell.
Barry Soetoro has not even produced his birth certificate and we allow him to do this.
Every day I wake up to another communist program.
Pardon me while I go puke.
No modern engine guzzles gas at idle.
Any gasoline engine at start-up uses more resources than if idling for a short period.
We used to call that overheating and stalling out.
My Suburban with my family aboard is VASTLY more efficient in terms of passenger-miles per gallon than ANY Prius.
Even riding the back roads at 35mph your daughter is more danger than she would be in a small car, especially in the small town you say she lives in, even if the car is “on the highway.”
Size does matter, as do protective devices, and even the smallest cars now have numerous air bags and other safety features, scooters don’t.
Yep, but when you touched the gas petal it didn’t instantly automatically restart.
OT, but a new fascist economic move is on the boards now…
While it’s new.
No kidding, There is no way my wife, our 4 boys and I could go anywhere in a Prius and that is why we have our 03 Durango. Enough room for all of us to go on family outings and a hell of a lot safer than trying to cram a family of 6, illegally I might add, into an “enviormentally friendly” vehicle.
Here is my plan for saving the enviorment. For all of you out there who believe that driving is causing harmful greenhouse gasses that is destroying our enviorment, you all go a register with the state as an official enviormental steward and then have yoru driving priveledges revoked and your cars sold to pay for these programs you want. This would do one of two things. Either it would give you the desired results of getting all these “polution machines” off the road or suddenly you would all realize that you really dont believe that driving causes global warming.
Maybe, maybe not, how big is your family, and how often is everyone in the Suburban when you go somewhere? The Prius averages about 45 MPG, the Suburban maybe 15. You would need to carry 15 people to equal the passenger miles of a Prius with 5 occupants. Do you normally do that?
I don’t hate the Prius, it’s an engineering marvel IMO….if it just wasn’t so darn ugly.
It’s ugly on purpose. They designed it for the enviroweenies so they will stick out. “Look at me, I care more about the environment than you do, you evil capitalist bastich!” The Prius could look like any other car.
By the way, nothing is more redundant than a bumper sticker on a Prius. A Prius is a bumper sticker.
Sorry for the rant, not directed at you Bob. If you like them, buy it.
Bob,
Not that its any of your business…
10
mine gets closer to 15 mpg
I’ve NEVER seen a Prius with 5 passengers in it.
My ‘Burbun also hauls a HELL of a lot more of anything I want it to than I could cram in a Prius.
As do my TWO diesel pick-ups….
which I consider marvels of efficient engineering.
Hi,
I don’t have a Prius, but, I’d consider the new Honda Hybrid that just came out, several thousand cheaper and looks better IMO.
I don’t like the loss of freedom to drive whatever you want any better than the next person, but the incorrect claims and almost hatred of a concept that is working great fo some, (the Prius), seems irrational at times. I certainly don’t think everyone should be forced to drive one, but there are plenty of reasons not to drive one without making things up.
Don’t feel obligated to tell me anything, I was just pointing out that your passenger mile claim likely wasn’t true and you backed that up for me. I’ve see as many Prius with 5 passengers as I have Suburbans with 10.LOL
In either case I find it unlikely that, most of the time, a Prius would have 5 passengers or a Suburban would have 10. Maybe there are families where all 10 members often jump in the car to go somewhere, but they gotta be pretty rare.
We in the car business refer to that go-cart as the Platipus. (Pardon me if my spelling isn’t accurate.)
Out here in the People’s Republik of Kalifornia-stan, alot of weenies got it to ride in the carpool lanes. And they look at the rest of is down their noses. One day, they will get a clue, after they figure out how much that thing has really costed them over 5 years.
Bob, I don’t think it is the concept of the Prius that people here hate. It is that it has become a symbol of those who would tell us that the Prius IS the car we must conform too.
I am sure that the majority of people here, and you too by the sounds of it, feel that the government should stay the hell out of the way and let the market and consumers decide what kind of vehicles to make.
Yeah, I hate the Prius. I also hate the squiggly light bulbs. I hate the government mandating people buy what they don’t want, because the industry can’t sell enough of otherwise.
Years ago, we gave up freon in our A/Cs, CFCs in our deodorant, syrofoam containers for our cheeseburgers, all for the sake of controlling the climate. Its still not enough for petty tyrants that are the enviro-movement.
The climate still seems to defy our control.
No, Boob. My claims certainly are true.
You assume a full Prius. You claim to have seen some or one. I have not; I have seen at most two occupants in any Prius I have seen in the Houston area, but I have often driven with my 10 passenger Suburban full.
We’re gonna need a bigger
boattea party.You know DC and the media only recognize protests in the millions… unless it’s a chosen cause they want to support then they just say there were millions. Let’s surround DC, literally.
People are slowly waking up and understanding this is not the change they wanted. Huge debt for every man, woman and child is not good change. Entire states going bankrupt is not good for anyone. Tripling the national debt is not good change.
BWAHAHAHAHAH!
BOB, undoubtedly there are those here who genuinely hate the Prius. Also, there are undoubtedly those here who don’t dislike the car, just what it represents. And I suppose there are some who genuinely like the odd little “car”. Count me in the second group.
What we hate is the presumption that cars like the Prius can meet everybody’s needs. My wife an I have 3 kids. We bought a minivan to replace our Mercury Grand Marquis because the thing was too d-mned small to take family trips in that lasted longer than, oh say, 10 minutes.
If you’re single, or a young married couple with a baby, then great . . . enjoy your Prius. But if you have a “mature” family (mom, dad, teen, tween and almost-tween), and you own your own home, then I’m here to tell you, few vehicles (at least in this part of the country) can beat a full-sized pick-up truck with a crew-cab . . . or the aforementioned mini-van . . . or both.
That’s a good one, a Prius with 5 occupants. My sides are still aching.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4311
The Illusion of Energy Efficiency
What is not an illusion is the rise in death and serious injury that CAFE has effected.
don’t forget these green cars will be made in China, that’s right, our good buds that already own a large part of our financial world.
OK guys, this isn’t really worth the argument…but, if it’s really funny to think of seeing a Prius with 5 people in it, why is it not just as funny to think of a Suburban with 10? OK, maybe illegals being hauled over the border.
My informal observation during rush hour traffic says there are normally no more people in a commuting Suburb than there are in a Prius, and it’s very common to see one person in a Suburban and/or a Prius. Sometimes I think the entire thing with really big vehicles started with the invention of power steering.
If you can afford a Suburban, and want one, I think it will be a very long time before you absolutely can’t have it. So, don’t lose any sleep over your safety, and those of us in the smaller unsafe cars promise to try to stay out of your way.
I had a ‘70 Nova without power steering. Or power brakes. Standard transmission. A real car.
The first tractor/trailer I operated had no power steering. Big wheel, but no power.
Maybe because the Surbuban was actually designed to be able to haul 10 people.
BOB, the point is that commuting is only a part of most people’s lives. There is more to life than getting to and from the old 9 – 5. Most people have to make their car buying decision based on ALL of the driving they are going to be doing – and believe me, it’s a lot more affordable to be a 2 car family than a 3 car family.
All that said, if you’re single or young married couple like I said before, then good for you and your Prius. As for me and my family, it’s simply not practical to spend the money that the Prius demands just to make the daily commute to work.
Yeah, we’re going to burn more gas, and have higher bills, but that’s OUR CHOICE. And as of this moment, Americans still have the freedom to make that choice.
Who knows about tomorrow? Things aren’t looking too bright in that regard with li’l bHo running things.
Why is it the mental image I get with a full loaded Prius is that of needing to use Flinstone Foot power to get it rolling.
I resent the hell out of people who compare my family (eight children) with a load of illegal aliens.
Were this an appropriate forum, I would tell ol’ Boob just exactly what I think of him.
Did I just compare someones family with a load of illegal aliens…….?
Man, I am glad this is not an appropriate forum.
In the words of Rodney King.
“Can’t we all just get along?”
Rags, that individual is not the first, and will not be the last, poster at this blog who at first seems very mature, thoughtful, and respectful…but, dammit, just can’t contain his superiority, and shows his “true colors” with one or three snide, dismissive comments.
LOL. granite.
Or my family.
ACHefty has 12 kids. Aint no way to fit that family into a Prius.
granite;
Thanks. I have only lived for years with pricks condescendingly asking if I knew where babies came from. In front of my children…every planned and wanted one of them.
I used to answer quite mildly. Then I took to offering to give them a demonstration…right freaking there…on the floor.
I suffer fools increasingly less well, I find.
I’ve never been in so much trouble over nothing before. It’s almost fun.
Sometimes you have to toe the line here or you ruffle someones feathers.
Kinda like trying to post a different opinion on a liberal website.
Whoo boy.
BOB, you apparently don’t get it. To you it’s “nothing”. To other people, it very much is “something”. This whole thing is about much more than what cars we can (or have to) drive. It’s about the government overstepping their constitutional authority and further eroding our personal freedoms – all in the guise of pseodo-science.
As for your comment that upset Rags so much, my personal opinion is that even if you didn’t mean to make the comparison, your choice of words left that interpretation wide open. Maybe you should considering offering an apology instead of accusing folks around here of being like those on liberal websites – which, btw, is a favorite canard of liberal trolls on this website.
Snort indeed.
Yet another tax increase on people this moron promised would see no tax increases of any kind.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
THIS JUST IN:
From Reuters –
So, li’l bHo, what was that you were saying about not wanting to own a car maker?
Government Motors indeed.
Slowly and surely, the government is taking over our lives. Declare a “crisis”, pass laws to “solve it” and a loss of more liberty comes; just like Germany and the Soviet Union. I just bought a new car last winter. I have no plans to even want to drive the Obama version of the Yugo; at least, no time soon.
For the record…
I am tickled to death that there are hybrid econo-boxes on the market.
Anyone who has read my posts knows that I love free markets. To the extent that there is MARKET demand for a Prius or a Postus, or a What-everus, I think it is swell that people can find a market response.
I will simply be damned if I will sit by and watch BIG BRO dictate what I…or my kids…or my neighbor CAN drive. Even indirectly, by taxing my use of whatever I drive with the intent of pushing me into a glorified golf-cart.
I have a friend who has had a Prius for the better part of two years. She also owns a 1970s muscle-car, a pick-up, and a Harley. I will not ride with her in the Prius because she is so focused on getting mileage out of it, she is dangerous in how she drives. I expect the silly thing will become a lot less shiny when she starts to have trouble with it.
She mentioned to me that it could get a lot better mileage if it had a regenerative braking system, which is only logical. The reason it does not is FEDERAL mandates, according to her.
On May 19th, 2009 at 3:47 pm, John424 said:
On May 19th, 2009 at 3:37 pm, BOB said:
Whoo boy.
BOB, you apparently don’t get it. To you it’s “nothing”. To other people, it very much is “something”. This whole thing is about much more than what cars we can (or have to) drive. It’s about the government overstepping their constitutional authority and further eroding our personal freedoms – all in the guise of pseodo-science.
As for your comment that upset Rags so much, my personal opinion is that even if you didn’t mean to make the comparison, your choice of words left that interpretation wide open. Maybe you should considering offering an apology instead of accusing folks around here of being like those on liberal websites – which, btw, is a favorite canard of liberal trolls on this website
If the cars give better mileage, that means less pumping of gas.
For every Gallon of gas NOT pumped into the tank, State & Federal Governments loses up to $0.46 on taxes.
Are the top 5% income earners going to make up the difference in fuel tax revenue?
Nope; just you & me…
Talking about loss of tax revenue as gas sales drop………it would not surprize me to see an automatic federal tax increase voted in which would keep revenue at least the same as sales drop.
Does anyone really believe it will end up only as an average $1,300 increase?
I bet more like $4,000 plus.
I think they are claiming the $1300 would be offset by an estimated $2800 in fuel savings. This ignores the $25,000 or so for the new gas saving vehicle you would need to buy to get the savings. If you are driving an older vehicle or one that gets low mileage, your cost will likely go up due to the increase in federal gas taxes I’m guessing will happen soon to encourage the purchase of one of the new, more fuel efficient, vehicles.
GM already makes a car I would buy tomorrow, they just don’t sell it here. The Opel. My girl and I were in Germany last November and rented an Opel wagon. Not a huge car but about the same size as an Accord. Diesel powered but NOT like any diesel sold in the US. 4-cyl and amazing power. I told my wife if GM sold this powertrain in anything in the US, we would buy one immediately upon our return. Unfortunately they don’t. The milage we actually saw there (after converting from Kilometers per liter to MPG) was near 45 MPG. On German highways, which for the uninitiated means driving a normal speed of 70-80MPH. I can also tell you that car would do well over 140kph too.
Oh, Perez Hilton IS a girl. /sarcoff
Until we can buy close to this milage in at least this size car here, we drive our full size pickup or our full size Suburban. Yep, the milage is crap. Ever see the difference in a pickup vs. small car wreck? ‘Nuf said.
Diesels are highly developed and super-reliable.
One reason they are not more used here is…
TA- DA….
Federal Regulation.
“Ever see the difference in a pickup vs. small car wreck? ‘Nuf said.”
You mean like this?
http://www.bridger.us/2002/12/16/CrashTestingMINICooperVsFordF150
LOL
not totally true…I have one and the engine doesn’t “always” shut off…when it’s cold the engine stays on even at a stop…operating temps have an effect on that portion of the car..
I’m still averaging 45.6 mpg over 17K miles…as high as 52mpg and as low as 38mpg with a load/cold weather/and lots of Oklahoma wind…
OK, I stand corrected. Still, it turns off some of the time, vs. none of the time for the Hummer.
I’ve asked a few people how they liked their Prius and I’ve gotten nothing but very positive comments. My mileage guess of 45 was right on also.
The new 2010 is supposed to have more power and a slight increase in mileage.
Would you buy another?
Interesting how liberals love to say you can’t legislate morality, but with crap like this they think they can legislate Chemistry and Physics.