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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jrhana who wrote (253502)	6/7/2008 3:31:55 PM
From: miraje	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793838

embracing a broader investment program committed to bringing more advanced, economical, and environmentally friendly vehicles to market would be a far wiser course of action. You're whompin' on a dead horse there. The market is taking care of gas hog SUVs with $4.00+ fuel prices. The only people who will be buying big trucks and SUVs in the future are those who have to have them. Soccer moms will be dumping their Suburbans for mini vans..

To: jrhana who wrote (253502)	6/7/2008 4:44:48 PM
From: Neeka	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

Why anyone would want to keep sending their hard earned money to these idiots is beyond me. The blame lies at the feet of the people supposedly running WDC. Americans should be very angry and every Politician should take responsibility for the: Stupidity and the State By ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN and GARY A. ROBBINS June 7, 2008; Page A9 Last August, the government lost track of six nuclear warheads that ended up in cruise missiles affixed to the wings of B-52 bombers flying over American cities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently spent $2.7 billion to purchase 145,000 formaldehyde-soaked house trailers. They were for use by people who'd lost their homes when levees designed by the Army Corps of Engineers broke and flooded New Orleans. The FBI is currently forcing its most skilled and experienced antiterrorism field supervisors to accept "promotions" to paper-shuffling jobs in Washington. But the millions of inanities that occur daily throughout the government's world-wide empire are mere trifles compared to its big-ticket failures. What kind of government forces people to make gasoline out of food, artificially boosts the price of corn to $6 a bushel, guarantees that inflated price as the "base" for higher federal subsidies to corn farmers in the future, and then tries to hide its own depredations by excluding high food prices from its measure of "core" inflation? Washington never learns from its mistakes. In "The Worst Hard Time," Timothy Egan notes how federal price supports encouraged farmers in World War I to plow up millions of acres of dry grasslands and plant wheat. When the price of wheat crashed after the war, the denuded land lay fallow; then it blew away during the droughts of the 1930s, turning a big chunk of America into a Dust Bowl. On top of everything else, Washington tries to cover up the cost of its failures and incompetence by officially misstating the government's financial results. For instance, the government says that the tax burden will be $2.6 trillion in 2008. But counting the "deadweight" loss from damage done by taxes to the private economy, the real tax burden is twice that – roughly $5.2 trillion, according to various estimates, including ones published by the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Congressional Budget Office. On the spending side, a study by the Office of Management and Budget showed that government programs on average fall 39% short of meeting their goals. Thus, in 2008, government will spend $2.7 trillion to provide $1.65 trillion of benefit. A real tax burden of $5.2 trillion to pay for a $1.65 trillion benefit seems a bit excessive, even by Washington standards. Perhaps one of the presidential candidates should do the voters the courtesy of at least telling them the truth, and asking them if they really want quite so much government at such a high price. Then again, maybe the voters already sense the truth, and perhaps that is why they are so furious. Mr. Christian, an attorney, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Ford administration. Mr. Robbins, an economist, served at the Treasury Department in the Reagan administration. They are writing a book about the abuse of federal power.

To: jrhana who wrote (253502)	6/11/2008 5:32:02 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

Hybrids are more expensive than their conventional brethren, but don't just look at the sticker price. Take into account the $2000 federal tax deduction, the money savings on gasoline, and any state or local incentives into account before you buy. That's a bug not a feature, they are more expensive, but people don't see the real cost. Effectively I'm paying for part of their hybrid... but unfortunately, the House dramatically weakened the bill by removing the hybrid tax credit I'd say fortunately not unfortunately. If you think the government should interfere to reduce gasoline usage and/or CO2 emissions the best intervention is one that imposes a cost on the undesirable thing you want to suppress, and than leaves it up to individuals to decide how they will deal with the cost. If you have to intervene don't reward/subsidize some vehicles and punish others, increase the tax on gasoline or apply some sort of tax on all fuels depending on the amount of carbon they contain and CO2 they produce. and replacing it with a credit for diesel vehicles Well maybe not so fortunately. Again you have government "picking winners".