Posted on 05/19/2009 10:38:52 PM PDT by Moseley
The nation was greatly disappointed Tuesday when President Barack Obama announced his new plans for the automobile industry. Instead of setting fleet mileage standards at an average of 400 miles per gallon, as many had hoped and frankly expected, Obama set a goal of only a paltry 35.5 miles per gallon on average.
Incredibly, Obama is apparently showing doubts about the power of the United States Government to unilaterally declare the miles per gallon that complex machinery like automobiles and trucks achieve in their technical operation. Such timidity by Obama is uncharacteristic. Has America's "Dear Leader" forgotten already the mandate from the American people that he received last year for ambiguous and ill-defined "change?" This could reveal a faltering crisis of confidence in the Obama White House. Has the President lost faith in his supernatural abilities as "The One" -- the Messiah as proclaimed by Louis Farrakhan?
Obviously, Obama offered no plans for how automakers will actually increase the efficiency of automobiles and trucks from the current average of 25 MPG to 35.5 MPG. Obama offered no technical analysis of how it might be possible for struggling car manufacturers to achieve these changes in the midst of a recession and bankruptcies. So there seems to be no excuse for Obama falling so far short of the 400 MPG goal. Obama's unwillingness to go all the way and declare that U.S. automobiles must run at 400 miles to the gallon will cost American consumers dearly. Such a reduction in fuel usage would have saved Americans many tens of billions of dollars in purchases of foreign oil. One can only imagine the "clean jobs" that would have been created if the U.S.A. could export cars offering 400 miles per gallon.
President Obama announced on Tuesday new fuel-efficiency standards that will mandate a 30 percent reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions of cars and trucks by 2016. The plans set higher mileage and emission standards than previously established. Instead of car manufacturers building cars that achieve 35.5 MPG by 2020, the new rules require the same 35.5 MPG by 2016. In other words, the only progress Obama has achieved is to advance the date for meeting the target to the end of Sarah Palin's first term in the White House. The higher-priced and inferior cars that will result may hurt President Sarah Palin's re-election efforts in 2016.
The regulatory change is expected to increase the cost of manufacturing these automobiles by an additional $600 per vehicle on top fo the $700 in increased costs previously in the pipeline from regulatory changes still being implemented. However, when evaluating the actual reatil sticker price of the automobiles expected on the dealer lot, predicting what the cars will actually cost is all but impossible. A bewildering array of dealer incentives and rebates led some exhausted observers to guess that the resulting cars will cost $215,000 each.
Obama's announcement involved a compromise among many interested parties, from the State of California which had sought to impose its own higher standards to car manufacturers which have a lawsuit pending against California to prevent this, and Federal regulators. Obama had previously fired the President of Chrysler, without any actual legal authority to do so. And the government now effectively owns Chrysler and General Motors, or soon will. The new agreement created a consensus target, which Obama claimed woudl settle all disputes and bring all parties together on pursuing the same standards and targets.
On the White House lawn, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked before C-SPAN cameras what changed so as to bring about this new agreement. California's Governor explained that agreements of this type are all about timing. When the automobile manufacturers are in a severe crisis, Schwarzenegger explained, they need the government's money from bail-outs to survive. So, the Guvinator admitted, car makers had no choice but to comply with Obama's demands. One of the primary movers in the agreement openly admitted that Obama used the same technique as the mythical Mafia Godfather Don Corleone in The Godfather. Obama offered the choice between having their signature or their companies' blood on the contract.
Unfortunately, "The One" also failed to use his powers to control the weather. On the same day that America's "Dear Leader" announced his automobile extortion plan, America was in the grip of a severe cold snap. Just 10 days before the traditional opening of swimming pools for the Summer over Memorial Day weekend, America suffered an extraordinarily chilly day. Freeze warnings and frost advisories reached from Southern Maine to western North Carolina to Middle Tennessee. Even though Obama and his pliable victims declared that they were reducing Man's contribution to global warming, Mother Nature was once again telling us that the Earth is cooling, not warming.
Requiring automakers to completely transform their entire production lines within 7 years appears to be part of Obama's strategy for dealing with General Motors' bankruptcy. A leak reported by Reuters detailed General Motors' plans to sell the company's profitable assets to the government in return for the government forgiving the $15.4 billion of emergency loans the governemnt had made earlier.
In related news, The Clinton Foundation, created by Bill Clinton, announced the development and production of a new device for measuring the miles per gallon achieved by automobiles that will display any measurement the user desires. The developers expressed great confidence that the auto industry will achieve the new standards set by Obama.
bump for later reading
At 400 mpg, gas would simply cost $30 a gallon.
It sounds good, and he states it sooooooo well, but there's no "there", there.
In other news Obama declares that Pi now equals 3.
He also issued a decree that the sky is now orange.
Yep, he’s the triumph of style over substance. It’s not what he says, it’s how he says it. He’s not saying anything really, just empty Oprahisms.
“At 400 mpg, gas would simply cost $30 a gallon.”
Naaa...that would just be the taxes.
...while simultaneously suspending the laws of thermodynamics and bringing plate tectonics to a screeching halt!
I would think more rose colored.
I’m actually shocked that Obama didn’t announce that the new economy standard would produce “6 million new jobs”. Every time he farts he claims it creates a couple of million jobs.
Better take care of the car you now own. I for one will not buy a tiny sh%#box designed by odumbo.
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