[Jim Noble]

I would put a $20 000 tax on all imported cars, tomorrow.

[Grizzled Bear]

I would put a $20 000 tax on all imported cars, tomorrow.

And encourage domestic companies to continue churning out mediocre third rate junk.

[buccaneer81]

I would put a $20 000 tax on all imported cars, tomorrow.

My Mazda was built in Michigan and my Toyota was built in Kentucky. Gonna tax those too?

[DManA]

What’s an imported car? My Subaru was made in Indiana.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I would put a $20 000 tax on all imported cars, tomorrow.

Marx, is that you?

Most "imports" are manufactured in America anyway.

[businessprofessor]

I would put a $20 000 tax on all imported cars, tomorrow.

Your idea is brilliant: increase the price of private transportation in a slow economy. The price of all cars will rise because of this tax. Sales of autos will fall causing even more layoffs.

Foreign manufacturers have invested heavily in domestic production. The definition of an imported car is a political question, not an objective issue. The Big 3 are heavily union dominated. Your tax would make the unions even more intransigent.

I avoid buying from union dominated companies whenever possible. I will continue to reject any auto made by the Big 3 as long as the union goons dominate these companies.

[Cousin Eddie]

Why?

[Redcoat1982]

I would put a $20 000 tax on all imported cars, tomorrow Great, you can drive the K car or the Gremlin or all the other crappy American cars....and you will be putting an American mechanic to work!

[Southack]

"I would put a $20 000 tax on all imported cars, tomorrow."

That would kill Detroit if it couldn't import its engines from China any longer!

Then again, maybe that's a good idea. At least we'd still be building Honda's, KIA's, and Mercedes here in Alabama.

[jwparkerjr]

Forcing people to buy an inferior product only worsens the problem. Right American car makers have an incentive to improve their product, all though you wouldn't know it to look at how they've behaved since the dawn of the oil crisis in the early 1970’s.

Where would the $20,000 go, who would get to decide how to spend it?

The problem is not too many Americans buying foreign made cars, the problem is that part of human nature that makes us seek out the best deal for our money. When it's your money you're spending you tend to be a great deal more selective. That's the problem with government, the are spending OPM (Other People's Money), they are completely dissociated from the constraints placed on most of us when we spend our own hard-earned money. It's just money, actually votes, to them and there's always been more where that came from.

What benefit is there from forcing drivers to buy inferior cars by driving the cost up on a better product?