Earth to Obama: 400,000 isn’t “small”
So if you’re an American automaker, there are all sorts of stringent gas mileage requirements you have to comply with. But if you’re evil Mercedes, which took American automaker Chrysler Corporation from record profits to a tough battle for existence, you don’t have to worry.
Neither do BMW or Porsche. Or Rolls-Royce or Bentley.
It seems that our President has decided that not only will he not tilt the playing field in favor of domestic companies, as foreign automaking nations like to do, but he will actually tilt it in favor of foreign companies, even as the government has a vested interest in the welfare of the Remaining Three.
If you sell 400,000 vehicles or less, you’re now considered a small automaker and you don’t have to comply with the strict new economy standards.
Who exactly does that benefit?
Foreign luxury automakers and the wealthy people who can afford to buy them, and who can presumably afford to pay extra for fuel-saving measures such as direct injection, eight-speed automatics, diesel engines, and all the other clever things the luxury automakers do in their home markets to raise gas mileage.
Why 400,000 vehicles?
That’s an awfully big number. I can understand that if you only sell a few hundred vehicles a year, then you don’t have a real impact on the environment or on national security (to wit, our reliance on terrorist-supporting nations such as Saudi Arabia). But 400,000?
Isn’t that a bit generous?
What’s he thinking?
I sometimes wonder about Obama. On the one hand, he comes up with ideas like ending the Swiss-bank “hide your income” routine, forcing wealthy people to either pay their taxes like everyone else, or to find new, more expensive ways to hide their wealth. He’s trying to end the “postal box” foreign companies, like the much-lambasted Halliburton, by ending the legal fiction that owning a postal box or small apartment in some non-taxing country makes you a foreign company for tax purposes, even as you claim to be a domestic company for DoD purposes.
On the other hand, he continued the Bush Administration’s much-criticized policy of handing out hundreds of billions of dollars to banks, and keeps coming up with crazy ideas like this one.
Bill Clinton, according to insiders and his on-the-scene biographer, used to argue everything to death, fostering lively debates and demanding that all points of view be heard. That’s one reason we ended up with an operational surplus at the end of his term, though we’d been getting record deficits before he came into office. I wonder if Obama is simply relying too much on his advisors as he tries to fulfill every last election promise he made, all at once, fighting on dozens of fronts at once.
Sometimes you need to trust the people around you, but sometimes you need to make sure they’re trustworthy as you do so – otherwise you end up like President Grant and President Carter, an honest man with a corrupt administration. I wonder if that’s what’s happening here. I certainly don’t think his reliance on one group of people from one stratum of society – and one core belief system – is advisable, and in this case, it’s led to an awful decision.
Meanwhile the Democrats, NAACP and the media are going around yelling racial bias to anyone within shouting distance.
How about the fact that many of his proposals, such as this one, have been poorly designed. Every president has to rely on his advisors and the problem is to understand which ones to listen to under which circumstances.
I have no problem with the basics of this proposal but the numbers seem to be purposely picked to help the major foreign luxury manufacturers (as Dave states) while further hurting the U.S. auto makers.
As it stands this is a very poorly thought out plan and needs major revision before it is instituted. A poor plan is a poor plan whether the people behind it are black, white, Hispanic or whatever. Unfortunately this is another example of his lack of experience and qualifications for the extremely difficult job Obama has undertaken. This does not imply in any way an inherent lack of ability for any reason, racial or otherwise.
For some reason, politicians seem to lose all common sense when try attempt to please all the people all the time instead of making the tough, but often correct decisions. Or are they just pleasing the supporter that talk with their wallets?
I don’t think lack of experience is the issue. Look back at our last dozen presidents; experience doesn’t seem to have helped or hindered. Jimmy Carter, for example, should have known better than to trust his advisors so implicitly. George W. Bush made essentially similar policy blunders by relying on one thin slice of the intellectual theorists to guide him — just as Obama seems to be doing (the same thin slice, as far as I can tell). Both Carter and Bush had experience as governors — chief executives of their states — to guide them, but it doesn’t seem to have helped.
I do think being so ambitious is an issue. Bill Clinton picked a very small number of fights and largely achieved what he set out to accomplish: budget reduction, economic turnaround (the two being difficult to achieve simultaneously as the beneficial effects of the budget reduction come after a delay), and elimination of trade barriers. He lost on health care.
Obama has started on, let’s see, economic recovery, health care, ending the use of Swiss accounts to hide income, ending “postal box on a small island country” tax evasion by corporations, resolving the war in Iraq, resolving the war in Afghanistan, ending Iran’s nuclear threat, improving education and educational access, reducing our use of fossil fuels and our reliance on terrorist-supporting oil producers, increasing cooperation between nations, … I could go on for a while. It’s just too much and it requires him to delegate. I feel his choice of people to delegate to was unwise. I do not feel you can blame him for what the NAACP or whomever may say, or for lack of experience; experienced people make the same mistakes.
I don’t recall hearing the Democrats talking about racial bias. I have however gotten numerous emails claiming that he can’t possibly be a citizen, and I don’t recall that canard being levied against any other president.
Transportation secretary Ray LaHood has been a knowledgeable and brutally honest member of President Obama’s cabinet team. Somehow I don’t believe Mr. LaHood’s advice was listened to on this matter. There are currently some standout senators and congressmen (and women) who are well informed and they fully understand these matters. My home state of Minnesota’s Rep. Jim Oberstar is one example. Unfortunately policy matters for our nation’s transportation and industrial needs are dictated by centralized planning from somewhere in Southern California.
My suggestion to Allpar fans who read these blogs is write your senators and congressional representatives. Believe it or not I think you find some allies in the Sierra Club on this matter.
Personally, I think the number should be 50,000 units or less. That said, I’m not sure who Obama is listening to. What I think is painfully obvious is that few, if any of this advisors, seem to think the consequences of their action through. Plus, no of them seem to know much about the ato industry, or manufacturing in general. Then there’s the health care debacle……
I’d agree with Scott with 50,000 as a maximum. As for health care, it doesn’t help that a group which should be presenting an alternative only presents misrepresentations and claims that nothing is wrong. I could understand a principled argument that government should not be involved; but the idea that nothing is wrong (and the whole “trigger’ nonsense of “we’ll enact reform when there’s a problem”) is just nutty.
As for change, I’ve said it before – in many areas, Obama is bringing the change he promised. Swiss bank accounts – being eliminated as a means of tax fraud. Offshore corporate HQs consisting of a mailbox – being eliminated as a means of tax fraud. Health care – something’s likely to happen. Iraq war – being ended. Afghanistan – being escalated. Torture – which many vets and military men object to as a highly dubious source of “information” – being defined and in many cases ended. Holding people for years with no evidence or charges – as far as I know, being ended. Giving terrorist-supporting Saudi Arabia everything they want – winding down. Fuel conservation and alternative energy – coming pretty much as promised with this one exception. So don’t tell me Obama lied about change. It might not be change you want, or as much as you want, or in the areas you want, but it’s change. (Though continuing Bush’s economic policies, for the most part, is NOT change.)
I can’t think of any presidents in my lifetime who failed to bring change, other than MAYBE Gerald Ford. It wasn’t always the change I wanted, of course.
John Hagen mentions the NAACCP (National Association for the Advancement of Certain Colored People).
My parents were rainbow. An Indo-European mother and a Choctaw-Sub Saharan African-Caucasian father.
I am a conservative. Would the NAACCP stand with J. C. Watts, Bill Cosby, Condeleezza Rice, or me? Not hardly.
Oh, I too am racist. I’m part of the Black Conservative Manifesto.
I tend to agree with Dave that Obama is moving too fast on too many fronts at the same time. And I contend that is due to inexperience. Yes, Bill Clinton chose his fights carefully and was very successful by doing so. That was Mr. Clinton’s experience showing.
I had hoped that the Democratic party would want to take advantage of the Republican fiasco by surrounding Obama with qualified advisors, as they had provided a sound running mate in Joe Biden. But I see now that was as big as pipe dream as thinking the Republicans would get their collective heads out of the sand.
It’s very unfortunate that “these guys” in power now don’t seem to be any more attuned to the importance of the domestic auto industry than the “other guys” who were in power before. 400,000? Really? This also exempts Subaru and Mazda among others if what I’ve read is to be believed, so it goes beyond the luxury makes and filters down to those with whom the domestic makes compete with on a basic level.