Posted on 11/08/2011 10:30:17 AM PST by Kaslin
After years of negative votes in Congress and the opposition of the American people, on Oct. 21 Barack Obama allowed the first Mexican truck to cross the border at Laredo, Texas, and head north to deliver door-to-door service of its industrial equipment. This was implemented by an agreement quietly signed by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in Mexico City on July 6 with Mexico's secretary of Communications and Transportation.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., calls this deal a major anti-jobs program saying, "We're literally taking good jobs here in America and passing them over the line to Mexico." Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Independent Drivers Association, a non-union trade association, said 100,000 trucking jobs will be lost.
The Mexican company that won the distinction of being first-in-line to cross the border was Transportes Olympic. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration immediately granted it "permanent operating authority," instead of making the company abide by the specified 18-month waiting period, which means Transportes' trucks will not have to be inspected at the border every time they cross.
FMCSA announced that all Mexican trucks participating in this project will be given Electronic On-Board Recorders equipped with global positioning capabilities and paid for by the U.S. taxpayers. FMCSA also announced that U.S. trucks must install similar equipment at their own expense.
U.S. taxpayers are also being required to pick up the cost of replacing old mufflers on dozens of Mexican trucks at a cost of $1,600 each, while U.S. truckers must buy their own mufflers. The excuse is that this will improve air quality on our highways.
But EOBRs and mufflers are only part of the expensive regulations hitting U.S. truckers. Obama has imposed new fuel-efficiency regulations, new emissions targets and new safety regulations.
The large trucking firms may be able to absorb the cost, but independent truckers will be hit hard. If they can't afford to buy compliant rigs, they will have to cease operation.
It's apparently Obama's conscious policy to disfavor small trucking firms by regulatory favoritism. It's also Obama's policy to favor Mexican trucks with U.S. taxpayer handouts.
The chatter in Washington is about creating jobs for Americans and cutting spending. However, Todd Spencer says, "this program does exactly the opposite for both" and will "jeopardize the livelihoods of tens of thousands of U.S.-based, small-business truckers" as well as "undermine the standard of living for the rest of the driver community."
Americans who drive daily on U.S. highways are very concerned about safety when Mexican trucks are added to the many U.S. trucks already on our roads. The U.S-Mexico agreement requires us to accept Mexican commercial driver licenses, but Mexico has no real system of driver licensing, training, drug testing, physical requirements, truck safety inspection or brake standards that match U.S. rules.
Mexico cannot produce records of drivers' accidents or drug, alcohol use or a truck's record of brake safety or emissions. Also, Mexico is a country where bribes are the customary method of bypassing regulations.
George W. Bush's Transportation Secretary Mary Peters admitted at a Senate hearing that the U.S. regularly checks "proficient in English" when Mexican drivers answer questions and explain U.S. traffic signs in Spanish. Senator Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., was so incredulous at this reply that he had her repeat it, which she did.
The LaHood-Mexican agreement pretends to address this prevarication, stating that the exams are to be conducted orally in English. However, the agreement does not specify that the Mexican driver must speak English when he responds and explains U.S. laws and signs.
Even though Obama is a big advocate of clean air and green jobs, there is no mention in the agreement that Mexican trucks should adhere to the environmental standards imposed on American trucks. Juan Carlos Mu?oz, president of Mexico's National Chamber of Motor Transport of Freight, said that Mexican companies "do not have sufficient capacity to supply the diesel suitable for these new technologies," and that, if held to these requirements, Mexican truckers would be unable to "ever enter the United States, at least not for the next 20 years."
The reciprocal promise to allow U.S. trucks to drive into Mexico doesn't pass the laugh test. A U.S. trucker would be taking his life into his hands if he drove his truck into northern Mexico, where he would become a target to be robbed and killed by the Mexican drug cartels.
Yep, forgot about that. Does the crooked Mexican government own all our politicians?
Only Phyllis Schlafly can save us. And she doesn’t know how to count.
If you choose not to get vaccinated, not my problem . . . .
Mexican trucks have been on US roads for decades and decades. Ask any resident from San Ysidro, Ca to Brownsville, Tx.
Well well. Rudeboy trashing conservative warhorse Phyllis Schlafly while leading the charge for Mexico.
Some things never change around here. But then some libertarians haven’t any use for nationalism, at least when it comes to this country.
Just follow the oil trails...
Let me understand this:
The American taxpayers are providing electronic recording devices for Mexican trucks, which include GPS units.
At the same time, a company Barry the Imposter has personally invested in—LIGHTSQUARED—is trying to go into production of their new broadband business, which will destroy GPS systems currently in place. There are 23 satellites which provide GPS locations for millions of military & civilian units of GPS. LIGHTSQUARED will make them inoperative.
I am concerned about this abuse of established companies & systems, but apparently Barry the Imposter & his minions in Washington DC are not.
I wonder if anyone has bothered to tell Barry & his fellow traveling companion, MOOOCHELLE, that even Air Force One is dependent on GPS systems now in place.
Every airplane flying commercially, every plane in private hands, every On Star vehicle, Every ship at sea- Every military vehicle & plane is dependent on GPS as it now operates.
What will happen to all those units? That damage will it do to our USA military strength? How many of our people in uniform will be in serious jeopardy???
Barry the Imposter is also Barry the Destroyer.
Let me understand this:
The American taxpayers are providing electronic recording devices for Mexican trucks, which include GPS units.
At the same time, a company Barry the Imposter has personally invested in—LIGHTSQUARED—is trying to go into production of their new broadband business, which will destroy GPS systems currently in place. There are 23 satellites which provide GPS locations for millions of military & civilian units of GPS. LIGHTSQUARED will make them inoperative.
I am concerned about this abuse of established companies & systems, but apparently Barry the Imposter & his minions in Washington DC are not.
I wonder if anyone has bothered to tell Barry & his fellow traveling companion, MOOOCHELLE, that even Air Force One is dependent on GPS systems now in place.
Every airplane flying commercially, every plane in private hands, every On Star vehicle, Every ship at sea- Every military vehicle & plane is dependent on GPS as it now operates.
What will happen to all those units? What damage will it do to our USA military strength? How many of our people in uniform will be in serious jeopardy???
Barry the Imposter is also Barry the Destroyer.
Whooping cough is rampant because both the extremes of the right and left are retarded idiots that believe vaccinations will result in death/dismemberment/mental retardation/kidnapping by aliens/possession by Satan/etc.
The sooner these morons die off from the diseases they don’t want to be vaccinated against, the better.
Sounds like the 1972 Dodge Dart I had.
However, it was written by a technical illiterate. "Mufflers" don't have anything to do with air quality.
Mexican trucks are not required to have catalytic converters. Many of them are powered by very old diesels on their third 3-million-mile overhaul. If you have ever driven on a Mexican highway with their trucks and god-forbid buses, you would remember the peculiar smell of Mexican fuel ...you would be deaf from the noise of their jake-brakes ....and blind from the thick black smoke they spew. Mix that heady aroma with a bit of essence of burned clutch and fried brake, season with 10 million unsanitary taco stands, the use of roadside ditches as open latrines, and you could probably smell Mexico from outer space. Some neighbor!
There is also a reason why Mexican country-folk (aka "peasants") wear those tire-tread sandals (huaraches). The country's "roads" are lined with tread cast by Mexican re-tread tires. Free shoes!
¡Ay Chihuahua, dude, where's my clothespin!
I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t trash anyone other than point out the obvious. The Mexican government, that is crooks, have owned every politician since Reagan.
Been lots of free shoes littering Texas highways this hot summer we've had. Kinda like running a gauntlet during the nighttime hours.
The post wasn’t addressed to you. Go look at the first name in the list.
You must be one of them big government types that likes all kinds a regulation Kenny!
We don’ need no stinkin’ catalytic converters and brakes and sewers and traffic rules and stuff.
Juan Galt
I’ve already noticed an increase of “retreaded” tires shedding their new rubber on our highways these days...You see this debris all over the roads these days...They are a hazard, and will cause injuries and deaths if not taken care of...
A properly credentialed commercial (American) vehicle cannot operate on retreads (at least that is what I recall), unlike the unregulated trucking industry in Mexico...
So once again our country has to endure the unsafe practices of another country for political reasons, above the safety of its own citizens...
When a government risks the lives of its citizens for political reasons, when would it be proper to hold them criminally accountable for those decisions???
I wonder, do any of us believe that Ronald Reagan might have initiated some of these programs, just to see how much rope it would take to hang those who would abuse and expand the issue beyond its original intent???
Seems like a lot of those things RR did have succeeded in ferreting out the moderates and extremist in the two political parties...
Just thinking outside the box...Honestly, what do you think???
She is either smart enough to know she's engaging in demagoguery, or she is so stupid she can't count. Take your pick.
There is a third possibility: she is banking on her name to get away with either, as it appears that she has succeeded in your case.
BTW, is there one candidate from either party who knows the difference between a a Victrola and a Venturi? When I am elected, all American family cars will be powered by small, digitally managed, turbo-charged diesels, will get 45 mnpg, have chrome bumpers, no airbags, round sealed beam halogen headlights ($14.95 @ Pep Boys), weigh in at less than 1 1/4 ton, and sell for under $12,000, with AC and the 8-track. No PW, PDL, PSeats, PS. Auto trans is a must. They will be tax free, up to that spec. After that, you can buy whatever the hell you want with a 25% surcharge.
You don't have a bevy of pissed off women in your background who can scuttle your campaign, do you?
PS I am somewhat pro-sewer, actually.
As was Benjamin "Beast" Butler, the yankee oppressor of New Orleans! The local femmes fâchés were in the habit of dousing the Beast with the contents of their chamber pots which likely added to his enthusiasm for plumbing.
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