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Obama's Sneaky, Deadly, Costly Car Tax
Townhall.com ^ | August 29, 2012 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 08/29/2012 4:12:23 AM PDT by Kaslin

While all eyes were on the Republican National Convention in Tampa and Hurricane Isaac on the Gulf Coast, the White House was quietly jacking up the price of automobiles and putting future drivers at risk.

Yes, the same cast of fable-tellers who falsely accused GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney of murdering a steelworker's cancer-stricken wife is now directly imposing a draconian environmental regulation that will cost untold American lives.

On Tuesday, the administration announced that it had finalized "historic" new fuel efficiency standards. (Everything's "historic" with these narcissists, isn't it?) President Obama took a break from his historic fundraising drives to proclaim that "(by) the middle of the next decade, our cars will get nearly 55 miles per gallon, almost double what they get today. It'll strengthen our nation's energy security, it's good for middle-class families, and it will help create an economy built to last."

Jon Carson, director of Obama's Office of Public Engagement, took to Twitter to hype how "auto companies support the higher fuel-efficiency standards" and how the rules crafted behind closed doors will "save consumers $8,000" per vehicle. His source for these claims? The New York Times, America's Fishwrap of Record, which has acknowledged it allows the Obama campaign to have "veto power" over reporters' quotes from campaign officials.

And whom did the Times cite for the claim that the rules will "save consumers $8,000"? Why, the administration, of course! "The administration estimated that the new standards would save Americans $1.7 trillion in fuel costs," the Times dutifully regurgitated, "resulting in an average savings of more than $8,000 a vehicle by 2025."

The Obama administration touts the support of the government-bailed-out auto industry for these reckless, expensive regs. What they want you to forget is that the "negotiations" (read: bullying) with White House environmental radicals date back to former Obama green czar Carol Browner's tenure -- when she infamously told auto industry execs "to put nothing in writing, ever" regarding their secret CAFE talks.

Obama's number-massagers cite phony-baloney cost savings that rely on developing future fuel-saving technology. Given this crony government's abysmal track record in "investing" in new technologies (cough -- Solyndra -- cough), we can safely dismiss that fantasy math. What is real for consumers is the $2,000 per vehicle added cost that the new fuel standards will impose now. That figure comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

War on Middle-Class Consumers, anyone?

Beyond the White House-media lapdog echo chamber, the economic and public safety objections to these sweeping rules are long grounded and well founded.

For years, free-market analysts and government statisticians have warned of the deadly effect of increasing corporate auto fuel economy standards (CAFE). Sam Kazman at the Competitive Enterprise Institute explained a decade ago: "(T)he evidence on this issue comes from no less a body than the National Academy of Sciences, which issued a report last August finding that CAFE contributes to between 1,300 and 2,600 traffic deaths per year. Given that this program has been in effect for more than two decades, its cumulative toll is staggering."

H. Sterling Burnett of the National Center for Policy Analysis adds that NHTSA data indicate that "322 additional deaths per year occur as a direct result of reducing just 100 pounds from already downsized small cars, with half of the deaths attributed to small car collisions with light trucks/sport utility vehicles." USA Today further calculated that the "size and weight reductions of passenger vehicles undertaken to meet current CAFE standards had resulted in more than 46,000 deaths."

These lethal regulations should be wrapped in yellow police "CAUTION" tape. The tradeoffs are stark and simple: CAFE fuel standards clamp down on the production of larger, more crashworthy cars. Analysts from Harvard to the Brookings Institution to the federal government itself have arrived at the same conclusion: CAFE kills. Welcome to the bloody intersection between the Obama jobs death toll and the Obama green death toll.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: automobileprices; automobiles; cafefuelstandards; consumers; gasprices; greenmovement; highwaydeaths; newyorkslimes; obamaadministration; phonybaloney; waronmiddleclass; weight
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To: mazda77

Locked away in a safe at the oil companies is a secret carburator that will give cars 100 mpg........ /sarc.


21 posted on 08/29/2012 5:26:17 AM PDT by showme_the_Glory (ILLEGAL: prohibited by law. ALIEN: Owing political allegiance to another country or government)
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To: ltc8k6

Thanks for the link. I see what you are saying.


22 posted on 08/29/2012 5:30:21 AM PDT by Girlene
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To: Kaslin

Let’s see now...Obama doesn’t like the suburbs...he wants gas to be $10 per gallon, and wants cars to attain and impossible 50+ MPG, as in “buy an electric golf cart (Volt).

It’s almost like he wants to “corral” us all into the inner cities...you know, for more efficient “herding” and easier gun confiscation.

It’s the Muslim/marxist/commie way.


23 posted on 08/29/2012 6:01:36 AM PDT by FrankR (They will become our ultimate masters the day we surrender the 2nd Amendment.)
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To: Kaslin

When these standards ultimately prove to be unattainable (which they will), Government Motors will get a waiver. None of the others will.


24 posted on 08/29/2012 6:20:07 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Kaslin

our cars will get nearly 55 miles per gallon, almost double what they get today.

and with this increased mileage, guess what the tax per gallon will be?


25 posted on 08/29/2012 6:21:44 AM PDT by chainsaw ("Two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.")
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To: showme_the_Glory
Locked away in a safe at the oil companies is a secret carburator that will give cars 100 mpg........ /sarc.

Go and find a documentary from a few years back called Who Killed the Electric Car?. These environuts really BELIEVE stuff like this! This film is chock-full with more conspiracy theories than Palestinian TV.


26 posted on 08/29/2012 6:22:47 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: TLI

looks almost like a “Henry J”!


27 posted on 08/29/2012 6:26:16 AM PDT by chainsaw ("Two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.")
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To: ltc8k6

Obama is indeed a moron.

But what the “ONE”, says you must believe!


28 posted on 08/29/2012 6:35:10 AM PDT by chainsaw ("Two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.")
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To: Kaslin
It'll strengthen our nation's energy security, it's good for middle-class families, and it will help create an economy built to last."

Gosh! That's wonderful!

Why wait? Let's do it now!

I also have a bridge, formerly found in Brooklyn, that I can ship to any buyer. Sorry. No COD's.

Be sure and ask our operator about free shipping.

But wait! There's more!

Are you following me camera guy?

29 posted on 08/29/2012 6:39:09 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys=Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat, but they know what's best for you.)
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To: FrankR

I heard over the weekend storm coverage that approx 3% of the people in Cuba own cars.

That’s a reasonable goal for the Baraqqis.


30 posted on 08/29/2012 6:45:08 AM PDT by nascarnation (Defeat Baraq 2012. Deport Baraq 2013)
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To: Kaslin

Any engineering projection more that 5 to 8 years in the future and any political projection more that 3 years out is nothing but smoke & mirrors, swampland real estate brochures or “of course I’ll respect you in the morning” talk.

If it can be done and you REALLY want to do it then 3 to 5 years is usually enough. (Going to the moon took a bit longer, but I’ll cut them some slack on that achievement)

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/tassava.WWII

(Sorry, but I can’t do Tables in HTML, though I’ve tried)
Table 2: Indices of American Manufacturing Output (1939 = 100)
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944
Aircraft 245 630 1706 2842 2805
Munitions 140 423 2167 3803 2033
Shipbuilding 159 375 1091 1815 1710
Aluminum 126 189 318 561 474
Rubber 109 144 152 202 206
Steel 131 171 190 202 197


31 posted on 08/29/2012 6:46:03 AM PDT by BwanaNdege (Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: TLI
Boy she may have given up tobacco, but she hasn't given up smokin’...

She needs to convert that 2 stroke to Direct Injection, even better if it was LPG-DI....

32 posted on 08/29/2012 6:49:22 AM PDT by taildragger (( Palin / Mulally 2012 ))
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To: TLI

It that’s what comes with it, no other cars need exist


33 posted on 08/29/2012 6:53:41 AM PDT by Hegewisch Dupa (Vote for Goode, end up with evil, pat self on back repeatedly)
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To: Kaslin

Ont eh radio this morning they said this new standard will help consumers save about $8,000 per year on fuel...however they didn’t say how much more expensive a new car is expected to cost (the unintended consequences of liberal intentions).


34 posted on 08/29/2012 7:50:12 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike (Resurrect the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)...before there is no America!)
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To: VeniVidiVici

None taken!

I have four cars and the most economical of those only manages 25mpg! :)


35 posted on 08/29/2012 8:34:12 AM PDT by Caulkhead
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To: BwanaNdege
Simplest way to do tables in HTML is to force fixed font with "<"pre">" ... "<"/pre">" like so:
 
Here Is   A   Table
1    20   299 4
20   144  12  333
Of course, you leave out the " marks ...
36 posted on 08/29/2012 8:41:04 AM PDT by AFPhys ((Praying for our troops, our citizens, that the Bible and Freedom become basis of the US law again))
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To: Kaslin

Bump.


37 posted on 08/29/2012 9:22:55 AM PDT by Paul Ross (Ronald Reagan-1987:"We are always willing to be trade partners but never trade patsies.")
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To: Caulkhead

I just renewed my subscription to Hemmings Motor News.

ANY vehicle I buy in the future will probably come from there.


38 posted on 08/29/2012 10:12:48 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Kaslin
The tradeoffs are stark and simple: CAFE fuel standards clamp down on the production of larger, more crashworthy cars. Analysts from Harvard to the Brookings Institution to the federal government itself have arrived at the same conclusion: CAFE kills.

When PBS interviewed a retired EPA type about it 10-12 years ago, he was quite smug. They were fully aware that demanding that U.S. manufacturers "Trabantize" their offerings in order to get weight down for CAFE improvements, AND modify their carburetors and combustion engineering as well, that the cars would wind up shedding up to 2000 pounds per vehicle.

They knew. They did it anyway.

39 posted on 08/29/2012 10:31:57 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: AFPhys
Wow!

That simple? Thanks! It has been very embarrassing having to post unformulated gobble-gook.


 Month      Widgets   Thingamy-bobs  Glittersnatches  Zithers
 June        2654          1013            67           14
 July          77           659           8547           3 
What did you fly in the Air Force? I was flying the Sikorsky CH-53D with the USMC, 74-78.
40 posted on 08/29/2012 10:36:11 AM PDT by BwanaNdege (Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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