Next Right Wing Anti-Mandate Talking Point - "Fuel Standards Are To Blame For GM!"

It seems like our board is getting overun by anti-mandate/regulation types who decrying the "excise" taxes on those who refuse to purchase health insurance. Well, if they are successful in defeating health care reform, why not fuel efficiency standards?

http://www.luxlibertas.com/fuel-standards-are-killing-gm/

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General Motors can survive bankruptcy far more easily than it can survive President Barack Obama’s ambitious fuel economy standards, which mandate that all new vehicles average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

The actual Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) results will depend on the mixture of fuel-thrifty and fuel-thirsty vehicles consumers choose to buy from each manufacturer — not on what producers hope to sell. That means only those companies most successful in selling the smallest cars with the smallest engines will, in the future, be allowed to sell the more profitable larger pickups and SUVs and more powerful luxury and sports cars.

Sales of Toyota’s Prius, Yaris, Corolla and Scion, for example, allow and encourage Toyota to market more Lexus 460s, Sequoia SUVs and Tundra pickups in the U.S. without incurring fines. Hyundai’s success selling Accent and Elantra compacts allows it to sell 368-horsepower Genesis sedans.

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Politicians are addicted to CAFE standards because they create an illusion of doing something sometime in the future without voters experiencing the slightest inconvenience in the present. Tighter future CAFE rules will have no effect at all on the type of vehicles we choose to buy. Their only effect will be to compel us to buy larger and more powerful vehicles from foreign manufacturers. Americans will still buy Jaguars, but from an Indian firm, Tata, rather than Ford. They’ll buy Hummers, but from a Chinese firm, Tengzhong, rather than GM. The whole game is a charade; symbolism without substance.

As a matter of practical politics, rescuing GM from strangulation by CAFE will require offering economically literate environmentalists a greener alternative, i.e., one that works. Luckily, the government has two policy tools that, with minor modifications, really could discourage people from buying the least fuel-efficient vehicles.

One is the federal excise tax on “gas guzzlers,” which could take some fun out of the horsepower race except that it applies only to cars, not to SUVS, vans and trucks. Why not apply this tax to all types of gas guzzling vehicles? Owners of trucks used for business could deduct the tax in proportion to miles used for business, as they do with other vehicular expenses. Phase it in after 2011 to encourage buyers to snap up the unsold inventory of gas guzzling trucks quickly — a timely “stimulus plan.”

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History shows that auto manufacturers have resisted safety improvements and efficiency improvements, but come out with some very innovative ideas in other areas. In other words, they can do it if they want to.

But cars aren't sold on their merits as much as a market is created for which a car is built.

The problem comes in when automakers convince themselves that the cars they sell are the cars people would actually want if they were not manipulated by the advertising. In other words, a free market.

Apparantly bad business decisions don't come into play when these companies come to the brink of failure.

You know what...we should have let them fail....they got bailed out and they are fucking whining instead of trying to fix what is broken with their business. They do not have the will to be innovative and forward looking...this is part of the problem with many American companies....they are not willing to change.

Why not buy expensive gas guzzling cars that get less then 10 MPG when you know that your money is going to good use, knowing that you're helping indirectly fuel the pockets of some of America's 'biggest villains' according to right wing nut jobs.

TOUGH SHIT if GM or any other American auto maker can't keep up with fuel standards that are absolutely necessary.

The Republicans favorite mantra is "let them fail." So, if GM can't cut it, next time, let them fail.